Turning Writing into a Career?

And the writer emerges from her thesis cave!

It’s been a while since my last post, but I’m here to celebrate today…

MY THESIS IS WRITTEN!

*collapses*

Now all I have to do is pass my board (where I discuss my thesis with three of my professors) and I’ll be completely done. The MFA process has been exhausting, but I’m emerging from it with 135 pages I am really proud of. 

And then? Who knows! The next stage of my writer-dom is yet to be determined, and I know I’m not alone. Today I’m teaming up with The Ladders, a career platform that helps make the job search more efficient, to talk about turning writing into a career. 

Obviously I’m not an expert on this yet, but I’ve learned a lot during my two years in Chatham’s MFA program. Here are my tips for fellow writers (Many of these tips can apply to other career paths as well):

1. Have a backup plan. I’m speaking mostly to those of us who want to focus on creative writing (publishing books, poems, memoirs). Unless you pen the next Harry Potter, you won’t be able to make money off your work immediately. Having another source of income is important, whether it’s an office job or TA-ing at a university or waiting tables. While you technically can write without a roof over your head…the roof always helps.

2. Make sure that backup plan involves writing somehow. I work in administration for a software company, which is not a super-creative field, but sometimes I’m asked to write articles for the company’s internal website (announcements, reports, etc.). It’s a different style of writing, but it keeps my editing skills sharp.

3. Find your community. Writing is solitary. We hunch over our keyboards, not speaking for hours. It’s important to interact with other writers, whether it’s through a writing residency/conference or Twitter or blogs. Maybe you’ll find some critique partners who offer helpful feedback on your work. 

4. In that same vein, keep up with the current events in your field. Write young adult fiction? Check the list of Printz Award honorees each year. Trying to get a short story collection published? Buy a book or two from up-and-coming small presses. Is food writing more your style? Read the article in the paper about the new bistro downtown. The more informed you are about your field, the better you will be able to navigate it.

5. Write for yourself. I know every writer gives this piece of advice, but it’s true. If you select your book ideas solely based on what will fit into the current publishing market, chances are you won’t make it through the first draft. If you try to sound like the other students in your writing workshop instead honoring your own voice, what’s there to get excited about? Write what you want in a style you love.  

Fellow writers, what do you have to add? I'd love to hear your best turn-writing-into-a-career tips in the comments!

And if you're embarking on the career search, be sure to check out the resources offered by The Ladders!  

Also, now that my time in my MFA program is winding down, this blog is going to become more active again. I'm in the process of freshening up the layout and some of my pages. I hope you stop by every once in a while!

How to enjoy writing time

I'm drawing today's blog inspiration from the list of 101 Blog Post Ideas for Writers. Let me know if you do the same!

Today's topic: How to enjoy writing time (or how to get your butt in the chair and keep it there)

Sometimes getting my butt into my computer chair is SUCH a task. I can always think of a thousand (lazy) things I'd rather do than work on the story that has been giving me trouble for two weeks. So I try and find small ways to make it fun. (These tips will work for general homework and tasks, too, even if you aren't a writer!) 

Coffee in my WRITER mug.

This is probably my most Instagrammed item (usually posed in front of my laptop). It’s from Castle, my favorite TV show (where the MC is also a writer!), and it always makes me feel more official.

Out and about.

I'm prone to getting distracted in my apartment, so sometimes I prefer to write (or do homework in general) other places. Most of these places involve coffee. The week before our seminar papers were due, almost everyone from my Readings in Fiction class took over the local Panera all day long and wrote pages and pages and pages for our papers. I spent ten hours there and wrote fifteen pages. Writing with other people is nice because there's always someone to watch your laptop when you go to the bathroom or grab a coffee refill.

Rewards!

Sensing a theme here?

I take breaks, grab an oatmeal raisin cookie, watch an episode of Gilmore girls (but just one!). Don't force yourself to write for hours and hours and hours unless you're really on a roll. And before you take a break, make sure you're at a fun part of your story, something you'll be excited to come back to. Otherwise you'll dread returning to the story.

So what do you do to make writing (or any work task) more fun?



Choosing a Title

I'm drawing today's blog inspiration from the list of 101 Blog Post Ideas for Writers. Let me know if you do the same!

Today's topic: Choosing a title

If there is one thing I am HORRENDOUS at when it comes to writing short stories, it is picking a title. Every single story I brought to Tom, my favorite undergrad professor, left his office with a dark blue slash through the title and bubbles with other title ideas around it. 

Every. Single. One. 

I learned from Tom that a title should not be sweeping and moral and attempt to sum up your entire story. (This advice doesn’t necessarily apply to novels…that’s a whole different beast that I'm no expert on.) A short story title should provoke and draw out even more meaning from the story. It’s like reaching your hand into a hole in the wall, all the way up to your shoulder, and pulling out a toy that had been dropped down there and forgotten. 

Often the title plays on your story’s symbol. For example, I titled a story of mine “Cinnamon” because the main character’s truck smells like the cinnamon gum his father used to chew when he drove the truck before passing it down to the MC. The father and son have all sorts of issues, but the cinnamon is sort of their link to the time when they got along. 

A title can also create a filter, a lens for readers to look at your story through. I wrote another story called “How to Meet and Marry a Military Man” and all the scenes were written in an instruction manual type format about a relationship between a woman and her boyfriend/husband who was in the Air Force. Without that title, readers might be confused, but with it, the story makes more sense. 

