A Writers Life

One of the best things about writing for a living is the education. Whatever you’re writing about will need research. You could, of course, get someone else to do the research for you, but you still have to read it to write it, so it’s going to sink in.

No wonder writers are seen as intelligent. They can also be pedantic, picky, prolific and have a love of alliteration. A lot of the time they are loners or at least know how to be. But the thing is, what looks like alone from the outside is actually a world full of characters and magic. A writer is never alone.

Creating worlds, characters and plot lines is an absolute honour. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of bringing a world to life. It’s like being God. We writers breathe life into characters and kill off anyone who pisses us off. What power that is to yield!

I believe I was a born a writer. It is simply a part of who I am. That does not mean I will make a fortune from it or become a celebrity, probably the opposite. You see I come from a time before computers, when writing a book was for writers. These days everyone writes books whether they can write well or not.

Like everything else, we now live in a world of substandard or manufactured quality. In the days where a person’s talent earned them a living, the seriously talented rose to the top. Today however, it’s the people who can put enough money into social media advertising who rise to the top.

Back in the day you bought ‘The Writers and Artists Yearbook’, checked the submission guidelines and followed them to the letter. Then you sent off your synopsis and few chapters in a big brown envelope double stuck with Sellotape, just in case. The process was long, laborious and mostly hopeless – but the talent did eventually rise.

Now all you have to do is pull up a word document, consult AI or write some words yourself or even copy and paste something and change it around a little bit. Then you can jump on Canva and design a cover using a template then you can upload the whole document on Amazon and tadaaaaaaaa, you’re not only a writer, you’re an author.

My writing journey started at the age of ten with reams of poetry. I did also write a few books but they never ever saw the light of day – they were cathartic exercises and they served their purpose. I did not think I could earn a living becoming a real writer. I didn’t think that happened unless you were properly educated or posh and I very much doubted those doors would ever open for a dockers daughter from Canning Town, so I never tried. I did my writing in the dark, just for me.

It was not until I was in my forties did success as a writer come calling. All because of a blog that I wrote, not for attention but because writing is just how I breathe. The explosion of the internet meant I was then deep breathing in public and people were listening.

Now I write books for others as well as writing my own.

If you’re going to be a writer then practice. Practice every day, week, month and year of your life because getting good takes time, no matter how much talent you have.

I’ve been practising for fifty-two years now. I think I’ve earned the title.