What would be your dream writing job/opportunity?

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Dead Wood and Jasmine. The Garden by Nuada Argatlam

Collated Answers from WW interviews

Adrian Mead	The job is everything I had dreamed it could be. I love the chance to work alone in the quiet. When I direct it is the polar opposite so I have a perfect balance. If I start to feel the slightest bit down or pressured I go and look through a salon window or watch a bunch of bouncers outside a club and I'm instantly cured. NOTHING about this job is anywhere near as tough and stressful as what I used to do.

Alan Williams	I’m living my dream right now however to be accepted into the British Womag writing community would be great. I’ve only scratched the surface in the UK and being a male writer is unusual in that field.

Ali McNamara	My absolute dream would be for Richard Curtis to want to turn one of my novels into a movie! Or even to write my own romantic comedy film and be there at the movie’s premiere. I told you I had a very over active imagination!

Andrew Blackman	I already have it. Writing literary fiction is all I want to do. If I could do it full-time, without having to do anything else, I would be very happy.

Anne Brooke	Writing full-time would be great (though - see earlier comment! - I do understand it may well drive me insane). I also do enjoy doing a bit of editing now and again, as long as I can control the amount of it - as it does, however enjoyable, take me away from my own writing and journey.

Ardella Jones	Working on a movie script with a no-strings budget, artistic freedom, friends co-writing, directing and acting, in a fab location. Of course it could also be the way to lose all your friends and make a complete turkey...

Beanie Baby	Many years ago, I read that when Walt Disney first set up a studio, he had an office that he filled with writers whose sole job was to write all day. I would, of course, love to be in the position to write full time - and one day soon, I will be by hook or by crook. But in the meantime, if I have to work full time, I can't think of anything better than being paid to sit in an ofice and just write.

Bill Spence	My dream writing job? The book I am writing at any particular moment but if you had to press me for something more specific it would be a big novel set around the time of Christ in the Holy Land. I know its title but don’t ask me what it is – it is locked in my mind!

Caroline Rance	Writer-in-residence in the Thornton's factory.

Catherine Cooper	Well I am a freelance journalist so I am already quite lucky in that I don’t have to go into an office and I get to go to some nice places for work. But my dream job would be a several-book YA deal so I could do the school run, go to the gym, come home and write fiction. Probably with a little bit of journalism thrown in (especially the travel writing.)

Skippoo	Nothing specific in terms of what I’d be writing. However, I’d love to make enough of my living from writing so that I could live in a more autonomous way; more by my own natural rhythms than a 9-5 routine, etc. I’m slowly moving away from that 9-5 more and more, but it’s work in progress!

Catherine Richards	Being Bill Bryson. Getting to travel the world and write and earning a living from it! Nirvana!

Cathy Glass	I am already doing it and I know how lucky I am. What’s next for you? Have you got a website/event coming up that we can let our members know about? My website – www.cathyglass.co.uk has a blog where all are welcome to add their comments. I answer all emails personally.

Claire Allen	I'm doing it! I just wish I could do it full time.

Claire Moss	Just this – novelist. Ideally one that can pay the mortgage

Clare Sambrook	I’m doing it. In my dreams I’d do it better, win the Orange Prize and build an eco-house.

Courttia Newland	Anything where I could do exactly as I wanted and get well paid/promoted.

Danny Rhodes	I’m like many writers and artists I just want to make a living from the thing I love to do.

Domenica De Rosa	The one I already have but earning lots more money.

Elizabeth Buchan	I feel I have it.

Eva Salzman	To be able to travel, read and write, and do nothing else.

Fiona Robyn	I’m living it.

Gary Davison	I’ve got it and I’m chuffed to bits.

Gillian Cross	· Have fun · Write the things you really want to write, in the way you want to write them. Remember that though you can learn techniques all writers operate differently. · Never be satisfied with second best

Gillian McClure	An inspired idea, a dialogue with an inspired editor and the freedom to get on with it.

Helen Black	To keep going as I am and write as much Lilly stuff as readers want. To write a stand alone thriller about addiction that’s been scratching my scalp for over a year. To turn Lilly into a TV series. To write a screenplay…

Helen Castor	One where I didn’t have to worry about money or time. (I suspect I’m not alone.)

Helen McWilliams	Writing a successful radio series starring all of my favourite actors and actresses (that would be a large cast!) or writing (or having involvement in) their biographies.

