Monday 17 June 2013

How many kids does it take to make an author?



I was just about to write a post on my breathtaking few days at the Art of Writing retreat in Tuscany last week (endless tree-decked hills, feisty writerly company – stayed tuned next week) when this article caught my eye.

Zadie Smith criticises author who says more than one child limits career.

I have a soft spot for women writers with kids, which doesn't mean I have a hard spot for women writers who don't. And readers of this blog will know I can’t pipe down if there is a discussion on Career vs Motherhood and the myriad of life strategies there are in between. Throw the dilemmas of the writer into that stew, and you have my attention. Reader, do your thang.
 
Last week a Guardian journalist cobbled together a text based on Zadie Smith's and Jane Smiley's comments upon an Atlanta article written by Lauren Sandler, which has raised a few hackles. The Guardian then provided a study in graphs and pie charts to investigate the equation one child=genius. My first thought: Who says an author is a genius??Ahem.. I don’t necessarily. Brilliant yes, but a genius? Do you? 

Sandler, only child and mother of one, finds that several of her beloved writers are mothers of only children and wonders if their oeuvre might have been compromised by the production of further offspring. She cites a comment by Alice Walker (whose mother-daughter conflict is well-documented and painful to read): ‘..Because with one you can move. With more than one you’re a sitting duck.

Sandler goes on to lament,  Is stopping at one child the answer, or at least the beginning of one?

Indignant Zadie Smith commented that ‘..as the parent of multiples I can assure Ms. Sandler that two kids entertaining each other in one room gives their mother in another room a surprising amount of free time she would not have otherwise.’

Not all mine
Hmm. While I do remember typing out my first novel with my eldest in a basket on the floor in Mogadishu, my recollection of the faraway time when I had (just) two offspring brings back the less lyrical image of Older Son driving a train over Baby Son’s face. I’d love to agree with Zadie that children entertain themselves quietly, but in my household this has rarely been the case. Illness, fighting, food, mean that Mummy is nurse, referee, shopper all at once, on-and-off during the day.  Child care? Well, until writing pays for that and the bills, I have the school system to thank for that. 

Sandler’s article also reflects upon the lives of her ‘revered’ authors, citing cases such as Joan Didion, Elizabeth Hardwick and Alice Walker, and though it serves the purpose of her argument that greatness is limited by multiple reproduction, it feels a little like peeking through the rubbish bin behind a famous person’s house – too much information. Would she have been the same writer, had she had more children to drop by with in-laws, or less quiet time to workshop her novels? Was she selfish? Is this how greatness was achieved?

While heartfelt, it seems rather limited. And – even more silly – in the Guardian piece that examines the ratio of larger families to literary genius, it appears that most successful novelists produce zero children, although the second most popular number is two. Thirty-eight percent of females in the literary genius category (Joyce Carol Oates, Harper Lee) have no children compared to twenty-seven percent of males. Novelists have more kids than poets. Norman Mailer rocked the survey by having eight children. With four kids, I find myself in the same category as John Updike, E. Annie Proulx (a late starter) and Saul Bellow. So there's hope for this writing junkie yet.

As Zadie Smith rightly says, there are so many factors essential to a writer’s career. An understanding partner, childcare, family support. And there are so many elements that might limit a writer’s – or anyone’s – career. Health, personal and economic issues quickly come to mind. Lack of determination, lack of clarity of purpose, even plain bad luck.

So where are we with all this? There are big egos and neglected children in every sector. Writing takes time and endless belief. Kids are a timesuck but they can save you from yourself, enrich, impair. And there’s no easy way to become a literary genius, or even a halfway happy published writer, with or without sprogs calling you up all the time, expecting cash, emptying the fridge, stealing your clothes and telling you you’re clueless...

27 comments:

  1. I am glad of my kids, as a writer. I have 3 and, yes, they take time, but they also give me insight, empathy, love, fun, a protective instinct, determination, brilliant time management skills, efficiency. All things a writer needs, I would say.
    Great piece, Catherine.

