Heather Rose on Work, Love and Legacy: Why Money Never Motivated My Writing Career
In a heartfelt reflection on her life's journey, acclaimed author Heather Rose reveals that while hard work brings financial rewards, it has never been money that motivated her creative pursuits. 'Love has,' she writes emphatically, pointing to a deeper, more meaningful driver behind her decades-long writing career.
A Family Motto Forged Through Generations
The foundation of Rose's philosophy traces back to her family's enduring motto: 'It's amazing how lucky you get if you work really hard.' Her father, one of five children, left formal education after grade nine and immediately entered the workforce. In his early twenties, he returned to night school before dedicating over forty years to public service. Meanwhile, her mother built a career as a secretary.
'Together they worked tirelessly to provide the best education possible for us,' Rose recalls, noting how their relentless work ethic left an indelible mark on her own approach to life and career.
The Early Years: Building a Foundation Through Diverse Work
From her school days onward, Rose embraced a remarkably varied work life. She gained experience in a department store, a health food shop, a ship chandlers, and even as a gardener. Her first paid writing opportunity came with a column for the Hobart Mercury, planting the early seeds of her literary career.
Later, while travelling through Asia and Europe, she took on numerous roles to fund her adventures: pulling beers, waiting tables, cleaning hotel rooms, running a youth hostel, planting trees, picking grapes, and herding goats. These experiences taught her that work could enable exploration and growth, even without a university degree.
The Creative Path: Finding Fulfilment Beyond Financial Gain
Rose acknowledges that work, duty, and responsibility aren't always associated with joy, but she finds 'a deep satisfaction in achievement.' She spent years in advertising as a copywriter, honing her language skills through everything from hardware catalogues to jeans commercials. 'There was fulfilment in crafting words and meeting deadlines,' she notes, seeing each project as skill-building.
Now as a novelist, she continues meeting writing deadlines, feeling with each completed book that she's 'living into my future with agency and clarity.' Her motivation remains constant: love for her craft and the contribution she makes through her writing.
Love as the Ultimate Remuneration
Rose draws parallels between her writing and other forms of unpaid labour she values deeply, particularly parenting. She has devoted countless hours to volunteering in her local community, reading manuscripts for fellow writers, baking for friends, preserving food, and maintaining her home. 'Contribution is its own particular remuneration,' she asserts, challenging conventional notions of what constitutes valuable work.
Dispelling myths about artistic work being easy, Rose reveals that each book takes years to craft. Her early novels were written at night after full days of work and parenting. She has learned to cherish every aspect of the process: research, reading, thinking, drafting, crafting, and endless rewriting. 'That pursuit expands both my knowledge and my perspectives,' she says, suggesting it even seems to expand her luck.
The Changing Landscape of a Writing Life
Now older with grown children, Rose enjoys the privilege of writing during daylight hours and what she calls 'that rarest of things as a writer: a sliver of security' from a growing readership in Australia and internationally, supported by a dedicated publishing team. Still, with years between books, she and her family live simply, growing much of their own food while she continues her writing work.
The Particular Challenges for Creative Women
Rose observes that a creative life still demands extra hard work from women. Throughout her life, she has watched women carve out creative spaces amid 'the time-bound, food-stained walls of duty and responsibility,' having been that woman herself. Recent Stella Prize statistics reveal that 47% of women (compared to just 17% of men) report their creative work being restricted by caring responsibilities.
Despite the challenges, Rose finds reassurance in the fulfilment her efforts bring. Looking at her published books on the shelf near her desk, she sees her commitment materialised. 'It has been a long road,' she acknowledges, but one enriched by meeting fellow authors, receiving enthusiastic reader notes, enjoying support from passionate booksellers and library staff, and seeing her work published overseas and translated into other languages.
As her father still reminds her, she never knows how lucky she might get if she just keeps at it. For Heather Rose, that luck isn't measured in financial terms, but in the love she brings to her work and the legacy she builds, book by book.
