The Writing Life

The purpose of this blog is to capture my experience as I learn how to live as a writer. I am in an incredibly lucky situation; I’m studying in the MFA program at Hamline University, am not under pressure to bring in a consistent income, and have enough experience to begin building up my career as a writer.

My goals are to:

  • Give 110% to my classes
  • Work as a freelance writer, which includes
    • Finding grant writing opportunities on Upwork
    • Sending proposals to magazines and websites
    • Figuring out taxes, and
    • Managing my time and projects.

 

The last bullet being the one I find the most difficult. I went to the library trying to find books on workflow (as online sources were largely full of get-rich-quick nonsense) but didn’t have any luck. All of my work experience has had another person — either a teacher, boss, or coworker — to manage what tasks are done when. I’m great at following instructions. Less great at making the instructions themselves.

I found Monday.com and am giving that a shot. It’s frustrating how much time goes into planning the work itself versus doing the work. But as a writer, I should have already known that. Just a few hours ago, I was grinding my nose into a story (due in four days!), stuck because I had failed to plan ahead. 

My husband is also a writer, and our processes as artists are very different; John rocks at planning whole stories through, writes scenes with specific goals in mind, and struggles to sit down and write unless he knows where he’s going. I can sit down and just create stuff, not knowing where I’m going. When I sit down to write something specific it doesn’t always go as I planned, or the finished piece ends up stiff and stale. We usually call it writing like an architect versus writing like a gardener. But we both know that both the gardener and the architect have valuable tools that we both need to use, because every story has unique demands. The story I’m working on now demands that I do some planning, and after several hours of grouchiness and generally being poor company for John, who’s just trying to enjoy the weekend, I figured out what the heck my characters will be doing. Now I just need to sit down and write the dang thing, and hope that it doesn’t come out feeling forced. 

When I learn something new, find a great resource (so far, Monday.com seems like a great tool, though I’m still learning; the last picture is a screenshot of my miles long to-do list), or need to lament, this blog will be the place I do it. I hope I can share some valuable experiences with you. Thank you for being here.