Jae Watson	To be a full-time writer producing one novel after another, each one better than the last, changing people’s lives with my writing, being loved by everyone…ok, get real Ms Watson…

James Burge	A series of popular novels about a medieval detective that had a massive advance

Jane Elmor	Well, I've always wanted to get a novel published, so it is with some shock that I realise I currently have my dream writing job! So my next dream would be to set a novel somewhere exotic and go and live there for the writing duration 'for research'. I'm also co-writing comedy scripts for an animated rock band, and that has to be the dream job for anyone, as you just spend the whole day in good company laughing at your own jokes. I would also one day like to write a perfect song and have it performed by someone who can sing.

Jane Rogers	Writing a good novel! Though I have also been interested for a long time in writing a TV serial of the Brothers Karamazov. I know it would be brilliant, but cannot find a commissioning editor to share my enthusiasm.

Jem	Oh, I’d like to be somebody like Jackie Collins. Rich and hanging out with the ‘A’list.

Jenn Ashworth	I'd just like to be left alone in an empty hotel for a few months, I think. Jobs are for paying the bills, writing needs to fit around the edges and I'd like it, somehow, to be the other way round - although I've found when writing becomes the job, you've got a boss, which presents its own problems.

Jill McGivering	Writing fiction full time would be a dream job but, for most writers, it’s hard to achieve. In the foreseeable future, I see myself continuing to work as a journalist and to write as much as I can outside that.

John Murray	My dream writing job is just doing what I'm doing. Comic writing is tough though. So much is dependent on juxtapositions, fine editing, timing. But aside from cooking and teaching writing, writing fiction is about the only thing I can do!

Josa Young	I have at least four more novels ready to be splurged into the computer. That would be my dream, to get those written in the next two years.

Julia Copus	I’d like to get a writer’s residency somewhere – preferably in the Old Library at Exeter University – which pays you simply to be in residence! People go to watch painters at work, or basket-weavers or potters. Why not poets? I’m not sure the Arts Council would go for it though…

Kate Long	I’d like to write something for television. I’ve done some work on the script for TBMH, but it would be fantastic to produce a programme from scratch.

Kia Abdullah	A columnist for the Guardian. I enjoy short writing just as much as novel writing so my own column in a national publication would be fantastic.

Lee Henshaw	A dream job? I'm not 12.

Lee Jackson	My unrealised dream is actually to script a comic-book, something madly ‘steampunk’. If there are any good illustrators reading this … get in touch!

A L Berridge	Being commissioned to write a series of historical novels about my character, André de Roland. Oh, wait a minute...

Lucy McCarraher	The one I’ve potentially got now. If “Blood and Water” is successful; if MNW like “Kindred Spirits” and publish it – being a full time novelist who maybe makes some forays into other fields like TV, playwriting…. Who knows?

Luisa Plaja	I'd like to keep writing novels for teenagers... and maybe branch out a bit.

Malcolm Burgess	Having a Radio 4 comedy series that’s then endlessly re-commissioned into the mid- twenty first century.

Mark Booth	A syndicated weekly column in a national newspaper with the brief to entertain readers by means of an off-the-wall serial - something like the ‘living with teenagers’ column in the Saturday Guardian, but more abstract. I’d attract a cult following with my clever, witty but rather, er, absurd stories.

Matt Lynn	It sounds smug, but I probably already have it. But I’d also like to write one of the updated James Bond books – I could easily do a far better job that the limp pastiche that Sebastian Faulks came up with.

Meg Peacocke	I’d hate to have a writing job! I just hope to go on having a life that allows the brooding time I need for making poems. I have sometimes written to commission, and have found that interesting, but the results have never felt to me like my own work but at best a good imitation.

Michael Ridpath	Pretty much what I am doing at the moment, writing novels.

Michelene Wandor	To know (always) what my next commission is. That can’t be classed as a ‘job’, exactly.

Michelle Harrison	I’m doing it! But more time would be nice.

Milly Johnson	I’m doing it – writing novels… although a million pound advance would add the cherry on the cake. But so long as my readership is growing and my readers are happy – I’m happy!

Neil J Hart	Writing solely for a living is my aim but unless you’re JK Rowling then it’s a little tough to make enough to get by. I’d love to work on screen adaptations of my work as I write in a very visual style which lends itself to film / TV. I tend to picture the scenes for screen as I write them and visualise actors in the roles.

