Creative writers tend to fall into one of two camps – those who see their writing as an art form and those who consider it their business.
Often, the thing that tips the balance is money. While the idea of the starving artist is a well-worn trope, research by organisations including the Society of Authors and ALCS gives it some credence.
A 2022 report by the ALCS and the UK Copyright and Creative Economy Research Centre (CREATe) found that the median income for professional authors was £7000. And remember, that takes into account all those celebrity authors and literary phenomenons, the ones who offer hope or despair to the rest of the writing community.
As a working novelist I see artistic merit in the creative process of writing fiction. However, I’ve come to realise that everything after that benefits from a steely, business-orientated eye.
Unpublished writers (whether that’s by choice or circumstance) might argue that a business mindset has no place in creative writing, since there is no financial reward involved. But I’d argue that they’re wrong.
Leaving aside the money, there are other resources to consider:
- Time
- Ideas
- Attention
1. As a business, time management means not only using time effectively but also recognising where it is wasted. As writers we need to carve out time to write, research, edit and proofread. Pre and post publication there will also be promotional activity.
2. Ideas need to be documented, prioritised and – to some extent – subjected to quality control. Call them intellectual property if it helps. The flow of ideas may not be finite, depending upon your relationship with your muses, but it’s unrealistic to expect to develop every idea that comes your way.
3. Attention is applied to the time we have available in order to maximise our efforts and keep us on track. That, of course, assumes we some sort of plan in the first place. In practice, that can be measuring and monitoring. For example: word count, chapters, scenes covered, and time spent writing.
Adopting and developing a business mindset for your writing has personal benefits too. Three come to mind. You are more likely to take your writing and yourself seriously. You become more adept at spotting the people and situations that encroach on your writing time. You treat your ideas with respect, which will inevitably extend to your writing.
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