Collected: Is Writing A Real Job?
Penny Hancock explores people's perceptions of the writing life, Donny O'Rourke celebrates Glasgow's tenements, and three writers discuss writing challenges they've overcome
“Is this how people view what I’ve done for the last ten years? That publishing a novel is the result of casually tapping at a keyboard between wild swimming, making bread, and having time on your hands to idle, dream, and ‘do a bit of writing’?”
In Is Writing a Real Job, RLF Fellow, Penny Hancock, considers the blood, sweat and tears of writing that no one sees.
The full essay is HERE.
Tenementality
“Neighbourhoods need neighbours. For Glaswegians, almost aggressively friendly by habit and repute, indeed vocation, this really was a Gospel truth. The Debretts-like rigidity of the etiquette regulating the cleaning of stairs, use and upkeep of outside lavatories passed into legend.”
RLF Fellow, Donny O’Rourke, walks us through Glasgow’s distinctive housing history.
Read the full essay HERE.
Writing Technique
Episode: 457 (Duration 23 mins)
In this month’s podcast, RLF Fellows Adriana Hunter, Simon Robson, and Anna Wilson explore technical challenges they have overcome in their work, such as learning to hear distinct voices in translation, the liberating power of repetition, and dealing with writer's block.
“I always think of translation as being a perfect balance between science and art — it requires all the precision of a science to remain faithful to the letter of the source text, but all the creativity of an art to remain faithful to its spirit.” Adriana Hunter
It generally seems that what ever I do is dismissed in these terms - a wave or the hand to 'a nice hobby', 'a bit of voluntary' and so on and so forth. This article captures these attitudes very well.
Wave OF the hand!!!