Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Why writing doesn't have to be a lonely struggle

Tough love life? Write a nicer one. Feeling old? Write yourself young… Authors Helen Grant and Lydia Syson explain why the writer’s life need not be miserable

authors Lydia Syson and Helen Grant
Lydia Syson, left, and Helen Grant: ‘There’s a rare pleasure to be had in steeping yourself in other worlds.’
Being an author is the most desirable job in Britain, according to a YouGov poll. Not so, responded Tim Lott. Writers are driven by demons, he wrote, the work is unimaginably hard – as complex as brain surgery, apparently – not to mention solitary, and fraught with rejection and professional envy. The meagre consolation is the “small legacy” we may leave behind us when we go. It’s a dismal prospect - enough to have us weeping over our keyboards, while taking nips from a bottle of absinthe.

Sorry Tim, but we have to disagree. That’s not how it is for every writer.
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