阅读理解 I left university with a good degree in English Literature, but no sense of what I wanted to do．Over the next six years, I was treading water, just trying to earn an income．I tried journalism, but I didn't think I was any good, then finance, which I hated．Finally, I got a job as a rights assistant at a famous publisher．I loved working with books, although the job that I did was dull． I had enough savings to take a year off work, and I decided to try to satisfy a deep-down wish to write a novel．Attending a Novel Writing MA course gave me the structure I needed to write my first 55,000 words． It takes confidence to make a new start－there's a dark period in-between where you're neither one thing nor the other．You're out for dinner and people ask what you do, and you're too ashamed to say, “Well, I'm writing a navel, but I'm not quite sure if I'm going to get there．” My confidence dived．Believing my novel could not be published, I put it aside． Then I met an agent(代理商)who said I should send my novel out to agents．So, I did and, to my surprise, got some wonderful feedback．I felt a little hope that I might actually become a published writer and, after signing with an agent, I finished the second half of the novel． The next problem was finding a publisher．After two-and-a-half years of no income, just waiting and wondering, a publisher offered me a book deal－that publisher turned out to be the one I once worked for． It feels like an unbelievable stroke of luck－of fate, really．When you set out to do something different, there's no end in sight, so to find myself in a position where I now have my own name on a contract(合同)of the publisher－to be a published writer －is unbelievably rewarding(有回报的)． |
