Issue 44 / May 2012
The Writer's Life Made Easier
Find a patron. Exploit a private income. Rent a garret (but don't pay the rent). Go to Paris, live in obscurity, wait for acclaim - probably posthumous, but you're an artist so you don't care. Graft as a journalist and hone a novelistic style. Teach literature in a Liberal Arts College and write in the Long Vacation. Try for tenure as Professor of Creative Writing.
Here are seven models of the writing life, each model defining a different era. At various stages in the history of literature these were accepted options for earning a secondary income. Only temporarily, of course, until sales pick up and you need never get dressed again. There are exceptions, writers who took the road less-travelled, but in our era joining a Creative Writing faculty has been the most accessible template for attempting a writer's life.
Until now.
In the beginning, when classes were first offered at University, Creative Writing lecturers were published writers. This was one way (but not an infallible one) of ensuring that a teacher of this fledgling subject knew what he or she was talking about. These days a Creative Writing department will advertise for skilled bureaucrats, income generators, modular course designers, engaged committee members and competent information technicians. Who also happen to be active writers. These extra demands can overload a writing life.
Fortunately, a new model is beginning to emerge. It takes the best aspects of the University experience, but liberates them from the deadweight of an unwieldy institution. The Faber Academy, as one example, brings together like-minded people on short courses to learn from publishing writers. The Guardian Masterclass series does the same over a weekend. There are also a growing number of editorial and mentoring consultancies providing bespoke critical feedback.
This development is useful for aspiring writers, who now have a wider choice about how and where to improve their craft. It also benefits writers looking for flexible employment. Commitments can be paced to suit teachers and learners alike, free of the academic year's railroad momentum towards assessment and awards. More significantly, smaller organizations involve less administration: writers can spend more time looking at writing. 
The National Academy of Writing is part of this ongoing exploration into how writers can best communicate their practical knowledge. The Academy doesn't offer a degree. It aims to be more single-minded than that, and has designed an advanced 8-month course to bring completed novels closer to publication.
Among other innovations, the Academy has rediscovered the original meaning of the word 'Masterclass', as used in elite music schools. The NAW Masterclass system of public close reading, along with 1-to-1 mentoring and workshops, means that the NAW writer-patrons can concentrate on what they do best - using their experience and skills to analyse words on the page. Everyone benefits.
The Academy was founded by writers, and recognizes that writing courses need to be sympathetic to the writing lives of everyone involved. This year's Academy is looking forward to visits from Iain Banks, Minette Walters and Kapka Kassabova, among others, because there is still a place in the ecology of writing for writers to come together and learn. That place may no longer be the University.
Richard Beard is Director of The National Academy of Writing
Thursday, 24 March, 2011
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