{"id":3522,"date":"2009-02-26T10:49:02","date_gmt":"2009-02-26T15:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=3522"},"modified":"2009-02-26T12:57:02","modified_gmt":"2009-02-26T17:57:02","slug":"bowery-bums-and-bag-ladies-but-writers-by-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/bowery-bums-and-bag-ladies-but-writers-by-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Bowery Bums and Bag Ladies… But Writers<\/em>, by God"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Ah, the writing life. We know it’s a stereotype, (almost?) never true, but the image remains skulking around our collective unconscious:<\/p>\n

The disheveled hair. The soulful eyes, staring out the window of an upper-floor barely-furnished apartment in which the heat has been turned off, a “scarf” — fabric torn from the edge of a bedsheet — collaring the neck, the fingers poised above they keys of a typewriter into which one has not yet bothered to insert paper because nothing is coming, dammit, nothing even resembling the first word, let alone sentence, and accomplishing an entire paragraph feels like something only gods can pull off. Meanwhile, the landlord is banging on the door demanding at least token attention to seven months’ back rent; food molders in the lukewarm fridge; and yet the Muse — the Siren — still sings to one from nearby rooftops and trees…<\/p>\n

Glamorous, eh? No wonder so many (as it seems) want some of it.<\/p>\n

This blog post was inspired by and involves, but is not actually about<\/em>, the author A.L. Kennedy. On the off-chance she’s new to you, you may want to know something of her before we proceed. Says Wikipedia<\/a>, she:<\/p>\n

…is a Scottish writer of novels, short stories and non-fiction. She is known for a characteristically dark tone, a blending of realism and fantasy, and for her serious approach to her work as well as a passion for the art of yodeling. Alison Kennedy lives in Glasgow with her pet Luwak.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s hard to know where to start with that, especially if you decide to pursue your curiosity about the last word. Its own Wikipedia entry<\/a> first implies that the animal’s more common name, apparently, is the Asian Palm Civet, scientific name Paradoxurus hermaphroditus<\/em>:<\/p>\n

The species name comes from the fact that both sexes have scent glands underneath the tail that resemble testicles. It can spray a noxious secretion from these glands.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Recalling Kennedy’s bio, which says she “performs as a stand-up comedian at the Edinburgh Fringe, comedy clubs and literary festivals,” we might by now begin to suspect someone is having us* on, as the expression goes.<\/p>\n

But this post doesn’t really mean to be so distracted, and distracting. It really means to be about the first post of Kennedy’s new blog on The Guardian, AL Kennedy on Writing<\/em>. (She previously did — still does, maybe — an entertaining one for the New Statesman, too, called Obsessive Compulsive<\/em><\/a>.)<\/p>\n

The title of that first Guardian post<\/a>: “Why it’s pointless telling anyone that writing isn’t worth it.” Of the writing life, she says:<\/p>\n

I do try to tell other people what it will come to — hence my occasional visits to Warwick University and its creative writing students. They want to write, they have application and vigour, they’ve all come on since I read them last and yet … it would be unfair not to remind them of how horrible their futures may become. If they’re unsuccessful, they’ll be clattering through a global Depression with a skill no one requires, a writing demon gnawing at their spine to be expressed and a delicately-nurtured sensitivity that will only make their predicaments seem worse — and yet somehow of no interest to anyone else. If they’re successful, they still may not make a living, will travel more than a drug mule, may be so emotionally preoccupied that they fail to notice entire relationships, will have to deal with media demands no sane person would want to understand and may well wear far too much black. (Yes, it is slimming, but unisex Richard III isn’t always what the occasion demands. Trust me: experience is a painful teacher.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All right, yes, again: clearly Kennedy wakes up every morning with her comic sensibility already showered, dressed, and waiting for the rest of her to catch up. But she’s getting at something true and truly serious. Speaking of the widespread recession:<\/p>\n

…the bleakness may even be a help to the artistically inclined… Now that so many of us dream of bitch-slapping bankers up and down the high street and there are, once again, no safe havens, new writers may feel they have nothing to lose by taking the plunge into typing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So then: what’s your take on the writing life in lean times — the one you already lead, as well as the one you hope to? Is it really — really<\/em> — going to be worth it? “If you\u2019re lucky,” Kennedy says elsewhere<\/a>, “after only 20 years or so, you can get to be an overnight success”; if that turns out to be true, is the prospect of waiting two decades worth whatever you hope to get from it?<\/p>\n

The Missus and I have noted, in the back stories of many contestants on American Idol<\/em> — at least as expressed and shown on camera — a tendency to regard success in the competition as a ticket out of a life chockablock with disappointment and stress. This is my shot<\/em>, they say, their eyes glistening. My one shot. I don’t know what I’ll do if I don’t win this<\/em>. Often a spouse and at least one baby figure in their daydreams, and in the backgrounds of their this-is-my-life-before-Idol<\/em> videos.<\/p>\n

And then there’s the rule of thumb about how long it takes, on average, to start and succeed with a new small business. They say you need to have enough cash on hand to make it through three years (or five, or whatever it is) of no<\/em> income but continued expenses, before you can expect to get the thing afloat.<\/p>\n

Again: what about you?<\/p>\n

Start with something trivial — say… um… say the calendar on your wall. Would you give that up in order to have the writing life you dream of? Yes? Then keep on ramping up the importance of things dear to you now.<\/p>\n

How about the wall on which that calendar hangs?<\/p>\n

If you could live in a tent and sleep on a bed of pine needles and straw, requiring no housing expenses at all, would you be willing to take a job which pays, say, $500 (US) a month, for however long it takes you to succeed at your writing?<\/p>\n

When we say we “have to write,” as a lot of us (including present company) do, how absolutely true is that?<\/p>\n

Does it matter if it’s true or not?<\/p>\n

Did it ever matter, really, for any<\/em> writer?<\/p>\n

_________________________________<\/p>\n

* And Wikipedia.<\/p>\n

** In ten years or so, someone will make a tidy bundle of cash by tracking down and reporting on (probably via another reality-TV show) some of those who missed that last chance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ah, the writing life. We know it’s a stereotype, (almost?) never true, but the image remains skulking around our collective unconscious: The disheveled hair. The soulful eyes, staring out the window of an upper-floor barely-furnished apartment in which the heat has been turned off, a “scarf” — fabric torn from the edge of a bedsheet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[94,37,5,209],"tags":[1040,1041,1042,1043,1044],"class_list":{"0":"post-3522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-02_in-the-news","7":"category-onlineworld","8":"category-06_writing","9":"category-the-business","10":"tag-the-writing-life","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-hard-times","13":"tag-al-kennedy","14":"tag-dreams-of-success","15":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-UO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3522"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3547,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3522\/revisions\/3547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}