Advice from a Writing Careers Fair
Just a quick post:
I went to a writing careers fair at the University of East Anglia today. Besides reaffirming my ambition to study on the MA course in Creative Writing there (the places for which are very competitive) it was interesting.
One of the most interesting parts of it was that I met Stephen Foster, a published author. While I can’t say that I’ve come across his work, being, as I am, stuck in a bubble of mostly pre-War literature, talking to him was a positive experience, particularly because he had studied on the course that became the course I’m on now, and he had the same tutors as me, and it was on that course, in his final year, that his final submission was marked by someone who worked at Faber, resulting in him being offered a publishing deal straight off the course. Which is encouraging. He also went on the MA Creative Writing at UEA, since he had already applied for it when Faber picked up his work, and said he would highly recommend it. Since then he’s written I think four or five books, all of which were well reviewed, though not all of which sold particularly well, until the fourth one which was more of a bestseller-type book.
He said he didn’t mind about that though, because it was such a thrill to see his work on the shelves in Waterstones, which is more-or-less what the other published author I’ve met with recently, Lynne Bryan, who offers tutorials for my course, said: essentially that writing should be done for the passion of writing, not to make money or sell books. Mr. Foster’s exact words were in fact that you have to “believe in what you write,” by which he meant you should write what you write because you want to write it, not because you think it’s what the market wants to read. While this perhaps sounds trite, there are practical reasons for following the advice: Most writers who write to get published, never will get published.
That was kind of his main piece of advice, but among his other advice was to not rush into trying to get things published, but really work at getting work polished and ready, especially as a student, and then worry about publishing it. He also advised my friend and I to get some of the food from the free buffet while we had a chance, which we duly did, without entirely being sure whether it was open to the visitors or just the career representatives.
The other solid piece of advice I got was from a playwright whose name I’m afraid I can’t remember, and her advice was to know your audience and to build a readership before aiming to get anything published. Obviously that’s something I’ve been trying to do with this website to, I suppose, a moderate amount of success.
The final positive thing about this careers fair was on the bus back to the city, I came across someone I went to school/sixth form/worked in a co-op with, which was nice. And, in a shameless act of self-promotion, gave her my website address. So, should she have read this post this far: Hey, Hayley. Two y’s? I don’t know.
Anyway, that’s a summary of what I learned today.
Henry.
Tags: advice, Creative Writing, Lynne Bryan, MA Course, published authors, Stephen Foster, University, University of East Anglia
