Writerly angst meme borrowed from Julian Griffith

I’m not quite sure what this meme is supposed to achieve, other than to make people feel bad if they somehow fail to live up to the standard of writerly purity expected. But I’m sure the standard to be a ‘professional writer’ should not be something that I achieve effortlessly just by being lazy and reclusive.

1. Is your home/work place messy because that time you’d put into cleaning it is better spent writing?

Often, yes. However sometimes it’s messy because I’m just lazy. I’m sure I could keep the house cleanish/tidyish and still write. I just can’t be bothered.

2. Do you routinely turn down evenings out with friends because you need to be home writing instead?

Pshaw! This assumes I have friends! How ridiculous is that?

3. Do you turn off the television in order to write?

I scarcely ever watch the TV anyway. It goes on for about an hour in the evening while our household eats dinner around it. The rest of the time it stays off. I do, however, move onto a computer that doesn’t have internet in order to write.

4. Would you rather receive useful criticism than praise?

I’d rather have both. I’m grateful for useful criticism because it’s useful, but praise is also useful because without it I lose all confidence in my ability to write and stop writing.

5. Do you plan vacations around writing opportunities (either research or networking potential)?

I have one family holiday a year, for one week a year. We go where we can keep the children occupied. What I do do, writing wise, is investigate all the interesting things I can find around where we’ve gone, and hope that they may provide me with writing inspiration. Hence Shining in the Sun, inspired by the fact that we pretty much always go to Cornwall.

6. Would you rather be chatting about the business of writing with another writer than exchanging small talk with a good friend?

See above about the whole friends thing. But yes of course. I have no friends and I despise small talk. If I had a friend I would want a friend with whom I could discuss interesting things, such as writing, history, fantasy, culture and science fiction films.

7. Have you ever taken a day job that paid less money because it would give you more time/energy/material to write?

I decided to stay at home and look after my children rather than go back to work in the hopes that that would give me more time to write. It did eventually work out that way, after the first 7 years of misery.

8. Are you willing to give up the nice home you know you could have if you devoted that time you spend writing to a more lucrative career?

See above. Already done.

9. Have you done all these things for at least five years?

It took the first 7 years before they were both at school for the majority of the day. It was a long-term plan

10. Are you willing to live knowing that you will likely never meet your ambitions, but you hold to those ambitions nonetheless?

I’m sorry? My ambition was to have a book published by a publisher. That has already been achieved. Anything else is gravy.

Mirrored from Alex Beecroft - Author of Gay Historical and Fantasy Fiction.