Making a Living as a Writer

Well we missed this talk last night at the Professional Series but luckily Caroline Hooton blogged comprehensively about it!

The talk featuring multi-published Jane Clarke and Lorna Fergusson of the FictionFire site answered questions like:

Where do you find writing work and how do you fit in writing with your other work?

How long did it take you to start making enough money to support yourself?

Do you need the support of a partner to write?

Do you have to have an agent?

How do you deal with school events?

Now go read the answers over at Caroline Hooton's blog.

Don't blog, do blog ... let's call the whole thing off!

Cartoon: Johnny Ancich

By Candy Gourlay

Over at Jane Friedman's guest blogger L.L. Barkat has called on experienced writers to stop blogging.

Does this mean I would recommend that everyone stop blogging? No. I encourage new bloggers, just the way I always have. It’s an excellent way to find expression, discipline, and experience. But if writers already have experience, and they are authors trying to promote themselves and their work, I tell them to steer clear. If they’ve already found themselves sucked into the blogging vortex, I suggest they might want to give it up and begin writing for larger platforms that don’t require reciprocity (an exhausting aspect to blogging and a big drain on the writer’s energy and time). Read the whole thing

The End is the Whole Book

I have to exercise now to keep alive and when I'm gasping away in the privacy of my office, I like to listen to Director's Commentaries of my favourite movies.

Today's director's commentary has got to be the best - Finding Nemo not only features the voices of director Andrew Stanton, co-director Lee Unkrich and co-writer Bob Peterson, but cuts away to details and mini documentaries about the film.