Not Just A Wordsmith

Myths abound that writers hide away from the world in their garrets or sheds like caterpillars woven into a cocoon, carefully nurturing the creative spirit with quill pen and bottle of ink until the masterpiece is completed and ready to be shown to the world. They emerge, less like a butterfly and possibly more like a mole with ink splodges, staring wide eyed at the light and scurrying away again as soon as possible to create another worthy tome.

But in this modern world, even if a writer would like to be quite such a hermit there are all sorts of reasons why this is not possible or not advisable, if they want to stay in print. In addition to a ‘way with words’ a writer is expected to have all manner of other skills.

We live in a world of celebrity. No longer do authors write a book and hand it over to the publisher - job done. They are expected to spend time travelling, smiling and speaking to strangers to promote their latest book when very often what they would rather be doing is sitting at home writing the next one, which hopefully the publisher is waiting for. The public love a celebrity so the author is expected to visit festivals, schools or village halls to speak about their work and their lives; to be entertaining and charming and to pretend that it is the very first time they have heard the question ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’

We live in the world of technology where the quill pen and ink bottle have been replaced by an often less reliable computer. It might lose an entire day’s work in a moment and will frequently interrupt the flow of writing with a ping! which heralds the arrival of yet another email. It may or may not be urgent, but can you ignore it? Curiosity is a boon to a writer but it can be a curse.

An author is expected to take time away from writing the next book to keep up their website, Facebook page or write a blog. All this social networking is now part of the job, and as a writer they should be able to dash off any of these small writing jobs in moments. But the reality is that because this is a place where what they write becomes public it is a showcase of their work as a writer.

So writers must become more than just wordsmiths, they must learn to be skilled public speakers, promoters and teachers, and the technophobes must learn how to survive in this strange new world, even if they hanker for that dark, quiet garret complete with an elegant quill pen and a messy bottle of ink.