Really good Huffington Post piece by Sara Sheridan (tho', sorry, my subject line misquotes it - it's the average national wage. Still very salutory...

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/sara-sheridan/writers-earnings-cultural-myth_b_3136859.html
Edited by EmmaD at 18:07:00 on 05 June 2014

Oh well I have something to aim for then!!! MC

it just shows that, realistically, you can't make a living from writing alone. Which, I suppose is why writers have to teach/lecture as well, if they can, or have a completely different job that they need to hold down while still trying to fit in their writing time.

It's amazing how many people dream of being a writer, though - as though it's some blessed state where you sail through life on a blithe cloud of imagination and deep fulfilment.  Which, as we know, couldn't be further from the truth.

Still, I always imagined that when I was a writer I would spend my time going on lovely Autumn walks, thinking about my work and then going home to write it down. Which is pretty much what I do (in Autumn, anyway!). But I didn't know about the self-doubt, the confidence dips, the sheer graft involved in keeping going through the first draft, then sitting down to face the second, etc etc.
But, as you said recently, Emma - it's your job. And you just get up each day and keep doing it, regardless of how it's going. Just as you would with any other job.