A Place For Words: Tips and Suggestions for Writers

Working in this field offers unique and exciting opportunities to extend and develop your own practice. It can also be a complex and occasionally frustrating process for writers used to working on their own or in community projects with a narrower partnership base. Projects with permanent outcomes are often contingent on funding that may not be completely secured at the beginning of a project. Consultation projects can be difficult if a developer/planner is not genuinely prepared to engage with the outcomes. Yet this work also has the potential to be exciting, innovative and make a genuine contribution to successful place-making.

The issues highlighted in the general section are important to bear in mind when entering into a project. Some additional tips below:

  • Be clear about your own position, and the fact that you can't make promises or effect specific changes, but you can help to articulate and present issues.
  • Hold onto the fact that you are working as a writer, not as a government official, or someone with a commercial interest. Focus on your skills and how you can use them effectively, without feeling you have to single-handedly save the world
  • Things may go wrong! If your work is being created for permanent or temporary installation, there may well be hiccups with fabrication, finance etc. Be patient, persevere, but also be prepared to let go.
  • This shouldn't be writing by committee, but you do need to be open to other people's input and opinion.

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