_ writer.

by Valorie Lennox
The Review

Her friends ask, when are you
going to write something import-
ant again?

But Susan Musgrave says her
current projects — writing col-
umns for the Vancouver Sun and
the Toronto Star, book reviews, a
children’s book and a whimsical
cookbook linking crooks and
crockery — are as important as her
11 books of poetry or two novels.

“What I have to say these days
seems to work in a non-fiction
forum,’ says the North Saanich

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She also teaches workshops on
writing.

“It’s monic that you reach a
certain stage in your career where
you make money going and telling
people how to write.”

Musgrave has also reached a
Stage in her career where she is the
subject of a television documen-
tary, Great Musgrave: A Picture of
Susan, which will be shown on
BCTV April 7 at 11:30 a.m. and
on CHEK Six April 8 at 10:30
a.m.

“The woman who did it was
really diligent,” Musgrave said,
noting producer Lynn Charman
collected clips from past shows,
including Musgrave’s marriage to
author Stephen Reid in prison, and
interviewed Musgrave’s friends
Robin Skelton and Linda Rogers.

“Editing for television is like
writing. You’ve got all this footage
and you’ve got to cut it down.”
Musgrave expects the show will

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cover her 20-year writing career

— “it does make me sound old”
— Starting with publication of her
first book of poetry, Songs of the
Sea Witch, when she was 19.

Musgrave’s work was discov-
ered by poet Robin Skelton when
the then-teenage poet was living
on Saltspring.

In an echo of her own experi-
ence, Musgrave recently received a
student’s work from a teacher on
Saltspring who believed he had
found a prodigy.

The teacher was right. Musgrave
showed the poems to Ontario
writer Sean Virgo, who passed the
work on to his publisher.

The poems were published and
the young writer just won a $5,000
writing prodigy award.

“It makes it worthwhile. After
years of having fairly positive
things happen to me, it’s great to
be giving it back somehow.”

Among Musgrave’s positive
experiences was always finding
someone able to effectively critic-
ize her work.

Sean Virgo was a critic years
ago: now she and husband Stephen
scrutinize each other’s writing.

ws:

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A DRAGON BANISTER,
Carved by a former
inmate at William Head
penitentiary, guards the
entrance to writer Susan
Musgrave’s North Saanich
home.

~ You can only get so far in any
part of writing without that kind of
feedback. I can’t imagine what it
would be like to write in a vac-
uum.”

The need for criticism draws
many people to writing classes
and workshops.

In her Camosun College classes,
Musgrave teaches the obligatory
technical things about plot struc-
ture and point of view — “they
seem so far removed from the

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passion of writing’” — before @

setting exercises that challenge her
Students’ imagination and writing
skill.

~ [think you learn about writing
by doing, not by having someone
tell you what to do.”

One survey estimates 42 million
Americans write poetry or short
Stories, Musgrave said.

“Most people want to write.”

The goal is usually publication,
which places another demand on :

the successful author. S)

“Once you’re published, you
thave to write more. You have to
love the process of writing.”

Despite the occasional terror of
filling the blank terminal screen,
Musgrave likes the process.

“I sit in my office travelling
thousands of miles in books and in
my head. Writing takes you miles
away, without the inconvenience of
toilet bugs. :

“If I didn’t have writing I don’t
know what there would be.”

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