Last Tuesday, July 26, I attended the Diaspora Dialogues Mentorship Launch Party and met with the organizers, mentors and other mentees involved in this year’s program. We had a beautiful evening of talk, food, and white wine sangria (mmm!) on the patio of L’Espresso.
Among those that I met, I was also able to acquaint myself with my mentor, Olive Senior, and the other writers being mentored by her. Aside from TWUC, I haven’t had the opportunity to attend a writing event in a while. It felt great to discuss writing with a group of people who were as passionate about the art as me. There’s something amazing about being able to talk about character, plot, and the horrifying revision process with people who don’t think you’re a complete geek when you get excited about these things.
Though I didn’t know it was possible, the Diaspora Dialogues Mentorship Launch made me even more excited for this year’s program. My peers are an amazing group of writers from a variety of backgrounds. I am already on my first round of revisions with Olive, and can’t wait for the rest of the season.
Just a heads up for other aspiring young writers, Diaspora Dialogues has released a call for submissions for a brand new youth (ages 16-25) mentoring program. Creative non-fiction, short stories, or poetry will be accepted up until September 30, after which 6-10 young writers will be selected through an adjudicated process.
P.S. I still get a schoolgirl thrill when I see “Writer” on any part of my name tags!
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Hi Ward,
My apologies for the delayed reply. I’m glad to hear you liked my blog and am happy to connect with another aspiring writer. Setting up your own site could be a great idea. Setting up MiaHerrera.com led to a lot of great opportunities for me (mainly in branching out for other writing assignments and using it as a portfolio for other jobs). I wouldn’t recommend paying for hosting yet, especially since there are so many awesome free options out there these days, but purchasing a domain name may be a good idea. Domain names are affordable, and if there’s a certain one that you like, it’s a good idea to reserve it early on. For the longest time I used WordPress.com, though I attached it to my MiaHerrera.com domain name, and only switched to my own hosting after a while.
Keep in mind, however, that while setting up a website as an aspiring writer is good, the most important thing at this stage in our careers is to write, write, and write some more. It’s easy to get caught up in social media these days (I often fall into this trap), and put writing on the back burner. A real writer has content to put on his or her site, not just a nifty site to show others!
Anyways, hope this helped. Please feel free to keep in touch or continue reading/commenting. I love to hear feedback!
Mia
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Hi Lavern, I have written quite a bit on other sites, such as Live in Limbo, Nerd Girl Pinups, and YorkScene.com. Unfortunately I am not currently accepting any more blog assignments. Perhaps in the future though. Thanks for the invite!
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