He's a reporter, she's a writer

Authors of fiction tend to divide those journalists who produce copy (as opposed to editors, executives and publishers) into two types, the reporter or the writer. The distinction is often driven by plot. If it's about action, the reporter - the hack - is a useful way of getting to the heart of the action, notepad in hand, sometimes as the central character; if the requirement is more character-driven, they may well be a writer - an artiste (usually failed and miserable).

Constance Amory and Annika Bengtzon fall firmly - and honourably - into the hack category but many others are either would-be novelists or dilettantes who can't get a real job so fall into journalism as a way staying afloat - and wouldn't spot a real news story if it punched them in the mouth. As in real life, there is also a fairly sizeable subset of 'writer', the celebrity socialite or sports star who, despite being unable to scrawl a compelling note to the milkman, manages to knock out a regular column for a tidy fee.

Lionel Watson, in AN Wilson's My Name is Legion, is a typical artiste, 'a fallen archangel' who left Oxford to become a travel writer and poet, whose book on the Amazon is a minor classic, but who has no money...

It seemed foolish not to accept any journalistic work offered as a way of paying the mortagage on a small flat in Clapham....

After a year or two, however it seemed that journalism was much more lucrative and much less hard work than 'proper writing'....

It had certainly killed something inside him when he joined the Legion.

   

Comments

[Sag]

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[Sac Longchamp Pliage]

Scoop! Journalists in Fiction: He's a reporter, she's a writer

[woolrich]

Scoop! Journalists in Fiction: He's a reporter, she's a writer