Questions.
Posted by Andreas Schroeder
The students—especially the writing students—are asking lots of them. How long does it take to write a book? Does anyone really care what you write? How can you make a living as a writer? What can you do if you’re attacked, belittled, dumped on? And how do you really know if you’ve got what it takes to be a writer? They’re not all serious, these questions, but the ones that are can be heart-breaking. They can take you right back to the same place, decades ago, when you asked those same questions yourself. How to put half a lifetime of that struggle into a two-minute answer? And even if you could, would it be a good idea?
It’s easy to forget how tenuous and unpredictable their position might be or feel, these eager and anxious kids, poised on the crossroads of so many possible directions, trying to make what might well be the most serious decision of their lives, usually based on less reliable information than what underpins most disaster-prone marriages.
So how much do we tell them?
Do we tell them that the competition to publish in today’s print media is many times more fierce than it was three decades ago? Do we mention that BC Bookworld’s author index currently lists over 8,000 authors in B.C. alone? Do we admit that the fees for magazine articles in Canada are lower today than they were as far back as 1970?
How much in the way of such hard facts should one dump on budding young writers at this stage in their development? Would truth of this kind have derailed me all those years ago when I asked those same questions (but didn’t have access to a touring author to vet the answers)?
I put this to my fellow touring authors on our drive from Nelson to Vernon yesterday. It led to an animated and wide-ranging discussion. Rex felt that it was important to urge these kids to follow their passions—regardless the cost. Though, being a practical freelancer, he also emphasized developing a back-up talent—something to fall back on during lean times, or as a part-time cash generator alongside an unpredictable writing career. Karen recalled that as a creative writing student she was overwhelmed by warnings of the impossibility of making a living as a fulltime writer, and would have appreciated a more encouraging perspective. After all, there are a lot of different ways to skin that cat. Stephen felt there was no reason to varnish the facts, but made a distinction between encouraging students to write and encouraging them to write for a living. He always urges kids who are contemplating the latter to find themselves a niche in the field, and to develop their talents in that area with relentless resolve—something, I note, he’s done with admirable success himself.
There’s probably no single all-purpose answer to this question, unless one wants to fall back on a totally Darwinian, laissez-faire approach. And that—on a brightly sunlit day, in a classroom full of enthusiastic, optimistic and brashly inquisitive young writer wannabes, seems just a bit too categorical for any of us.
With Mark Bendall at Vernon Secondary
