What does it mean to be a “professional” writer? Is it that you devote lots of your time and effort to writing? Or that you get paid for writing?

In order to say yes to one thing, you have to say no to another. That’s how time is protected. That’s how the art gets made. But it starts with you, saying yes to yourself, for yourself.

It can be hard enough sometimes to find the right words to express yourself in your primary language - and it takes even more energy and courage to try doing it in a language you may have learned alongside, or much later in life than, acquiring your first.

It seems fairly commonly accepted that if an artist - or more specifically, a writer - is to produce good output, they must make sure to absorb good input as well. By which is usually meant, if you want to be a writer who writes, you also need to be a writer who reads. This once led me to make a terrible mistake when I was teaching, and I have gone to great pains to ensure I never made it again.