85 So You Want to Write? with Tom McLaughlin, Illustrator & Author

I remember telling the careers advisor at school that I wanted to be a journalist... she laughed and said, "You'd better have something to fall back on!" How many of us have dreamt of being a professional artiste? Writer, painter, poet, photographer, needle-felter? Such careers are often perceived as unrealistic dreams - perhaps a hobby at best, or something to save to do during retirement when there’s cash in the bank and we’ve earned the right to do something we love every day.  You won’t be surprised that I don’t think you should have to wait until retirement to do something you love. I did become a journalist (despite it being an apparent miracle) and other real people are out there making movies we watch, writing the novels we read and drawing for a living.  One of those 'other people' is the hugely successful Tom McLaughlin, children’s author and illustrator. If you dream of 'one day being a writer' - or if you already have a writing project in progress - you’ll love listening to Tom talk through his creative process and how he dealt with rejection, doubts and fears that he was wasting his time, before he got his break. And even if you don’t think you have a book in you, you’ll enjoy hearing how Tom sees the world, where he finds inspiration and how he’s turned the potential disadvantage of dyslexia into a superpower.