This is the beginning of an article published on 16 June at The Big Idea. The full article can be read here.
Validation can be a powerful thing.
Many in the creative sector seek it – as with all industries – in some shape or form. For an actor that may be a standing ovation. For a painter, it could be seeing your work exhibited for the world to see.
For a veteran writer in the process of researching the biggest project you’ve ever undertaken, validation is being told you’re on the right track.
Just ask Rebecca Macfie.
She’s currently earning glowing reviews for her just-released book, Helen Kelly: Her Life, the detailed biography of the late history-making Trade Union president who dared to take on the might of Sir Peter Jackson, the government and many others for what she believed in.
Being selected for the Copyright New Zealand/New Zealand Society of Authors Writers’ Award in 2019 proved a huge boost to her self-confidence in getting the book across the line.
“It’s pretty lonely being a writer sometimes when you’re out there, buried in your material,” she tells The Big Idea over toast and tomatoes from her Christchurch home.
“I found it incredibly psychologically supportive in a way, a group of neutral people looked at what I was doing and thought it was important enough to be granted this support. That really helped me a lot actually.
“You live with a lot of doubt, it was a really important endorsement apart from the money itself.”
