15 Comments

Thank you, Katherine, and also Bert’s classmate, for your combined wisdom and encouragement.

If Bert’s classmate can please also advise on how to overcome my demand avoidant nature when I really want to write and my brain anxiously avoids it, I’d be eternally grateful! 😃

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😂😂😂 If Bert’s classmate only knew…

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This is timely and inspiring advice. Thank you!

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I’m fascinated by the fact that the US seems to have a stronger ‘creative/ personal essay’ tradition than we do. I can’t tell if it actually does or if it’s just the literary grass seeming greener

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I think it does - or at least they're more conscious of it as a tradition. And there are SO many more places to publish a long essay in the US than in the UK - places with large readerships, too.

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I LOVED this, thank you! I remember being so daunted by the idea of an ‘essay’ - this is a great reminder about learning to trust ourselves as we write.

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Hello Katherine. I'm trying to access the Catherine Coldstream 'Cloistered' live event recording. On the True Stories Book Club page all the previous events have a link given, but there's no link for the Catherine Coldstream one. How do I access the recording please? (My apologies if there was a better place to ask you this than here.)

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Hi Anne - I’m afraid it’s broken! We’re in a loooong service chat with Crowdcast to try to recover it, but no luck so far sadly.

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Ah, that's a shame, and annoyingly time consuming for you. I'll keep my fingers crossed but will reset my expectations!

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😩 they probs want more dinero. Not your fault Katherine.

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They get *plenty* of dinero 😂

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Another Retreat, yea!! I'm clearing my calendar.

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I love the shout-out to Hannah Gadsby. Her work is just brilliant, and the way she constructs her shows (and even her memoir) is so satisfying for my (also autistic) brain.

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She is such an astonishing storyteller - her control over the narrative just blows my mind

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