Saturday 27 May 2023

On Maintaining a Portfolio Career by Claire Fayers

 Hi all, I'm just over a nasty bout of flu and I haven't had the energy to write lately, so this will be a short post.

In his book, Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer, Michael J Straczynski, says that at any time, you should have at least three different income streams. That way, if one of the income streams folds you have the other two to fall back on whilst developing another one.

It's good advice, and I think it's good creatively too. For the past ten years I've been solely focussed on middle grade fiction. I love writing for that age group, but I'm thinking of branching out into something different. 

Maybe I can follow Tracy Darnton into the world of picture books. Another author friend of mine is starting to write screenplays, but I'm not sure I've got the right sort of mind for that. Maybe I'll completely go over to the dark side and write something for adults. Whatever happens, I can't imagine giving up writing for children. There are still so many more stories for that age group that I want to explore.

Those of you who juggle multiple projects for different audiences, how do you do it? Any tips?

To end with a hurrah: proof copies of my latest book are out in the world. I blogged about the process of writing this book last year  and it's so good to see the (almost) finished copies.


Claire Fayers

www.clairefayers.com

Tapper Watson and the Quest for the Nemo Machine coming September


2 comments:

Sheena Wilkinson said...

Hope you are feeling better, Claire. A portfolio career is such a good description of what so many of us do! I've recently made the jump to adult fiction, but that certainly doesn't mean I'd be leaving books for children behind. It's quite exciting to have an open mind about future projects, and I agree with you that it's very good to try new things creatively. In the last year or so I have been flirting with memoir -- very scary for someone used to just making things up, but I have had some modest competition success and it's challenged me as a writer. Good luck with your own new endeavours, whatever they turn out to be.

Penny Dolan said...

Thanks for the post, Claire, and the wise reminder to keep several interests going.

I've found that learning how a new form or genre 'works' can sharpen my thinking about current projects too.