Should I be a writer?

No, not if you have a choice.

That's very hard. Why not?

One, because it's lonely. Two, because it's frustrating when you don't do it as well as you ought to have done. Three, because, when you have done it as well as you can, you often find it would have been easier for everyone you love if you hadn't. (Edna O' Brien said when she was writing The Country Girls it was like opening a door to a room that she dreaded going into.) And we're not necessarily talking Freudian repression here. Just bits of your personality that your nearest and dearest never signed up for, because you hadn't written the books yet. Four, because you never leave work. Five, because you never know how long the next book will take but you do know when the bills come in. Six - need I go on?

But don't writers make lots of money?

One or two. In 2000 the Society of Authors in the UK surveyed its membership on earnings. Three quarters of members earned less than the average national wage; two thirds earned less than half the national average; and half earned less than an employee on the national minimum wage. Don't think it's different anywhere else.

But people must be terribly impressed when you tell them you're a writer.

Sometimes. The nice ones. Though even they can say, 'Romance? Don't you want to write a real book?' AAAAGH! (See Why Romance? on this site.)

It can't be that bad. You do it.

Didn't have a choice. It was write or talk aloud to myself and we all know where that gets you. (Now there's an idea for a book …. See what I mean?)

Will you read my manuscript?

No.

Why not?

Time, mainly, to be honest. But also, I'm not an editor and nothing makes me right. There have been romances on the New York Times Best Seller List I've hated.

Will you give me advice?

Dangerous but I'll try. These have helped me. One - read widely. Be adventurous. (See My Bookshelf on this site for stuff you may not have come across.) Two- write every day. Get used to the fact that some of it's poor. No machine is more than 66% efficient. One of the good things about writing (there are some) is that nobody but you needs to see the really bad stuff. Three - don't be afraid to change what you've written. A book is dynamic. It takes you - well me - a hundred times longer to write a book than it takes someone else to read it. They will read one indivisible story with an inevitable road to the towers of climax and resolution. You will have been wandering around in the shadows at the waterfront for ages in order to map out that lovely clear road. Four - don't despair over the false starts and blind alleys. They're part of the process. You need them. Five - ignore all of the above if it doesn't help you. I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. (Thank you, Mr Shakespeare.)

If you would like to read my answers to questions about My Books, click here

If you have questions that aren't answered above, you are welcome to email me. It may take a bit of time to answer. Remember, I'm not an organised person and I could be deep in the middle of a book.

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