Author outlines high, low points of writing

By Nicholas Anderson

VCNC reporter

Writers face hardships and hard work; they must be “driven to write,” author Cameron Cruise told her audience March 6 in the Evelyn and Howard Boroughs Library reading room.

The room was filled with Ventura College students and community members gathered to talk, listen and probe attorney/novelist Cruise’s expertise on “How to Write a Book Without Dying in the Process.” 

Cruise began the lecture by telling the audience about her “nuts and bolts” background. She is on a speaking tour promoting her new book, “Dark Matter,” but also hoping to inspire new writers to keep the tradition of writing alive.

She encouraged the audience to stop her with questions at any time, then told them how she feels that writing a “dying art.” The audience was quick to ask hard questions that made Cruise draw from her 20 years of writing experience.

Questions ranged from her writing process, motivations, inspirations, how to get published, to if she has her husband edit her work for her. Cruise ended up turning over her prepared speech and speaking from her experiences.

Cruise explained that a writer has to be “driven to write.” It is a business, too, she said, acknowledging all the hardships that writers face, from the conception of a book, to critique groups, to networking, finding an agent and, finally, a publisher.

“It’s a lot of hard work.”

She highlighted the high points in writing as well: the joy of writing a book and the parental feeling a writer receives when their work is finally published.

“There are no rules on how to write,” Cruise told her listeners. “Everybody has a different process (of writing).”

She encouraged the audience to write if they want to write, while cautioning them that they must have the drive and persistence to see their work is published. She also advised the young writers in the crowd to work at their craft.