Work of Fiction
Description
Work of Fiction: Making a Living from Writing in the UK explores the lived experiences of fiction writers in the UK and how they make a living. Based on a substantial body of interviews with a range of fiction writers, it considers the ways that writers think about and talk about writing as work and how 'discourses of writing' operate to support or undermine them as cultural workers. It argues that discourses of love, luck, magic, and 'being a writer' function in complex ways to position writers in enchanted and elevated spaces which both nurture their practice and undermine their status as remunerated workers in the creative sector.
The book shows how the positives and negatives of often precarious cultural work are played out for fiction writers. It has implications for writers in the ways that they think about and talk about themselves as workers, and how the publishing industry values their contributions.
Reviews / Votes
"What does it mean to 'make a living' as a writer? And what are the material conditions - and affective relations - of making such a living? In this fascinating book, Christina Williams tells the story of how writers write; which is not just a question of having access to inspiration and scarce resources, but one of luck, love, and magic played out in the discursive terrain of the writerly career. At a time when precarity and penury are the norm for the cultural professional, Williams explores how far hopes, dreams and a sense of 'maybeness' can sustain and protect writers from the deeper iniquities of the writerly life." (Mark Banks, Centre for Cultural Policy Research, University of Glasgow)
"This is a terrific and highly original work that investigates the working lives of writers, a key sector of the creative industries but one that so far has not had the attention it deserves. Comprising in-depth interviews Williams tracks these composite career pathways demystifying the elevated image that still lingers and showing instead a field of low incomes and 'frugal living'." (Angela McRobbie, Goldsmiths University of London)
"The Cultural Work of Fiction Writers is an original and insightful deep-dive into the often harsh realities of working as a fiction writer in the UK. This is one of the first studies of its kind that focuses, through in-depth interviews and other empirical data, on how fiction writers experience and understand their own work. With so much contemporary public discourse focusing on the vagaries of the publishing industry, its top-down consolidation and the effects of all this on what is published and for whom, it is so refreshing to read a rigorous study that puts authors and their voices at its centre. This book celebrates the very real pleasures fiction writing brings to those who do it, but does not shy away from the huge difficulties they face in making the most basic of living(s)." (Bridget Conor, The University of Auckland)
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Person
Christina Williams is Associate Lecturer in Media Communications at Bath Spa University, UK.
Content
1: Introduction: the precarious work of diction writing.- 2: Theorizing the Writer as Cultural Worker.-3: Making a Living From Writing Fiction.- 4: Writing as Work and Not-Work.- 5: The Future-Orientation of Writers: hope and maybeness.- 6: Discourses of Writing.- 7: Conclusions.