Writing - who needs it?

I haven’t been too productive on the book front since my last entry. It’s hovering at about 24,000 words, which is behind my schedule. The trouble is paid work keeps getting in the way.

That’s not to say I don’t expect to earn anything from my book. The time between my actually doing the trip and the book being available will easily be 6 or 7 months. In between the book earns me nothing at all. And that in a nutshell is the problem with books. OK, if I was Bill Bryson I’d get a whopping great advance and could concentrate on it full time, but I don’t have that luxury. Anyway I can’t grow a bushy beard or speak in a credible American accent.

If I write a feature I generally get paid immediately its published.

I suggested recently that taking a blank page and turning it into a piece of writing is great fun and immensely rewarding (although rarely in the financial sense). Turning it into something that another person enjoys reading is even more satisfying. All this is true, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Making a living from it is even harder. Or so the story goes.

But here’s a thing. The UK sells more magazines, newspapers, and periodicals, per head of population, than any other country in the world. If you want the latest news on narrow gauge railways, a better understanding of Llama breeding, or how to make scale models of tall ships out of matchsticks, you’ll find a magazine that will help you. If you’ve got a job, there will be a magazine that is the ‘voice’ of your industry. If you don’t have a job, you’ll find a magazine explaining how to get one.

Then think about the last piece of junk mail that fell on your mat. Did it have any words on it? Picked up a brochure recently? Read a website? Looked at a poster? Listened to a jingle? Watched a TV show? Nicked any training course material lately?

Now think back to the last visit you made to a bookshop? OK, 50% will be by that bloke who writes about Botswana’s No 1 Lady’s Detective Agency (he must produce a book a week), but that still leaves a lot.

And the common denominator is; someone had to write all the words.

But, and here’s the catch, writing doesn’t actually start with a blank page and a few jumbled sentences tumbling around your head. It starts with an idea. And, in the case of magazines and newspapers, it’s the idea you have to sell to an editor to get a commission. That’s assuming he’s prepared to read your proposal, hasn’t printed something similar recently, or doesn’t steal your idea and write it in house.

And just recently my ideas have been hitting the mark and I’m getting more commissions.

So you see, writing is getting in the way of my writing.

Also I’ve run into another problem. My 24,000 words have only got me as far as leaving Moscow. At this rate my book will be 150,000 words long. Most travel books are between 75,000 and 100,000.

Never mind. I’ve employed the services of a drunken editor (see previous Blog) who goes by the name of “slasher.” I’m confident he will knock my family of words into shape.

But at what cost?

I mean, I’ve written over 3000 words on the bathroom facilities available to me on the train to Moscow. I think people need to be made aware of the dangers of having a dump into a toilet that delivers a 100mph updraft. He may suggest I concentrate on the view from the window.

And soon I will be describing the antics of a freelance toilet attendant in China. And then there’s the gobbing restaurant. He might suggest my planned 200 words on the Great Wall might need expanding at their expense.

I can see some flashpoints, especially as he thinks diplomacy is the method by which you obtain a diploma, and tact something you hammer into wood. But nothing will happen until I finish writing the damned thing, and I’ve already wasted 700 words on this.

Told you writing has a habit of getting in the way of writing didn’t I?