I had written a fairly mediocre chick-lit novel, which had been sufficiently funny to attract the attention of a literary agent, but not strong enough to send out on submission. Within a year I was comfortably earning what I needed to, and had begun to focus my attention on writing fiction. It was the safety net I needed: if freelancing didn’t pan out, I could walk straight back in to a secure job. For six months I freelanced alongside my 50-hour week in the police, then in the summer of 2011 I was granted a two-year career break. I got lucky with my first pitch – an article for Writing Magazine – and kept pitching until I was getting regular commissions. I was already blogging regularly and earning a small but regular income from it, and I decided to try my hand at feature-writing. I decided to take a career break to give myself some breathing space, but with a mortgage to pay and a family to feed we couldn’t afford to give up my salary altogether. At home were three children under the age of three who saw the nanny more than they saw me, and my default method of communication with my husband was email. Court files, staff appraisals, witness statements… My job as a police inspector was rewarding and enjoyable, but the lack of creativity freedom was stifling. National Emerging Writer Programme Overviewįour years ago I was writing every day.
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