Most artists who venture into an artistic career discontinue after their debut work. This article contributes to the understanding of early artistic career discontinuation and continuation by drawing on 53 mainly longitudinal interviews with early-career Swedish novelists. The article develops interactionist theories of careers and social worlds, and suggests that continuation of literary careers depends on realizing an artistic identity and the alignment of trajectories in life, thereby providing time for creative work to emerge. The alignments are arrangements of trajectories that work together, and aligning trajectories makes it possible to legitimize an artistic identity in relation to competing identity claims (and roles) from other trajectories in life. The legitimation creates normative acceptance of the writing identity and activity. The ease of claiming a literary writing identity depends on a person's author type, finances, engagements in work and family, and time management skills. The article proposes that creative career continuation is influenced by historical, situational and cultural availability, as well as the ability to claim an artistic identity and manage intermingling trajectories and priorities in life.

大多数冒险进入艺术生涯的艺术家在他们的处女作之后就停止了。本文通过对早期职业瑞典小说家的 53 次主要纵向采访，有助于理解早期艺术生涯的中断和延续。文章发展了职业和社会世界的互动理论，并认为文学职业的延续取决于艺术身份的实现和生活轨迹的协调，从而为创造性作品的出现提供时间。这些对齐是一起工作的轨迹的安排，并且对齐轨迹使得与生活中其他轨迹的竞争身份主张（和角色）相关的艺术身份合法化成为可能。合法化创造了对写作身份和活动的规范接受。声称文学写作身份的难易程度取决于一个人的作者类型、财务状况、工作和家庭参与度以及时间管理技能。文章提出，创造性职业的延续受到历史、情境和文化可用性的影响，以及主张艺术身份和管理生活中相互交织的轨迹和优先事项的能力。