The View From London
- by Emma Woolf
Loneliness, procrastination, elusive success—the literary life isn't a cakewalk, says Emma Woolf. But holding that first book with your name on it is pure magic.
What’s your book about? You know, that book that you’re going to sit down and write one day, perhaps on that Greek Island that you’re going to escape to ...
In surveys, more than 80 percent of people say they want to write a novel (although less than
1 percent actually do). I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve met—from cab drivers to hairdresser to CEOs—who say they dream of giving up the day job and setting pen to paper. Despite being lonely, difficult, and financially unrewarding, writing a book remains one of those Big Life Goals.
This might explain why, on a sweltering evening in Shoreditch last week, The Book Club was packed with aspiring young writers.
I live in Shoreditch’s Old Street, also known as Silicon Roundabout, home of Google’s Tech City. When I bought my flat here five years ago, it seemed daring: the area was run-down and my ‘local’ was a scruffy old men’s boozer. Now I can get fantastic coffee (or an espresso martini when I’ve got writer’s block) from local cafés, homemade lemon drizzle cake from the deli, fresh smoothies in my neighborhood bike shop, and mouth-watering Indian cuisine in Brick Lane, to say nothing of the flower market in Columbia Road and the art galleries of Hoxton Square.
We’re gathered at the Book Club for the 4th Estate Literary Salon to hear the authors David Baddiel, Tash Aw, and Nathan Filer discussing that elusive first novel—how to stay motivated while writing, how to cope with endless rejection letters, whether creative writing courses are worth it, how to handle your agent, and of course, how to get published.
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In surveys, more than 80 percent of people say they want to write a novel (although less than
1 percent actually do). I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve met—from cab drivers to hairdresser to CEOs—who say they dream of giving up the day job and setting pen to paper. Despite being lonely, difficult, and financially unrewarding, writing a book remains one of those Big Life Goals.
This might explain why, on a sweltering evening in Shoreditch last week, The Book Club was packed with aspiring young writers.
I live in Shoreditch’s Old Street, also known as Silicon Roundabout, home of Google’s Tech City. When I bought my flat here five years ago, it seemed daring: the area was run-down and my ‘local’ was a scruffy old men’s boozer. Now I can get fantastic coffee (or an espresso martini when I’ve got writer’s block) from local cafés, homemade lemon drizzle cake from the deli, fresh smoothies in my neighborhood bike shop, and mouth-watering Indian cuisine in Brick Lane, to say nothing of the flower market in Columbia Road and the art galleries of Hoxton Square.
We’re gathered at the Book Club for the 4th Estate Literary Salon to hear the authors David Baddiel, Tash Aw, and Nathan Filer discussing that elusive first novel—how to stay motivated while writing, how to cope with endless rejection letters, whether creative writing courses are worth it, how to handle your agent, and of course, how to get published.
More
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