Bloomsbury author Rupert Kingfisher explains how to avoid the nebulous dangers that could befall you as a writer...
I‘m a writer and I have a son who’s 11 months old, so inevitably the question arose whether he might follow in my footsteps. This was after we found him one day, very skilfully dismantling a radiator tap, leading to speculation that he might become a plumber.
However, it may well turn out that my son has ink in his veins, since writing does seem to run in the family. My mother is the novelist Salley Vickers, and her grandmother, before her, was a successful playwright. Since my mother was so well established before I got published, people often assume that some kind of nepotism was involved. In fact, this is not the case, and nor would I have wanted her help.
But now it’s great to have a colleague who’s also part of the family and together we try to give each other collegiate support. By that I don’t mean that we read each other’s manuscripts, although we certainly do discuss ideas relating to things that we’re writing. I mean that during difficult times we try to boost each other’s morale. Writing isn’t the kind of thing you do in an office. That’s all part of its appeal but you can sometimes feel the dearth of a few colleagues. It can also be very hard work, however rewarding, and everyone has those moments (especially during a novel) when they feel like giving up and throwing their computer out the window. At times like these, we need fellow writers to help keep us going and generally to steer us away from the Vortex.
The Vortex is the name I give to a set of nebulous dangers that can befall anyone as a writer. Its true purpose is to stop us writing but it can take the form of doubt, fear, envy, pride, and also those pointless activities such as schmoozing at parties, which we do in the belief that they’ll somehow further our career. But a sympathetic colleague can help us to avoid these pitfalls, by reminding us what’s really important, which is simply to write the next thousand words. Best wishes,
Have you got a writing support system? Tell us about it in the comments below...
About Rupert Kingfisher: Rupert studied Philosophy at Bristol University and Playwriting at the Central School of Speech and Drama. His plays have been performed across the UK and on BBC Radio 4. Rupert grew up in Oxfordshire and now lives in Brentford, Middlesex with his partner and their son.
It is truly wonderful to have another member of your family who works in the same profession. Apart from the moral support you can give to each other its great to have at least one member of your family understand the daily issues you go through in your career.
I have a career in Information Technology but have always been interested in writing. Unfortunately writers are very rare where I come from. Of course we do have the journalists in the newspaper businesses, but because of the low salaries, they rarely attract really talented employees.
So finding another writer to share my passion with, or to use as a role model is almost impossible. Thanks to the internet, I am able to share my passion with and learn from the millions of writer around the world
I'm incredibly lucky that I have a wonderful support system in the form of my husband. It helps that (a) he's a writer too, and (b) we write together.
He not only understands my creative process and supports me but also gives me the occasional kick up the behind that I need when 'the vortex' beckons.
I have always been supported in my writing, by both my mother and grandmother as well as a select number of friends and at least one teacher in high school. I was sure at aged 8 that all I wanted to be was a writer, I loved every aspect of the writing process and I was quite serious about it even at that age. However, in my late teens a series of traumas caused my muse to close his/her blinds and I was left in a creative void for nearly 10 years. In the last 2 years, I have started to slowly, steadily..build up both my confidence and my previous skill. One of the biggest reasons I am able to say that I am twice the writer I was before and that this time ..I'm going to make it.. is that I have an incredibly loyal and honest friend who reads all my chapters as I write them. When I say read..I lie. She hoovers them up, voraciously. And when I fall into my old habits, she is there to shake me up and beg new chapters off of me. Nowadays, as my 1st would be novel reaches a healthy 48k word count, it is she who has trouble keeping up with my own appetite for writing. Despite all my potential, I wouldn't be where I am without her.