The working life of a professional writer is not exciting. You write. You read what you have written. You sigh. You try again until, with luck, something passable appears on the page or screen before you. Now and then – again, with luck – you get published. Rows or bust-ups in the little world of… Continue reading ‘Play nicely, children,’ said the Society of Authors …. They didn’t.
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Beyond the daily grind of the thousand words, there is a rhythm to life as a writer. The commission of the moment (if there is one), the pressure of the work in progress, the seductive possibilities of those what-if, why-not?, would-be projects that you always mean to get around to writing: these tasks impose a… Continue reading Why do it? Notes from a writer’s shed
Read moreWriting, like life, has a nasty habit of turning around to bite you in the bum when you least expect it. So it has been while I was gently pondering what to write in this column. Rather to my surprise, I found that I had never written about that constant companion of a writer’s life,… Continue reading The Seven Rules of Rejection
Read moreHere is my ‘Endpaper’ piece for the summer edition of The Author, the magazine published for professional writers by the Society of Authors. Is it just me, or has everything suddenly gone rather quiet? Authors are used to hearing that the trade is dead, that bookshops are spookily deserted (it usually happens the week one… Continue reading It’s time for an authors’ revolution
Read moreIn the winter issue of The Author, the house magazine of the Society of Authors, I contributed to the gaiety of the season by considering some of the things which can go wrong for an author trying to get a book published…. There are now two types of writing life. In one, authors write, get… Continue reading Seven Things That Can Go Wrong For a Writer
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