Nick Stafford	There are works I’d wish I’d written. I hope someone says that about something I write. For a job, though, if someone paid me a million and guaranteed production/publication and this coincided with the most inspired period of my life so that all needs were satisfied…

Nicky Singer	Whatever I’m doing now. I like to think people will appreciate my books/plays/operas, but the truth is, I only write for myself, whatever it is obsessing me at the time. Quite a good job, eh?

Nik Perring	It’d just be doing more of what I’m doing now, but on a larger scale.

Peter Robertson	I don’t trade in dreams. I am intensely pragmatic and I think that this quality defines my personality more than any other. Of course, I do believe that anything is possible, and I do have a vision, but I approach my goals in a pragmatic way. I would even say that, to make it as a writer, this is an essential quality and one that is often overlooked. Writers are too often pigeonholed as wool-gatherers. I would contest such a claim and, in my particular case, I am convinced that I am more hard-headed than many a businessman.

Preethi Nair	To work with a brilliant comedy writer on a film for Working Title

Rebecca Strong	One that balanced a wide audience with financial reward. I think it’s a real shame that it’s so hard to make a decent living out of writing, because literature contributes so much to our world. I would also love to discover a unique method of writing or new writing challenges – perhaps ‘instant’ writing, where people can read your story as you write it, or tailored writing, where people could influence where the story goes – the internet is opening up endless possibilities.

Ron Morgans	I live in a flat overlooking the Mediterranean writing thrillers. I’ve already got it.

Rosy Barnes	Writing lots of spiky observant piss-takey books that get a cult underground following on the internet. Failing that, working for The Onion.

Rosy Thornton	Just keeping on writing novels for Headline, really. I plan to finish the current one, then desperately pray my editor likes it. And then just hope another idea keeps coming along….

Sally Nicholls	I’d like to teach writing some day, or work with children, but at the moment I just feel so lucky that someone wants to pay me anything at all to write.

Sara Maitland	I think my present commission is rather wonderful – to be paid to think about, live out and write about my own pet obsession! And after that there will be something else. . . .

Sarah Stovell	A two-book deal.

Shelley Weiner	Hmm. I think I’d like to be given a commission (so there’s no uncertainty about outcome) to write series of funny stories on a linked theme. Another ‘dream’ thing I’ve been involved in was the development – with another writer who was an ex-student – of plans for a writing centre in London. That would be great. We had lots of enthusiastic support from writers at all levels and even architects’ plans for the conversion of the Bargehouse on the South Bank into an amazing literary hub, but couldn’t quite get it off the ground. For me, I think the problem was that it wasn’t a writing job…

Sol B River	I don't know, I like to work in different areas of media. I would like to be on The West End/ Broadway and I'd also like write drama series, comedy and film. Everything! God knows, at the moment things are on a script by script basis.

Steve Feasey	If I could do what I do now in the sunshine. I think that would be the dream ticket. It’s December now, and outside my house is an ocean of ice and slush. I think I’d be far happier taking the laptop down to a beachside café, and listening to the sound of the waves kissing the sand while I tippy-tap away on the keyboard.

Steven Hague	The one that I’ve got now – in the same way that other kids dreamed of being footballers or rocks stars, I always wanted to be an author, so I can honestly say that I’m living the dream!

Tara Hyland	This is it! I love being a novelist!

Tim Lott	Writing bestsellers.

Tracy Buchanan	Full-time novelist at home, just researching, writing and eating chocolate!

Vanessa Curtis	I used to dream of writing for the papers so I’m very pleased to be doing that. I’d like to do what I’m already doing, writing children’s fiction, for the rest of my life, but to see the books published and on the shelves.

William Coles	My idle pipe-dream: A weekly column on a national newspaper, the better to vent my spleen. And also knocking two books a year - one a love-story, and the other on whatever happens to be the latest bizarre project to stir me.

William Sutton	Not so different from what I’m doing now: writing books, the occasional play, a few articles – only it would be nice to be sure of being published, and being paid. Oh, I’d like to write a TV mini-series too, you know, one of those comico-serious ones with episodes 52 minutes long.

Zoe Lambert	I have to finish my PhD this year and then I’m going to focus fully on my longer project of linked short stories. I don’t have my own website, but take a look at http://www.commapress.co.uk