I was with my friend (the one I'm living temporarily with) having coffee today. We're both looking for jobs at the moment, and she showed me a flyer for an acting/extras/modelling agency. I was interested for about two seconds but then she told me that after the interview, you don't get payed until you get a job.
"No, I need something that gives reliable money. I'm already doing something that needs hard work way before you get payed for it. I'm not going to have two jobs like that."
From here, this came up:
"How long does it take to finish a book?" she asked, being a person who rarely reads book-length prose.
"What do you mean by book?" She was confused, "first draft, ready for an agent, or just before it's published?"
"Well, before you send it off."
"Well, before I send it to an agent, I have to finish the draft, leave it a few months, edit it. Then when I think it's okay, I send it to some other writing friends who tell me what needs changing."
"That's before it's even sent off," she said, her mouth and eyes three round O's already.
"Yep, then I send it to a few agents, hopefully one of them takes me. Then they tell me what to edit, I edit again. Then they send it to a few publishers, and hopefully one of them takes the book. Then they tell me what to edit, and I edit it again."
"Woah, writing a book is really hard work."
"Yeah, at the earliest, my first book will be out when I'm 25. And that's if I'm really, really lucky."
"And then you have to worry about, will it sell?"
I nodded, "and if it doesn't sell well, the publisher might not want my next book."
So why am I doing this again?
Oh yeah, because I can't imagine doing anything else.
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