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Interesting piece by writer Sadie Jones in The Telegraph books page- the most revealing paragraph is toward the bottom where she talks about
"very young people being trained up in creative writing courses and universities around the country."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/books-life/6137914/Sadie-Jones-this-writing-life.html
Comments
I remember my early 20's and remember feeling an immense pressure to be young and successful. Not possible, just maturing now. Pressure has started relieving as I'm at University, but still find I'm pressuring myself to be ready to sell when I graduate.
I can imagine creative writing graduates could feel more pressure: they've been trained and don't have an excuse (which is myth.)
*SA*
I don't want to do a creative writing course. Yes, I may look into english language courses as I feel my grammar leaves a lot to be desired. I like her thinking. I may save that, for when I feel I am not doing well enough because I haven't been paid for something etc.
I will re-learn to embrace the act of writing itself. When I was younger, I would write stories for the hell of it. Unfortunately, growing up and money showed me that I can make money from this hobby, and I seem to have forgotten that I do, in fact, love writing.
So now, I can find my crazy imagination, and revel in peoples repulsion when I write about the unspeakable, and not worry about reward. :D
You can work hard at your writing ALL YOUR LIFE and still 'fail' (to get your novel published - unless you choose to do it yourself)
... so which is the harder?
This credit crunch is going to hit a lot of genuine people but it is also going to sort out the wheat from the chaff too. Only good books will get through in future, we may not consider them 'good' every time but more realistic figures will be quoted for books and authors, more sense in what is put out there. Less books thus creating more demand for what is out there would be better. I liken this to the Black Death which effectively transformed English society, the credit crunch is transforming the publishing industry. And I hit it at the right moment with something challenging and different ... did I get lucky or was it, as I believe, designed by Spirit.