Report - Fiction author
Introduction
I am one of the millions of people that love to read. I often dream of what it takes to be able to create these wonderful stories. As I move closer to adulthood, and give more serious thought to my future career, I'm more drawn to the idea of being a fiction author. This report explores the skills and qualities that are needed to be a successful fiction author. It also outlines the deliberate acts that I will take to help me achieve my dream.
Job description
Being a fiction author is not easy. It takes a lot of time and effort to turn a profit. To be a Fiction writer, you need to like writing. You need to constantly be looking for creative ideas for stories. You need to have developed research skills, so that your story is believable and convincing. You need to be able to critically edit your work and be strong enough to take constructive criticism. You have to be able to write content for all types of media, being flexible. Lastly you have to try to sell yourself.
Qualifications needed
There are no formal qualifications needed to become a writer. However, you should do activities in school, or at home to help you improve your English skills. You need an understanding of different writing styles. You need to have punctuation down, and know how to hook people into your story.
Challenges
Being an author requires mental strength. An author does not earn a salary. They get paid based on how well their work sells. Fleur Beale said there's fewer mainstream publishers, which makes it harder for smaller authors to get published. So it would be smart to have a job that brings money, while still writing. This means you can sustain yourself, and write. Fleur said writing competitions can help get to meet a publisher. PublishersGlobal said that there are 22,870 publishers in over a span of 132 countries this year. But in the United States alone there were 45,860 authors in 2019. This year there's 281,300 authors worldwide. The use of device’s has helped but it’s still not easy.
Another challenge that is posed. It takes months to make a book. Especially if it's your first time. The average first time writer wanting to write a book that could be published takes around 4 to 8 months to write. JK Rowling, (the author of Harry Potter) took 6 years to finish the first Harry Potter. 12 different publishers rejected her. The first Harry Potter book made 7.7 billion dollars. So there’s a lot of risk to reward as a Fiction author. JK Rowling possesses mental strength.
Pay - compared to other jobs
The graph above compares 4 jobs to an author. The amount of money an author gets varies with sales. e.g. a not so well known author like Fleur Beale, won’t get as many sales as an author like Lee Child. I estimate the average amount of money they get paid, it comes at about $1,100 weekly. Because it depends on how many sales you make, it makes getting a paycheck more difficult.
Smaller benefits
Smaller benefits to being an author. There’s little to no time worries, mainly you work stress free. So you don’t need to rush. You can choose your workspace. Wherever you work best. A stress free workspace is the best.
Necessary qualities
The qualities required by an author are motivation, curiosity, and creativity. These qualities are needed by the writer so that the work has authenticity and hooks the audience. Without motivation you never get started. Curiosity makes you find out more about the topic and creativity enables you to write an authentic and inspiring story.
Quality one: Motivation
I think that motivation is a very important aspect, especially when writing. Having motivation is key to writing. If you don’t have motivation to write, you won’t get any work done. Motivation is extremely important. Having the motivation is what makes you want to go above and beyond. There are many things that can give you the motivation you need, Family, friends, goals you want to achieve, or personal gains.
Quality two: Curiosity
Curiosity is a massive part of being a fiction author. If you're not curious about the world then you won’t find things to write about. You need to be curious about your topic. If you're not willing to research you're going to get things wrong and your books aren’t going to sell.
Quality three: Creativity
You can’t write a fiction story if you're not creative. You need to think outside the box and make changes people wouldn’t expect. That way you can make an interesting story that keeps people interested. E.g. Harry Potter, that book's concept can be interchangeable because of its far-fetched story. So it can make changes and it wouldn’t get too unbelievable ( for a harry potter book ).
Necessary competencies
You don’t apply to be an author. In a normal job, you're focusing on standing out, but your priorities are different as an author. You need to focus on the three competencies below. Hard working, communication, and self managing.
Competency one: harding working
An important competency in any job is hard work. This is especially true when writing fictional stories. You need to be able to work hard, smart, and write effectively. When looking for a publisher, you're going to have to adapt. Changing key things in your story, for the approval of the publisher. Even taking out hundreds of words if that's what it takes. Some authors write books for months on end, and when reflecting they scrap it all.
Competency two: Communication
Communication is one of the most important skills a person can have. When writing a story you need to be able to keep your reader hooked. If it gets boring they won’t read it. You need to be able to communicate to the audience what your characters are thinking. Their motives, and why they do what they do. You need to establish a lot about them. If your audience doesn’t like any of your characters they won’t like the book.It's better to show not tell. Telling your audience outright what the end goal is can take away from the story.
