search
NB: You will need javascript enabled on your browser to use this function

Sandy McKay

writer, profile published in BRAT, Spring 2001

There is something enchanting about the process of writing. When it's going well, things happen that you don't expect, uncanny coincidences occur and problems are solved. Like magic! Of course there are times when it doesn't happen that way. That's when you have to keep believing, keep plugging away, be patient It's exciting when an idea plants itself in your mind that sparks off a story. Usually I let it slosh around for a while, testing it now and again to make sure it's real. Letting it grow, slowly, until it's ready to be written down. (And rewritten and rewritten and rewritten). I enjoy talking to children about writing. I like showing them my scruffy manuscripts and explaining how I make lots of mistakes and have to rewrite things over and over again. I think writing is both a very ordinary and a very extraordinary thing. It's a great way of communicating with other people and making sense of the world. When it goes badly there is nothing more frustrating but when it goes well there is nothing more exhilarating or magical.