Lessons On How To Live By The Pen

Saul Bellow in 1944 after the reception to The Dangling Man

Is writing rather like prostitution, the more clients the better and you cant afford to be too particular who they are? Is it possible to live by writing alone? With the enormous expansion of the print media and the need for script writers for the visual media, is it possible to make it on ones own? Above all, how do you get published in the first place? Barry Turner provides some guidelines to writers and newcomers who want to make the best commercial use of their writing skills in The Writers Companion: The Essential Guide to Being Published (Macmillan, Special Indian price, 8) which supplements The Writers Handbook, the introductory guide to all writers in the making.

 

The Companion offers practical advice in book publishing, freelance journalism, film and radio drama, theatre and poetry. It offers financial and legal advice: how to read the small print of contracts that set out royalty terms and other rights and territorial arrangements for distribution, to reading copyright law and avoiding libel. Over 20 chapters, Turner describes the key problems of getting published and how to beat them. Details on how to find a literary agent, methods of indexing and further readings follow. Although most of the case studies relate to the British print and visual media, they apply to us too, with slight modifications, because the basic problems are much the same everywhere.

But first, freelancers should realise that it is impossible to get going unless you are on good terms professionally with a number of people who actually commission the kind of writing you wish to do. This is normally achieved by working full-time in a media organisation. A few years with a book publisher or newspaper is an absolute necessity: how else would a freelancer know what is really required in terms of language, style and content? You can see the consequences of attempting freelancing without a clue as to what is really required in the case of former bureaucrats-turned-columnists the writing is poor, analysis commonplace and the results far too negative.

Freelancers have to realise, too, that commissioning editors do not want to take chances with the unknown. What if the article is a tissue of lies? It takes an outsider to realise the disconcerting truth all freelance work is sold in a buyers market and no concessions are made to inexperience. Of course one or two established writers have begun by taking a chance in one or two features that have got noticed, leading on to a regular column. And every editor's survival depends on cultivating a group of steady contributors.

But if this is the downside, there is much more demand today for freelance writers than ever before because there are more papers with more pages and there are far fewer obstacles to getting into print because of the new print technology. The imperative is to fill pages.

Besides, the advent of television has introduced a whole new ball game.

There is not much call for news journalists today. Much of what passes for hard copy is adapted from CNN and BBC. As a consequence of television and radio taking over as the main providers of news, the space between advertisements is occupied predominantly by features and columns.

Publishers prefer feature writers and columnists to work out of home they dont have to be provided office space and or with overhead expenses like local transport, PF contributions and so on. Hence, if you look around, there is a distinct increase in the number of freelance writers.

Some may be bound to particular newspapers by monthly cheques but most freelancers have spread their talents across publications because they know the terror or insecurity and the compensating pleasure of managing their own lives.

Much of what Turner says applies to our condition too there is a need for feature writers and analysts (as distinct from hard news journalists) and the opportunities are there, if you go about it the right way. But what Turner does not highlight (at least not sufficiently for our needs) is the need to write in simple language that would be understood by ten-year-olds. In India, where standards of language have deteriorated enormously, and not just in English alone, simplicity of language even at the cost of oversimplification of the subject matter, is an essential prerequisite. Turner has provided separate chapters on learning how to write, the art of the bestseller, books for children and so on, but these have to be supplemented by a very wide range of reading. Second, writers who have to earn a living through writing have to adapt themselves to different forms of writing: as freelance writers or re-write men for book publishers, ghost writers for the big and famous, script writers for film, radio, television... The freelance writer must have a finger in as many pies as possible, within the constraints of time and space.

And this brings us to the main question: how best can a writer make money freelancing? The Writers Companion provides some of the answers but the basic input on the quality of good writing, which matters in the final analysis, must come from the writer. As Malcolm Bradbury who runs writing courses (apart from being a distinguished professor of English) puts it: ... the essential qualities needed by the writer are independent of anything that can be taught. There has to be a passionate way of pursuing a life, and it must be driven by profound commitment... writing in the end is a form of exploration and discovery, there must be an instinct to discover and explore the world and human nature... The question is: If imagination cannot be taught, can the craft of writing? Maybe.

The Companion offers guidelines on how best a writer could use his skills to make writing a viable commercial proposition

When standards of language have fallen, as in India,

simplicity in writing even at the cost of over-simplification becomes imperative