Saturday, July 30, 2011

The writing life

Why Steph Swainston wants a day job. I really liked the novel of hers that I read, and thoroughly endorse the notion that teaching and writing are for many a much richer mix than writing could be alone: it is truly not for everyone, the life of the full-time writer, even putting aside financial considerations...

2 comments:

  1. From reading her piece it strikes me yet again that everyone has to find their own balance - that publishers (and readers) might see authors as all the same (and fitting the same schedule) but really they are all very very different.

    Also the bits about publicity were dead on. And the internet. The internet is scary for authors! (Which is ironic when you consider how on the internet I am!)

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  2. The internet need not be scary. It can in fact give you exactly the independence Swainston craves ('do it on my terms') - so long as you accept that writing need not be your primary source of income; nor conventional publishing, your validation.

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