The great writer F. Scott Fitzgerald's, The Rich Boy, was written within a few months in 1924, giving him a fortune of $1,000 which was a lot of money for the literati at the time.
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His greatest novel was made into a movie, The Great Gatsby, placing him and his wife Zelda on the rich list, pocketing $36,000 annually.
Now, short fiction is evolving to be a popular moonlighting job for Dubbo residents like Daniel Budden and Lee Robinson, who both grab time away from their day jobs to put a spark on their pieces as publishing opportunities arrive.
It's hard to disagree with poet Walt Whitman's spiel, "It is a beautiful truth that all men contain something of an artist in them" when you meet the likes of Daniel and Lee, and their fellow passionate writers at the Orana Writers' Hub.
The group was formed through the Outback Writers' Centre's initiative and it has become a starting point for a growing band of local writers to finish up the novellas that publishers seek nowadays.
"A writers' group motivates me, makes me want to write," Lee, who has a full-time job in the administration wing of the Dubbo Base Hospital, said.
"I don't write full-time, I just do it casually, writing short stories and short plays," Lee said.
He is currently working on another short play for schools and his name will also appear during the Mudgee Shorts, a festival of short plays and novels formed by the Mudgee Performing Arts Society.
"On other days, life gets in the road and you get excuses not to write but when I know there is a festival coming up, I do writing on the side," Lee said.
Software engineer Daniel works in Sydney some days in the week but most of the time he's in Dubbo working remotely with an IT team from across the country.
Even with a full-on career in IT, Daniel writes short fiction, the genre he believes could get him a publisher's stamp.
At the recent Dubbo Writers' Festival, Daniel was among local writers who received coaching from award-winning children's book author Sophie Masson AM.
"It was really good, I had great tips and feedback from Sophie during the workshop," says Daniel.
Short fiction with a tinge of horror in the plot is his forte, although he says his materials can be developed for other genres or poetry.
"I really like flash fiction but only about horror shorts. I shared [my manuscript] with her and she gave me great feedback.
"I am looking to build my writing skills and sharpen my stories and submission for publishing perhaps as a short story collection or for magazines.
"At the moment I am working on this as a side interest but I am working on something I want to do in the future."
The president of the Orana Writers' Hub, Val Clark, says the group is a magnet for aspiring writers, including those who had been published like herself, and each time the Dubbo Writers' Festival is held, they discover resources to make a living from writing.
"We were so pleased with the way the festival was run, we had a nice full workshop and participants are taking every opportunity to talk with publishers one on one.
'It's fabulous to see so many writers in our region are showing up with their work."
It was the first time Ms Masson joined the festival in Dubbo to mentor aspiring writers, but her visit to the city was astounding having read unfinished novels that only need fine-tuning.
"I've seen really good work, they're on a high level and this shows that people are really working hard on their craft.
"Writing is difficult like any other art form, as you know, because you have to be at it all the time, and you have to work hard."
Ms Masson, a multi-awarded writer, has over 70 titles published by various publishers in Australia and overseas. Her recent titles for children and young adult readers include A Hundred Words for Butterfly, which she dedicated to her mother, a Frenchwoman, who along with her father lived and worked for many years in Indonesia, where Ms Masson and her sister were born.
At the Dubbo festival, Ms Masson said every writer should aspire to keep literature and book reading alive in both adults and children.
"Reading books is about fun, it's about escape, learning about rules and human beings and that is something we have to absolutely maintain [as writers].
"Books are not fake news, for there's a lot of fake news on the internet. Fiction [in books] is obviously made up but it tells a story that is true to the heart."
But it's a gnawing fact, according to Ms Masson, that creating a literary piece to lit up words on books that sing on pages is always facing a challenge, especially in the digital age, and Lee and Daniel are both grabbing those moments before an awesome plot escapes.
Elizabeth Frias
I began my news reporting days in western and inner west Sydney before joining the Daily Liberal's Dubbo NSW newsroom. Telling all sorts of stories about people, places and events is my daily preoccupation so email me at elizabeth.frias@austcommunitymedia.com.au and I'll be in touch!
I began my news reporting days in western and inner west Sydney before joining the Daily Liberal's Dubbo NSW newsroom. Telling all sorts of stories about people, places and events is my daily preoccupation so email me at elizabeth.frias@austcommunitymedia.com.au and I'll be in touch!
