Why writing doesn't have to be a lonely struggle

Tough love life? Write a nicer one. Feeling old? Write yourself young… Authors Helen Grant and Lydia Syson explain why the writer’s life need not be miserable

Lydia Syson, left, and Helen Grant: ‘There’s a rare pleasure to be had in steeping yourself in other worlds.’

Helen Grant and Lydia Syson

Tuesday 24 February 2015 The Guardian

Being an author is the most desirable job in Britain, according to a YouGov poll. Not so, responded Tim Lott. Writers are driven by demons, he wrote, the work is unimaginably hard – as complex as brain surgery, apparently – not to mention solitary, and fraught with rejection and professional envy. The meagre consolation is the “small legacy” we may leave behind us when we go. It’s a dismal prospect - enough to have us weeping over our keyboards, while taking nips from a bottle of absinthe.

A new poll reveals that 60% of Britons long to be an author. It can be a good life, for sure – but could they handle the insecurity, loneliness and paranoia?

Sorry Tim, but we have to disagree. That’s not how it is for every writer.
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