Laura Elizabeth Woollett is 29, with a creative-writing degree, and has never had a full-time job. She used to tell herself this was a lifestyle choice, so as not to kill her creativity. In reality, she’s never had an offer.
Laura Elizabeth Woollett is a rising literary star, a much-praised author of a short-story collection and two novels. She is 29, with a creative-writing degree, and has never had a full-time job. She used to tell herself this was a lifestyle choice, so as not to kill her creativity. In reality, she’s never had an offer. Like many writers, she patches together a precarious income from casual work. Her best job was in a call centre.
This is nothing like the picture of literary work that still has a surprisingly tenacious hold on the Australian imagination. There are two prevailing myths. The first is that writers’ lifestyles are funded by taxpayers, and they don’t do much writing in return. The second is that writing is answering a divine call. You’re doing what you love, so you shouldn’t expect to get paid for it.editor Catriona Menzies-Pike debunks both these myths in her introduction to the book.
Some look beyond the relentless battle to scrape a living and to fit your writing around that essential work. They ask what that says about how our governments and institutions fail to value literature: James Ley laments the dwindling respect for the humanities in our university courses and teaching jobs.
Others delve into the inevitable psychological problems for anyone devoted to a task that doesn’t pay: how can you continue to respect yourself and what you are trying to do? Lisa Fuller received an email from a creative-writing student saying their dream was pointless because their writing sucked. She replied that she was struggling with all those feelings herself.
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