Dear professional writers/screenwriters..........

[Pigeonmind]

Would you be so kind to tell me if you are able to comfortably support your family based on your income? I respect the talent, hard work and resilience needed to break through. I have so many people telling me that it is impossible, so it would be a lift to hear a positive story.
Thanks for your time.

I'm on my own but earn enough to support myself and two adult children who always seem to need something or other!

The average earnings for a writer is apparently £10,000 pa, though, so be warned.

I know a few and they are almost always supported by a high earning partner.

Thank you for your replies. You tend to only hear about the ‘JK Rowling’ or ‘hungry writer’ stories so was interested in the middle ground. Shamelessly snooping!

Don't forget that if you give up your job you are also giving up sickness and maternity pay as well as your pension.

Yes, I make quite a good living through writing books and for screen. I kind of fell into it. Wrote a novel for children which was picked up and happened to do quite well. I was then asked to write a novel for adults, and now it's many years later and I am somehow still here and absolutely loving my work. I really do adore it.
I am divorced with 2 DC, so no high-earning partner.

One interesting thing I have noticed is that the writers who kind of fall into it tend to do better than the people who have studied creative writing. I have spoken about this to bosses at TV companies, and they reckon that there's a certain self-consciousness that comes with having studied too much.

Good luck to you! I never count my chickens- the work could dry up for me any time- but I am so, so thankful that I get to do this.

@KissMeBunty, I did an MA in CW but found the most useful part was critiquing each other's work. The lessons themselves weren't up to much and I learned more about writing from the workshops and textbooks. It was good to mix with other writers, even if they did all want to write literary fiction but to sell millions

Can support myself fairly easily. Contribute about half of income of family of four currently. Some years have been far harsher, though.
TBH, I wouldn’t do it unless it paid a reasonable amount. Readers are ‘buying’ months/years of research on some books.

Well I'm a writer but I work for a company I write books for. Decent salary but not ground breaking. I still think I'm lucky to write for a living and have a regular salary though!

HollowTalk- I’m a SAHM with a baby with medical condition. Pension and finances keeps me awake at night.

The average earnings for a writer is apparently £10,000 pa,

Yes, and if you take out the high earners, the average falls even lower.

Most fiction writers need to supplement their incomes from other sources. Can be writing related, teaching courses on writing for example, or writing a regular column in a magazine or local paper.

But it's very much a 'how long is a piece of string' question - what genre you write, how you are published - trad or ebook, commercial publisher or self published, how much time and effort you're able and willing to commit to promotion and publicity.

That’s exactly the type of story I was looking for. Thanks so much for sharing it.

What sort of book do you want to write, OP? Do you have a plot in mind? Have you written anything or is this just a plan at the moment?

Scripts a for short film, drama feature film and TV drama series.
Have the bones of a graphic novel.
Currently working on a novel about women from a small community devastated by love. Think Ron Rash, set in present day, with no phone signal.

All very different. I have no formal training.

You don't need formal training! Most people don't have it. I wouldn't class my MA as formal training (though that's how it was sold to us.)

What concerns me if you want a career out of this and to earn some money, is that you are interested in a wide variety of things: TV drama series, novel - is that a dystopian novel? - a graphic novel... Short films are difficult to earn anything from - don't most people who direct them write their own scripts?

Though you can write scripts and novels, it's so hard to create a career for yourself doing both. If you finish the book you're working on and get it accepted, you will probably be offered a two book deal, which means your focus then has to be on novels. There are many, many more books out there than scripts, so in a way you have a much greater chance of success with a book. I know a couple of people who do both but they don't have the ties of a baby.

What concerns me if you want a career out of this and to earn some money, is that you are interested in a wide variety of things:

I agree. There's nothing wrong with experimenting when you're just starting out, to find out what you really want to write.

However, when you reach the stage of seriously looking for publication, you need to establish yourself as a writer of a particular type of book or genre, so that people come to know what to expect from you as an author, then (one hopes!) will actively seek you out when looking for that particular type of book. If you pub!ish a novel, then go off and work on a script, instead of steaming ahead with another (similar) novel, you're losing impetus and not establishing your 'brand'.

Some authors do 'genre hop', but usually only when they're very well established in their first genre, and they often use a different name.

The short film was to try and master the technical side of writing for screen and for the purpose of competitions. Film was my first love so gravitated to writing for screen. The others was to practice writing and because my head was bursting. Aim is to get novel done, polished, read and posted.
Thanks again for the insight.

Wow. This is great feedback.

I met a woman who wrote for Casualty and she started off on Doctors. She said that's where everyone starts because not a lot happens . She said you are approached to write for Casualty. You don't apply.

I also met Cath Staincliffe who writes novels but has also written for TV. She was approached there, too.

Have a look at the BBC Writing Room if you really want to get into TV work but bear in mind it's an incredibly competitive field.

I would stick to novels for now and aim to get an agent.

@KissMeBunty Do you mind me asking if you are located in London and do a lot of industry networking?

The main thing about your book (in my opinion) is knowing who it would sell to. If someone bought your book on Amazon, what else might they buy? If you don't know, then you're not clear on your genre.

I thought the reason they started on Doctors was because there were fewer storylines going on, whereas on other TV dramas there are tons.

Thanks for the info though; I know someone who'll be very interested in that shadow scheme.