One of the things I
did in May, which I spectacularly failed to recount, was to go to a talk by Fay
Weldon at Malfest (the Malpas Literary Festival).
I’ve never been to
this before but decided to take advantage of a literary icon speaking more or
less on my doorstep.
Fay was a good speaker, she had a dry
sense of humour and was very humble despite her success.
It was bit weird walking into the talk though,
because the speech followed a lunch, so all the attendees were sitting around
round tables. Fortunately I managed to find a spare chair which meant that I
didn't have to join a crowd I didn't know especially as they all seemed so
dreadfully, dreadfully - ladies wot
lunch, if you know what I mean.
I digress. I'd forgotten how much of Fay Weldon’s work
I knew, even though I've never read anything of hers. Remeber The Lives and Loves of a She Devil and The Cloning of Joanna May?
She originally worked in
advertising - said she got into it because she had a boyfriend who worked in
advertising and that was all the qualification you needed in the 60's.
On her first day she was told to sit
down and write copy and eventually she became good at it (her words not mine).
She was part of a team who coined the slogan "go to work on an egg".
From there she drifted into writing
scripts, and from there books. It made me wish I’d been born in a different era
when publishing seemed so much easier – or perhaps nostalgia makes it seem much
easier.
She wrote the first scripts for the
original Upstairs Downstairs but was “sacked” because Mrs Bridges wanted to be
portrayed as a nice person, and Fay didn't think it would be true to type.
She has written a trilogy set at the
turn of the 19th Century - based on an upstairs downstairs theme. Two have been
published and the third just completed. I've read the sample chapters of the
first two and think they are something I would enjoy, so yet more books to put
on my To Be Read list.
The image that most stuck in my mind from her talk though, was when she had young children, she said she used to sit on the stairs with notebook in hand, so that the children could still see her and be comforted by her presence but couldn’t get at her. Just goes to show “not having time” is definitely not an excuse!
She was very humble about her success
and said the only way to ever get published was keep writing and
sending your stuff out.
Wise woman.
I absolutely agree with Fay's advice... it's the only way!
ReplyDeleteFay Weldon is one of my favourite writers, I get the impression from her books that she's very down to earth. Yes, writing is a job and you just have to keep working at it!
ReplyDelete