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    1. Thanks Nuala. I agree that having kids gives you insight I've used many times over in writing. Humour and lightness too, as well as having dark moments expanded and deepened. I am certain we 'use' them as part of our experience, as we 'use' many of the things that happen to us, and a child-free writing career is no guarantee for greatness!

      I'm with you on the time management skills - required with children or without.

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  2. The whole "let's decide how many kids = what rating you get as a writer" type thang is a bit backward, really; a bit like we'll put women in this jar and if you have kids, you're jam. On the shelf you go.

    Great post. I can only speak for myself, my kids have totally made ma as a writer. All of what Nuala comments, really, and there's nothing like the focus you get when you know you have four hours of child free time coming up and nothing - NOTHING - is going to keep you from your writing!

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    1. Speaking as a multiple mother whose life is entirely unplanned, I'd have laughed if you'd have told me at 25 that having a bunch of kids was going to hamper my writing ambitions. It would just have made me more determined.

      That said, it hasn't been easy. But when I yell, Ah! Why did I have you all? My daughter says, You would have been so boring without us.

      She's right.

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  3. Very interesting piece. I'm still thinking about it, although my first reaction is the one I'll go with. The idea of a woman rationing her childbearing life in an effort to influence her writing success makes me roll my eyes.
    I think children add dimensions to us; they deepen our emotional lives and change us in ways that may spill over into our story telling. And I agree with Rachel, there's no better motivation for focused writing than when the kids are gone.
    Very thought-provoking post. Sad to hear that Alice Walker had such a troubled relationship with her daughter.
    Leslie

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    1. Yes I couldn't really keep quiet when I read the article. I don't like the idea of writers being branded. Most of the time I don't even want to know anything about the writer, I just want to read what he or she has put out there - their work.

      Certainly having children adds a wonderful dimension to our experience, but those without should not have a label put on them either. And this counting of offspring.. it is rather ridiculous. Perhaps to succeed in the big arena a writer must become a little like any famous person - incredibly driven and ambitious.

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  4. Surely we are all individuals??? People make choices and compromises whatever their profession. Writers are just people.

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    1. Absolutely. Great analysis Cat.

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    2. I agree Debra - writers are professionals who like all adults will have their output conditioned by health, personality, economic status, family situation. And greatness in any area requires talent and dedication!

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    3. Glad you enjoyed Downith. I'm over end of July hope to catch up?

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  5. It's as dangerous as the art critic making assumptions about a painter without having a clue about the person! It may be interesting 'statistically' but look broader and I would imagine the stats for single child, 2 child, 3 child, 4 in the general public are about the same.
    So it's just an insecure writer hoping that their limited child production will have a positive effect on their career - getting on and writing is the only thing that will do that - not wondering if you can 'make yourself fit' the 'genius profile'!

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    1. I agree Ingrid. Though I can appreciate the model that Lauren Sandler has set up, I do think it has holes in it, and might be a way for her to feel comfortable with her own writing path. I think it's very risky to subscribe to a view that is so strong. She may have a point, but it is so easy to shoot down!

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  6. What can I add ... you've said it all and made great sense. Seems silly to try to make such a "rule" about success in any endeavour. We are human and the possibilities for success and failure are about as numerous as we are, I suspect (if that makes sense).

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    1. Yes it does make sense. I'm almost sure that for every example of a successful writer with a single child, you could find an author with five children and a string of accolades. As Nuala said, time management is a crucial factor in moving ahead, and there are certainly no easy formulas.

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  7. You captured my thoughts exactly, Cat. We all have our obstacles to writing, whatever they may be. I didn't become a mom until mine were 9 and 15, but they have absolutely made me a more thoughtful, richer writer, even with the distractions.

    That said, I spent some time this week with a famous writer friend, a woman listed in The New Yorker's 20 Under 40. She became famous for a short story collection, and since then she married, had 2 babies, divorced --- and therefore has been working on her big novel for 12 years. Why so long? The writing-is-hard part, of course, but also because she left the husband, he's pissed at her and jobless, and she's been bouncing all over the country taking semester-long teaching jobs to keep her and her kids afloat.