Competency three: self manager
Working alone can be difficult, especially if you're like me. I get distracted very easily, and am slowly working on staying focused. You're not going to get a lot of work done if you're looking at something off topic. You need to stay focused. Especially if your publisher has given you a deadline.
Career plan
Key: green important, black non important, red medium important
Career
Year 12 & 13
Year 11
Year 10
In Class
Out of class
In Class
Out of class
In Class
Out of class
Qualifications
(e.g Bachelor of Education)
NCEA level 2, and 3
Writing down book ideas. Going to the library, practicing writing strategies and ideas, reading books that interest you.
NCEA level 1
Writing down book ideas. Going to the library, practicing writing, reading books that interest you.
Cl5 for english assessments
Writing down book ideas. practicing writing, reading books that interest you.
Qualities
Choose two qualities that you think will be important for your chosen career that you can develop both in and out of class. Choose from the TBC Qualities (Respectful, Generous, Loyal, Resilient, Committed, Honest) or choose your own (e.g. Leadership, Grit, Integrity, Hard worker)
(e.g Respectful)
Determined, hardworking ,persistent,
Creative, motivated
Committed, resilient
Motivation
hardworking
motivated, persistent
Respectful, Resilient
Creative, motivated
(e.g Grit)
Creative, responsable, resilient
Responsable, honest to self
Determined
Responsable
Resilient, committed
Hard working
motivated
Honest to self, committed
Competencies
Choose two competencies that you think will be important for your chosen career that you can develop both in and out of class. Choose from the TBC Competencies: Critical Thinking, Communication, Creativity, Collaboration, Cultural Understanding or choose your own (Adaptability, Curiosity etc)
(e.g Communication)
Decision making
Researcher
Curiosity, confidence
Dillagents, researcher
Effective writing, curiosity
Adaptability
decision making
Curiosity, Self manager
(e.g Collaboration)
Communication
Critical thinking
Effective writing
Adaptability
Planning
Critical thinking
Self manager
Confidence
Communication
Effective writing
Researcher, Critical thinking
What deliberate acts can I take now to put me ahead
Having a dream is something you have to work for. And there are a couple things you can do to help achieve that dream. I’m going to go over some things to help develop the qualities and competencies you need.
Qualifications I should work on
Like I said before, there’s no formal qualifications. There are only two things I would recommend: trying hard in english, and writing short stories. Practice makes progress. And carrying around a handbook, just for writing things down. You can easily forget things, and there are many good ideas.
Qualities I should work on
Motivation is my weakness. Life is a dark and depressing place and it's hard most of the time. Last year my parents got divorced and I found it hard to turn up to school after, so my attendance wasn’t the best. But this term I’ve really improved and have really tried to turn up as much as possible.
Competencies I should work on
Self managing is the big one for me. I need to pay more attention in class and if I’m doing schoolwork I need to concentrate on that. I should treat school like work, constantly focusing so as not to mess up.
What deliberate acts can I take in my senior years to put me ahead
Life is hard. Things don’t come easily. So you have to put in the effort to get what you want. To achieve your dream you need to work on it constantly. Always looking to improve. So here are some things I can do in my senior years to help me improve.
Qualifications I should work on
Working to get at least NCEA level one. Again it's not necessary. But having that could draw interest in publishers. Having good marks in school helps when a publisher is about to look at my book.
Qualities I should work on
Curiosity is key. Curiosity is super important. Without curiosity you can’t write about anything interesting. You need to be interested in it enough to research about it and know it in and out. I would encourage going out and looking at the world. Find beautiful things to look at and take an impression from them. Leave your mind open to everything.
Competencies I should work on
You should be working on all your competencies . But if I had to choose one for senior year, it would be hard working. As you progress through school expectations are going to rise. You're going to have to kacle down and try your hardest. Working in school so you're ready for when you leave.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it isn’t easy to become a fiction author. There are a lot of challenges that could get in the way. But if you like writing and find it as satisfying as me to finish a book, then this could be the job for you. Writing is something you can be proud of. It takes a particular person to be a writer. And if you are passionate about it, then there's a bright future for you.
Bibliography
Link ( Fleur Beale website )
Link ( government careers website )
Link ( university of otago, english and linguistics department )
Link ( grammarly blog )
Link ( Publishers global )
Link ( Student scholarships )
Link ( Self publishing )
Special thanks: Fleur Beale ( author ), Mr Corney ( teacher ), Mr Atkins ( teacher ), Cade french.