{"id":3019,"date":"2020-12-15T10:47:44","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T10:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/?p=3019"},"modified":"2023-03-14T16:34:19","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T16:34:19","slug":"becoming-an-author-by-lucy-ayrton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/becoming-an-author-by-lucy-ayrton\/","title":{"rendered":"Becoming An Author"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Blogger and newly-published author Lucy Ayrton shares with Jericho Writers the experience of the early stages of her career and her tips on how to become a writer, but also reflects on what it really means to write and if there is a difference between writers<\/em> and authors<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time I ever seriously called myself a writer was on my wedding day. They ask you what your job is, to put on the wedding form. I dutifully wrote \u201cCommunications Manager\u201d down and my soon-to-be husband nudged me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not all, though. What about your writing day?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I rolled my eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t need to have that on the form.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He shrugged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s your job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I wrote it down for the first time. \u201cCommunications Manager and Writer.\u201d I am a writer<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

It takes a while to claim, as an identity. The line between \u201cwriter\u201d and \u201cnot-writer\u201d is not clear cut. I mean, I\u2019ve been able<\/em> to write since I was about five. Maybe I wrote my first story when I was seven or eight. My first poem about the same time. But I wasn\u2019t a writer. What about when I started scribbling in my spare time as a teenager? Or when I came second in the country poetry competition when I was seventeen? Was it when I got onto my creative writing MA? Or was it only once I\u2019d finished a body of work? People love to say that \u201cwriters write\u201d \u2013 but that\u2019s ridiculous, surely. Write what? How much? How well? It\u2019s meaningless. Writer<\/a> is a title that you have to bestow on yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By contrast, the line between \u201cwriter\u201d and \u201cauthor\u201d is very straightforward. When you\u2019re published, you\u2019re an author, and that\u2019s that. And this is my publication week, so I\u2019m about to become an author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have been looking forward to this for a very long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s emotionally very difficult <\/a>being a writer. You\u2019ve got a day job, probably, and friends and family and other commitments and a life. It\u2019s a big ask to carve out time to lock yourself away in a room and hang around with people you\u2019ve made up in your head. You have to do a fair amount of not-going-to-the-pub, and going-to-bed-early-I\u2019m-writing-tomorrow-morning, and basically being less fun than you could be. It is a choice you have made, between writing and watching Jurassic Park<\/em> and drinking wine with your girlfriend, and you know it. When there\u2019s just you and the book, making these choices can make you feel a little bit\u2026 stupid. You\u2019re painfully aware there\u2019s no guarantee that anyone\u2019s ever actually going to read your work. It\u2019s easy to wonder what it\u2019s for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I would always say that it ultimately doesn\u2019t matter. The process of writing<\/a> is valuable in and of itself, and the work produced has value too. I\u2019d be miserable if I couldn\u2019t write, and whether my work gets sold in bookshops or emailed to close friends doesn\u2019t change that \u2013 if I didn\u2019t write and share stories then I wouldn\u2019t be me, and that\u2019s why I do it. Art that isn\u2019t sold is still art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"letterbox-lib-becoming-an-author.jpg\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But I\u2019ll be honest, when I first got my book deal, the idea that my work was going to be a \u201creal book\u201d was a massive lift. I felt vindicated \u2013 all those times I\u2019d felt a bit silly for the compromises and sacrifices I\u2019d made, I\u2019d proved it was worth it. I wasn\u2019t missing out on other experiences to do a kind of grown-up version of playing with my dolls \u2013 this was a serious business. This wasn\u2019t just some scribblings sitting on my hard drive anymore. I had undeniably made something, and now people were going to read it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I felt like \u201cbeing an author\u201d was going to change everything again. This time it would be even better, and  surely I would never have to doubt myself or feel stupid ever again \u2013 because I was an Author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I kept waiting to feel it \u2013 the rush of \u201cbeing an author\u201d. I thought it would happen when I first held the hard copy of my book. Like having a baby, I vaguely thought. I\u2019ll hold it and suddenly feel it \u2013 suddenly understand. My author-ness will descend on me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it really was brilliant holding my baby book for the first time. I flipped through it and cried and took photos of it with a glass of champagne. It was such a lovely evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing is though \u2013 nothing changed. I still had to sit on my bum the next day and write the first draft of the next book when I could have been re-watching Game of Thrones<\/em>. It\u2019s not like I really needed the permission. My process hadn\u2019t changed and neither had I. The little bit of swagger was lovely to have \u2013 a bit of spring in my step, a bit of a smirk when I opened my laptop  \u2013 but essentially I am still the same woman tapping away at her laptop wearing PJs while everyone else is at the pub watching football. Writing life is exactly the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, I don\u2019t feel different. I\u2019d assumed that it would either help, or paralyse me \u2013 the idea of a faceless audience, a crowd of people I\u2019ve never met reading my precious words. I\u2019d assumed that it would change things. But when I come to actually write, it\u2019s still the way it\u2019s always been \u2013 just me and the page and maybe an idea of just one person, who I\u2019m telling a story to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then, publication is still 3 days away. I\u2019ll let you know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How To Become An Author: Tips For Your Writing Career<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So here is some useful advice I\u2019ve had on being a \u201cbaby-author\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n