So that’s my opinion on short story titles, what I’ve learned after making every possible mistake when naming my stories. 


Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes! (Again, novels are different!)

Avoiding "burnout"

I'm drawing today's blog inspiration from the list of 101 Blog Post Ideas for Writers. Let me know if you do the same!

Today's topic: Avoiding "burnout"

 

All writers fear it: writer's block. No ideas. An exhaustion with writing so severe that they can't imagine opening up a Word document ever again. In a word: BURNOUT.

 

Thankfully, my “burnout” usually comes when I hit winter/summer break. 15 weeks of nonstop writing and reading for school can really take its toll. I always set all these goals of projects for break (working on that novel I shelved during grad school, reading all the fun books I haven’t had time for, etc), but realistically I know I’m going to sit on the couch and watch tons of TV while crocheting an afghan for three weeks.

 

AND THAT’S OKAY.

 

You need to give yourself permission to relax once in a while. You can’t gogogogogo 24/7. Sarah Dessen recently posted about scrapping the novel she’s been working on because it just wasn’t working and she was burnt out. That’s a scary thing to do, and I really admire her for it (both putting the draft away AND blogging about it). Taking time off doesn’t make you a failure, it makes you human.

 

Sarah also posted a quote she found about how even trees go dormant during the winter…they aren’t meant to produce year-round fruit, so why should you expect yourself to? So true! And you’ll most likely be a stronger writer when you come back from a break. I do, however, keep a list of ideas and little things I think of while I’m on a break. That way I’ll have something to start with when I come back.

Write What You Know? My Opinion

One of the most common pieces of advice that is thrown at new writers is: write what you know. Here are some of the reasons why:

1.       It’s easier than attempting to write something you have no clue about. It’s going to be difficult to write about a rancher out in Montana if you’re terrified of horses and have never ventured farther west than Nebraska. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but a lot of research is going to be involved.

2.       The details. If you know something really well, chances are you’re chocked full of miniscule details that will take your story to the next level. Little things like how something smells or conversation tidbits can help ground your story in reality and paint a vivid picture for your readers.

3.       Oftentimes it is easier to write characters that you can relate to. You can make sure their thoughts/feelings/motivations are accurately portrayed because you (most likely) have felt the same things.

I think this is good advice to an extent. Anyone who knows my writing knows that my stories are out there, plot wise. I have written about characters that live in a trailer park, have an overweight family, are divorcing at age 90, have been struck by lightning, and (most recently) crew for hot air balloon companies. None of these things have ever happened to me.

If I limited myself to writing only what I know, I’m not sure I would be a writer. I write to discover. I write to understand why people do the things they do, why they react certain ways in different circumstances. I do think it’s important to have something in common with the characters so you can relate to them on some level. You don’t want every aspect of the story to be foreign to you. Something as simple as giving a character the same favorite pastime as you can be enough.

I think true writers are able to convincingly portray a character completely different from themselves. A true writer should be able to put himself or herself in a completely different pair of shoes and write from that point of view. Sort of like acting, but you create the script yourself. It’s my favorite part about writing, getting to be someone else for a while, someone whose life is 100% different from mine.

Do you write what you know? Or do you venture outside the box? Or are you somewhere in the middle?

Writing on location.

I thought I would break up these South Africa travel blogs with a quick post on writing during a trip. When I went to Africa, I struggled at first to find a balance between participating in all our activities and finding time to write. I’m one of those people who needs to remember every single thing about an important experience, but during this trip, there were so many cool things happening, I didn’t have time to write them all down as they happened. Here are some tips that worked for me.

-Carry a notebook everywhere. I bought a small, spiral journal that would fit in my purse and took it everywhere with me. I like spiral notebooks because the pages don’t flip back while you’re trying to write something. I could pull it out of my purse whenever something memorable happened and scribble down a few notes.

-Make lists and short notes instead of trying to write paragraphs. If you don’t have much time but want to remember something important, jot down a sentence or two. You can always go back and expand later.

-Take tons of pictures. They can serve as a memory-jogging tool and are quicker than writing down long descriptions of people and places. Refer back to them while you’re writing your journal entries.

-Lots and lots of pens. I took four or five pens on my eighteen day trip, and I was down to my last one by the time I left (Granted, I discarded one of them after it had been chewed on by a baby in the village, not because it ran out of ink). You definitely don’t want to be stuck somewhere without a writing utensil, especially if you don’t have a friend to borrow one from (or a place to buy one). And going along with that…

-Bring enough paper. I brought a second notebook just in case. I didn’t wind up using it, but you never know! One of the guys on my trip lost his notebook halfway through the trip, which was devastating, but at least if you have a second journal, you can pick up where you left off.

The most important thing about writing on location is to never forget why you’re doing this: for the experience. Make sure you live in the moment and enjoy each experience as it happens. Don’t constantly have your nose in your journal, scribbling down notes from that morning while the world goes on around you. There were times when I didn’t journal for two or three days because I was so caught up in traveling and bonding with my new friends. So many people say we spend all our time these days documenting. We watch concerts through a camera lens instead of with our own eyes. We tweet and update our Facebook statuses while something exciting is happening. I think it’s so important to live in the moment. Trust me, you’ll have more to write down afterwards if you let yourself be surrounded by the experience and take in everything that you can.