A Decade of Words by Sheena Wilkinson

It’s exactly ten years since I left my day-job (school-teaching) to be a ‘fulltime’ author. For several years I had been juggling two jobs – teacher and writer (as well, of course, as all the other, unpaid jobs women do) and I thought life would be easier, if much less pecunious, with one. 

The reality, as any writer knows, is that I now have lots of jobs, all connected with writing in some way or another. None brings in enough to live on – publishing books least of all – but between the jigs and the reels it somehow works out in the end. I thought, to celebrate a decade of doing it alone, I’d have a look at some of the numbers.

If I started to add up all the other jobs – the Royal Literary Fund gigs; the school visits and residencies; the university teaching; the Arvon courses; the festival events, and all the other little gigs that present themselves, we would be here all day, so here is the last decade in terms of WRITING.  

Between 2013 and 2023 I have –

Published six novels for young people, three contemporary and three historical.

Published one historical novel for adults, Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau. 

Published a handful of short stories and personal essays.

Written 113 ABBA blog posts.

Written 33 History Girls posts.

Written two adult novels which died on submission.

Written books, stories and essays which won awards, and some which didn’t.

Written 50,000 of a memoir that’s currently resting because Making Things Up is more fun.   

Written the first draft of a sequel to Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau, which is also currently resting, waiting for its moment. (For ‘moment’, read ‘contract’.)

Written 19,073 words of a New Secret Project, for which I do have a contract, but which is too New and Secret to talk about – believe me, you will hear all about it when I’m able to share it.

 

When I look at the list, I find it easier to answer the question I sometimes ask myself – what do you do all day? This is what I’ve been doing all day for the last ten years.

Who knows what words and stories the next decade will bring?