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I didn’t plan to have a diversecareer. I just wanted to write – and be a writer with enough cash to gotravelling when I wanted and to have the freedom to write anywhere in theworld.
The turning point was probably whenI was teaching children with special needs in Singapore and sold my house backin England – for the first time in my life I had enough money to be able tosurvive for a year or two without working. So I had that talk with myself aboutwhat would you do if you only had a year left to live – what would you feel sadabout never having done if you never did it – and what I wanted to do waswrite.
More than 10 years later and 18children’s books published – and countless more unpublished ones written, thelatest, out last month is called ‘Witchling’ and it’s the third in a seriesabout a girl called Bella Donna.
One adult memoir written under thepseudonym of Megan Rix – I thought I’d keep a secret but was so happy with itonce it was written I must have told just about everyone about it – there’s asecond in the pipeline...
... a children’s play professionally performed, radioscripts, pre-school TV writing for channel 4’s The Hoobs, being on TV as thechildren’s book writing coach on Richard and Judy, feature film scriptcommissioned, two short films made and it’d still be what I wanted to do if Ionly had a year left. Oh and I did spend quite a lot of that time travellingthe world as well – for a few years I had two summers - one in England and onein New Zealand. And house-sitting in LA and San Francisco turned out to be aperfect way to save money and get a book finished whilst on the way to becominga RFA (Rich Famous Author).
Ok – so why’s do I truly think it’sa good idea to have a diverse career – well there’s a few reasons – not in anyparticular order of importance. First, cold hard cash, for me I wanted tosupport myself as a full time professional writer. Now maybe, you’ll get luckyand write one b
5 Comments on Having A Diverse Career - Ruth Symes / Megan Rix, last added: 11/8/2011
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By: Candy Gourlay,
on 6/12/2011
Blog: Notes from the Slushpile (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: east enders, writing for tv, carey andrews, Add a tag
by Teri TerryCarey Andrews has written over eighty episodes of East Enders over the last eleven years. A local freelance writer, she is one of about a dozen core writers for the show.Carey spoke about Writing for TV at the Chiltern Writers last week. And her enthusiasm and energy were contagious.How did she get there?Carey wanted to act, but after drama school, dodgy agents and a growing hatred
5 Comments on EastEnders scripwriter Carey Andrews gives us the lowdown on writing for TV, last added: 6/13/2011
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I'm with you on this, Ruth - lots of different types of writing to keep the wolf from the door, but it's more fun than doing anything else. Still, diversifying into acting is inspired! I'll look out for you in the few films I ever get to see - well done!
Couldn't agree more about the divers career thing.
It wasn't so easy when I was widowed with daughters to bring up and get through uni - I needed a reliable income then. Child Protection not the easiest way to earn a living, but we made it through. (Though I did write - mostly professional articles - through all that.)
Girls gone - I gave it up to go travelling, and to write. It was time for the old dreams to come out of hibernation. Life is like playing now - I'm doing exactly what I want!
Absolutely. There's also an eggs-in-one-basket thing - and if one aspect of the career is going a bit stodgy, there's always another one.
Really interesting to hear about all the different things you do, and nice to have such a cheery post!
Inspiring piece, Ruth. I'm dipping my toe - hopefully a whole foot soon! - into children's TV scriptwriting, and I'm already finding that it is changing the way I think about my other writing, and giving me a new perspective.