The Best Advice I’ve Ever Had As A Writer

In 1948, I was working freelance and, amongst other things, was writing two, 3,000 word stories a week for Film Fun. The editor was a tough but fair man, a big horse racing enthusiast always reading his racing paper, even when we were discussing stories. I used to go into his office each Thursday morning, about 10, with the ideas for that week’s stories. He would be sitting behind his desk reading his racing paper. I would give him the general plot of each of the stories, he would OK them and go back to his paper. I would then write one of the stories during the rest of that day, the other one on Friday and deliver both to him by Friday evening.

On one occasion, I had been very distracted. My wife was giving birth to our second daughter by caesarean section, not a common occurrence in those days, and I was very worried about her. On that Thursday, when I went into his office I had no ideas in my head. I told him I had been very distracted due to personal circumstances and said that I really needed a little bit of help. I asked if we could go around a few ideas. He lowered his paper slowly, fixed me with a stony eye and said --- "You’re supposed to be an author aren’t you?" I started to mumble an apology but he broke in --- "Well f*** off and auth" and raised his paper.