{"id":439,"date":"2015-06-27T12:45:23","date_gmt":"2015-06-27T12:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/?p=439"},"modified":"2015-06-27T12:46:27","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T12:46:27","slug":"writing-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/?p=439","title":{"rendered":"Writing & Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WALES15<\/a><\/p>\n

The median earnings of writers in the United Kingdom is \u00a34,000 a year. Read that again – \u00a34,000. Let\u2019s face it \u2013 unless you\u2019re EL James or JK Rowling, you\u2019re not going to make enough to live on. Most of us who write have to rely on other work to keep us going. Yet deep down we all secretly want success<\/em>: we want to hit that jack-pot. We want to be recognised, read and appreciated.<\/p>\n

The problem is – there are so many books out there \u2013 let alone short stories, poetry and flash fiction. I\u2019m sure neither you nor I, however much we love books, \u00a0have the time to read all we\u2019d like. I\u2019m also sure a substantial number of excellent books pass me by.<\/p>\n

The publishing world is fickle one. It relies on a small number of \u2018big\u2019 names and celebrities. Dubravka Ugresic, in her book, \u2018Thank you for not Reading\u2019<\/em> describes how Joan Collins, opening the London Book Fair some years ago, swept all beside her. \u2018What does this have to do with literature?\u2019 Ugresic writes. \u2018Almost nothing. Then why mention something as trivial as Joan Collins\u2019s pink suit? Because trivia has swamped contemporary literary life and become, it seems, more important than the books. A book\u2019s blurb is more important than the book itself, the author\u2019s photograph on the book jacket\u2026more important than its content\u2026.\u2019<\/p>\n

You get the picture. Marketing is King. Celebrity is King. Or Queen. Does this matter? Yes and no. I mean, you\u2019re not going to get anyone to read your book if readers don\u2019t know it exists and those of us far down the publishing ladder are always going to struggle to get noticed. This isn\u2019t an article about marketing so I won\u2019t give you suggestions on how to market your book. Anyway I\u2019m lousy at marketing but it is necessary, even if it bores you to tears and you feel you\u2019re no good at it. (You do get better at it with practice \u2013 I promise). No, this is an article about writing. As for that elusive \u2018success\u2019 \u2013 if you\u2019ve completed a story, a novel or a poem, that\u2019s success. Making it as perfect as you can \u2013 that\u2019s success. Getting it out there via a blog, or in print \u2013 however \u2013 that\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

Annie Lamott writes about publication in her excellent book, \u2018Bird by Bird<\/em>.\u2019 \u2018I just try to warn people who hope to get published that publication is not all it is cracked up to be. But writing is. Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises.\u2019<\/p>\n

Many of us are so caught up in the idea of success in our culture that we fail to appreciate our successes. Like a new dress, or a new car, the lure is always there of more and better. It\u2019s a snare and a delusion.<\/p>\n

Natalie Goldberg in her book, \u2018Writing down the Bones<\/em>\u2019 says, \u2018Trust in what you love, continue to do it and it will take you where you need to go. And don\u2019t worry too much about security. You will eventually have a deep security when you begin to do what you want. How many of us with big salaries are actually secure anyway?\u2019<\/p>\n

We need to pay our bills of course, and many people don\u2019t have the luxury to be creative. They are busy working as cleaners, nurses, care workers\u2026.You can be creative in your job, for sure and anyone can write, sketch or pen a song. It doesn\u2019t have to be a project that keeps us away from earning a living.<\/p>\n

For those of us who are lucky and\/or determined enough to work as writers, aim for success, yes but do understand that there\u2019s always another mountain to be climbed – always. Or even a mountain to fall down. The secret is to pick yourself up and climb the mountain again, even if you need a walking stick or a lift part way. And please enjoy the view while you\u2019re up there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The median earnings of writers in the United Kingdom is \u00a34,000 a year. Read that again – \u00a34,000. Let\u2019s face it \u2013 unless you\u2019re EL James or JK Rowling, you\u2019re not going to make enough to live on. Most of us who write have to rely on other work to keep us going. Yet deep … Continue reading Writing & Success<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":443,"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions\/443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bronwengriff.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}