A dirty secret: you can only be a writer if you can afford it

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There is nothing more sustaining to long-term creative work than time and space – and these things cost money

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Let’s start with me: I’m not sure how or if I’d still be a writer without the help of other people’s money. I have zero undergrad debt. Of my three years of grad school, two of them were funded through a teaching fellowship; my parents helped pay for the first. The last two years my stipend barely covered the childcare I needed to travel uptown three days a week to teach and go to class and my husband’s job is what kept us afloat.

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I think that is true more now in any art form sadly: if you can afford to pay online promotion/marketing etc you are bound to get there so much faster ...

I believe it depends on each person. Are you willing to write in the evenings and weekends while paying your bills from a day job, like I did and still do? Anything can be done. I did not grow up with privilege but I worked hard and made a living for myself. successispossible

A simple look into the bios of most of our classic writers will show clearly how much this statement is bullshit.

This thread makes me sad. So often we choose to define the groups experience off of strictly our own personal experience. But I suppose that is why we have so many “successful” writers talking about their divine talent and the current garbage fire that is publishing.

A bigger, dirtier secret: this applies to literally every endeavor possible.

this is a secret?

This is the greatest time in the history of the world to be an author -- or any creative. Authors have more freedom to put their work in front of more people for more money than ever.

I will prove this wrong.

Well tell that to someone like Stallone then... he had little to zero money, when he wrote the first Rocky script, he really couldn’t afford things.

Echoing Virginia Woolf's words about 500 a year and a room of one's own.

Anyone can write regardless of wealth, so here's a dirty secret: False. Sure, when it comes to trying to get it published, professionally edited etc, that's a different ballgame, the word you mean is author, not writer.

And then newspaper commentators make £100k’s !

Some of the newbie writers I’ve known do believe they’ll somehow make a bunch of money. Right away. But most seasoned writers know they’ll have to supplement their writing income with other options.

Bullshit ...I was a bouncer by night and a construction worker by day and wrote on my lunch break. Now I have a 2 book deal with a subsidiary of Macmillan books. You are a writer if you have the guts to put the words on paper

Great article with good points. Writing is romantic and wonderful, but unless you're very lucky or extraordinarily talented, it doesn't pay enough to make a living. Write because you love it.

This is not a secret.

My organization, Write_Hive, is very literally giving money to a writer in need come April. Link below. All are welcome to apply. (Application is, of course, free.)

Very well said.

yeah no shit

Everybody knows this

My mom shares her amazing poetry with me every week and I love being one of the privileged few who get to experience it. I think we all need to be more conscious about the desire for acclaim vs. the desire to be deeply known and seen by those who are dearest to our hearts.

Oh, no! Dreams dashed!

Several rejections I’ve received explain that they can’t place a piece I’ve written about teen homelessness because “it happened so long ago”. I’m now 34 & have the means to write & pitch. You know why there are so few homeless writers? Because they’re too busy trying not to die.

A dirty secret, Part II: many writers choose to make less money in order to afford writing.

This article's title is horrible and misleading and doesn't even adequately represent the writer's points.

Guardian writers are ...different

Bull.

So that's why agents never respond to my queries. Something about them must scream 'poor person.'

No shit

Social mobility in the arts has been dead for my entire life, assuming it ever existed in the first place.

Good morning guys

from the 'no shit' department

Agreed to a point. The effort and process of writing takes the same amount of time. People are lucky if they have time and money to write but it doesn’t mean they’ll be any good. If the industry doesn’t identify with stories outside of their experience, then we do have a problem.

J.K.Rowling

cool, thanks -- I'll quit while I'm ahead, then

Not being able to afford to be a writer has meant much sacrifice over the years, and lots of pain, for loved-ones too. If I had the time again, I'd probably not. But I was obsessed. You have to be, or you give up. I've many regrets.

Well done, you soon will be able to invent a circle.

monkeypreneur Truth

Thinly vieled begging letter from the Graun

Lol duh

An agent for a very prominent literary agency once told me that only a small fraction of even their clients earn enough from their work to live on (✍️) lynnsstrong

marysouth

The Guardian discovers privilege.

Just write. Writing tools are pretty cheap.

You can also just struggle on through...

The secret to life in general is that being rich (and/or physically attractive) is it's own reward. So dont be born poor if you can avoid it.

Laughing. Are we trying to make a living or create art? Maybe that should be the slant. Writers and artists need space and time. Few make a living off their work. Most have jobs. Or a patron. Or parents who pay their rent. Distractions destroy the imagination so limit those!!!

HAHAHAHA if you can afford it? The first few years of struggle meant living without an oven, rain on the inside of my building, a broken downstairs loo, and sometimes living on carrots and potatoes. It's not about being able to afford writing. It's about we can't afford not to.

If you're rich

That's why so many of the SJW types include 'words ' in their bio. A type of social signalling to other middle class and upper warriors.

The reason all artists (writers, dancers, filmmakers…) suffer at the beginning is because we have to prove that we're good enough (and have enough market value) to be worth paying. MANY ARE NOT. No one has an inherent right to live as an artist. You have to earn it.

Virginia Woolf taught us this a long time ago

Boom

this applies to pretty much everyone in the creative arts

Evil everywhere

I am on my way to prove them wrong lol

Yes. One of the people who made it from a scheme for under-represented groups I was part of until the last round was certainly not economically disadvantaged.

Or an actor, or a fine artist - and have been to elite schools. Not what u know...

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