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    1. I'm so glad you brought this up Teri. I also started out well (not THAT well!) and then began to have kids, travel and get divorced. It takes a lot out of you. In terms of time and energy and belief. That's where Zadie Smith's point about an understanding partner and access to childcare comes in, as it would with any professional endeavour. And yet, even if we were to have a single child and a cheesy set-up, would that guarantee better writing?

      Good luck to your friend, but I'm sure she'll come through to the other side.

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  8. The only thing guaranteed to help a writer's career is writing. Making the time, sitting down, putting words on the page. You either have the type of personality to do that work or you don't. Sure, kids are a distraction from writing but there are plenty of other distractions as well, and one is as good as any other when it comes to avoiding the page.

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    1. I'm with you Averil. I can understand this journalist clinging to her beloved authors, but looking for a formula almost seems like a cheap trick. Most of the time I don't even like to talk about writing. It's like gardening, it just needs to be done.

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  9. Gosh, writing career or not, I'm surprised when anyone has the audacity to dictate how many children are the 'correct' number. And, surprise, surprise, it always seems to coincide with the same number as the one offering the unsolicited advice. Then again, I've read a few author interviews with male authors who said an author should not have any children, so I suppose this is an improvement. I write happily in the midst of the chaos of home/kids. Happy to give up the 'genius' status that apparently comes with one kid, life is far more broad than just writing (even for those of us who love it).

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    1. So much to discuss here. What was interesting about the Guardian survey was that Norman Mailer rocked the boat by having eight kids. But how far did he raise them? I realise that my kids have slowed me down and interfered with my head space, but that means I appreciate my writing time and fight for it - I won't let it fly past! Sometimes I really think journos have a space to fill and a case to rattle. The author of the original piece said it was heartfelt and misconstrued but I have my doubts. As you say, she has the obligatory one kid!!

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  10. Damm that's why I'm not a famous author....I have two kids!!!
    xxx

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  11. There you go. I've got 5 blighters. I really MUST be a shit writer.

    Grrrrr! More (largely) sexist shit. Measuring writerly genius in a kids (or the lack of them)...

    I expected better from the Guardian - must have been the 5 children thing that prevented me from seeing clearly...

    We are who we are. A consequence of a complex mash of the biological and the environmental. Nature and nurture. What we've done and been able to do and what held us back.

    What next I wonder? Research into 'the link between menstrual volume and 'female writerly genuis''? Between levels of testosterone and the quality of women's writing?....

    Sorry - I am just sick of this MALE world. The Australian Gillard's defeat following years of sexist abuse; Saatchi's very public abuse of his wife, Nigella Lawson; Berlusconi's years of bunga-bunga culminating in a sentence he'll probably never serve even a day of... Just another ordinary week in an ordinary year reminding us of where us women belong...

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    1. * in kids

      (see - I really am shit)

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    2. No you ain't shit Yvonne and all we can do is make sure our daughters are tougher than the sum of this. The Nigella thing - argh! Having been through an abusive relationship this makes my heart heave. And Berlusca, need we go there? I don't want to spoil my wine xx

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  12. What a fascinating post and an interesting and stimulating debate. As a working mother (tv journalist), blogger, wife of a work-a-holic university professor, and a mother of three teenagers, I rarely have time to breathe, never mind pursue my dream of one day becoming a published author. I have a manuscript sitting in a drawer that I keep on thinking that if I could just find the time to work on it... Still, there is no point in blaming our kids who make our lives so much richer. I have also heard the same debate among tv journalists: Christiane Amanpour has one child, Diane Sawyer-0, Barbara Walters-0. Sure it is easier to dedicate more time to any career if you don't have kids to worry about. But as far as writing is concerned I think I buy into the line of Virginia Woolf that a woman needs "A Room of One's Own" -- and that means that one has peace and quiet to think and write, that someone else is dealing with the kids.

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  13. Sorry -- meant to sign off and put my blog name in, but didn't find the right place to put it in. You can tell I am a real technology whizz. I don't even have my three teenagers harassing me at the moment so I can 't blame it on them.
    Anyway, may name is Trisha Thomas, and I am an American Blogger based in Rome. My blog is www.mozzarellamamma.com

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