The Real Writer

Non-Traditional Teaching Jobs

I don't see myself as someone who will ever compete for a tenure-track job in a college or university, because the academic world is not for me. I've always sought out alternative teaching jobs, which I find more fulfilling.

If you're like me on this, then here's a list of possible places you can contact to offer a class (on just about anything, not just writing) of your own:

1) Public libraries

2) Recreation or Community Centers

3) Senior Centers (not just those where seniors live, but day care centers)

4) Extension or Continuing Ed Programs at local colleges and universities

5) Schools for the Arts (alternative high schools - even if you're not certified as a teacher, you can do it as
a substitute)

6) Local private schools and high schools sometimes have artist-in-residence programs (check with your
local or state arts council.

7) After school programs, summer programs (again, check with local colleges and high schools), teen
centers

8) Children and Talented Youth programs (Johns Hopkins has a great one, nationwide - online all year long,
residences for 9 weeks in the summer)

9) Mentoring programs for teens and kids (where adults are matched with a teen or child one on one)

10) Local arts non-profits or art collectives or art centers (they offer pottery, painting, yoga, etc., - do they
offer writing? If not, get in there!)

11) Local bookstores or coffeehouses

12) Your home (put an ad in your local paper or on Craig's List)

13) Your church, synagogue, or religious center

I hope I've given you some inspiring ideas here. Teaching in these kinds of environments is often more fun and rewarding as you reach a wider, more varied audience, with different outlooks, experiences, and levels of ability. If you're pulling in your students from the School of Life, there will be a lot more to work with. People often can't afford (financially or in terms of time) to go back to school for a degree, but they still have a passion for writing and want to learn and develop their skills. I have found many, many fantastic writers in the places I listed - from 13 years old to 75 years old, and my own creative life is much richer for it!

Journaling Assignment

I just gave this to my class on creating a writer's journal, so I'll share this exercise with you as well:

FIRST: Consider starting over and buying a new journal, rather than turning a page in the one you're using. Even if you have a journal around that you like and haven't used, maybe buy another, just for the purpose of this new practice. New energy, and all that! Buy something that makes you feel good, that you will want to pick up and write in. If a big, black sketchbook is your thing, great. If something with kittens on it is your thing, great too. This journal is the physical manifestation of your writer's mind. It should be the 'home' that makes you happy. Ditto on pens or markers or whatever. (No pencils; this must be writing you can't erase.)

SECOND: The exercise:

Imagine your daily life is occurring in a foreign country. Carry the journal with you the rest of the week and write in it whenever you have a moment - in line at the supermarket, on a bus, in a restaurant, in the park, at the beginning and end of the day, whenever. Write anything and everything: snatches of conversations, observations, concerns, your dreams the night before, plans, lines of poems, something you want to include in a letter to someone, a song lyric you like, what people are wearing, the weather, the food, etc. Allow yourself to record anything and everything without judging its appropriateness or meaning. Allow your emotional responses to things without censoring yourself.

We get so used to our routines that we stop seeing our world with fresh eyes, so let's change that: for the next few days, you are vacationing in your own life. Everything is new and of value. Everything is worth observing and describing - big or small.

What you write here may later be used to generate something structured - poem, story, essay, play, or not. Writing is writing. Whether it coalesces into something to be shared or not. The writer's life and journal is about taking things a few steps deeper. You are constructing yourself as well as your relationship to the world. This is at the heart of all writing - whether it's fiction or not.

THE RULES:

Write. Don't try to name what you think should come in advance of its arrival. Don't worry about spelling, punctuation, or sentence structure. Don't look back. Don't edit. Don't think of what it could be. Just welcome what comes and give it space and a place in which to BE.

Promise yourself that you won't tear anything out and throw it away.

Homework - Getting Some Perspective

I just gave this 'homework' to a new coaching client and thought I'd pass it on to you. It's always good to step back and take stock of our influences and goals, as well as what we think is problematic in our writing. Why? Read through the questions first, and I'll tell you.

1) Make a list of 5 writers you read regularly. Write down why you like their writing - not just the technical elements of their stories, but things like the tone or mood of their writing. The effect it has on you. Maybe its audience. Maybe how it makes you think or how it lingers with you long after you finish it.

You want to approach it like this: "This is what I love about it - it takes me into another world." (for example)

Now, ask yourself: How does the writer do that? What does he/she do craftwise/stylewise/voicewise to make that happen?" Try to do this so that your answers are a blending of the two parts of the question rather than two separate answers to two separate questions.

As writers, we have to look at the person behind the curtain. Not to imitate them - you want to keep your own style/voice - but to see how they made things happen in their story, how they approached their characters, or topic, etc., so you can try that method if you're attracted to it.

2) What writing habits do you have that you don't think serve you? What are 'mistakes' you find yourself making over and over in your stories? What are things you want to do in your writing and just don't know how? What element do you struggle with the most? (For example: maybe you have trouble writing dialogue, or you constantly forget to describe people, things like that.)

So now the why: so you can take steps to address the problem (get a book on writing dialogue, copy pages of dialogue from books you like to tape above your desk for inspiration, spend time 'overhearing' conversations in public, writing them down, then spiffing them up a little by introducing a conflict or backstory), or look at your writing and decide whether or not your influences are working for you or against you. Maybe you're trying too hard to incorporate a style that doesn't suit you. Maybe it's time to try reading some new writers. There's always room for improvement.

You get a physical every year, right? Give your writing a physical too. Look at what you're putting into your head, and what's coming out on the page. Are you reading and writing the same old stuff? Are you taking risks by writing about something new to you? Are you trying something new in your writing? Even switching from past tense to present can make a difference. Are you 'gathering' from inspiring places? Are you 'gathering' at all? Time to schedule a trip to a museum, or attend a poetry reading, or rent some foreign/independent films. Go to the theatre. Go somewhere unusual. I just took a tour of Greenmount Cemetery here in Baltimore and got a fabulous novel idea from a story about one of the people buried there. (Not telling what it is!) Get out there!

But first, do your homework.

Going to Breadloaf

Great news! I've been accepted to Breadloaf, so this August I'll be reporting back each day (or as often as I can) about the experience, the people, the workshops, the agents, the editors, the food :), the scenery, so you can get a feel for the place - similar to what I did for the NYC pitchfest.

It's affectionately termed 'Bedloaf' because of the shenanigans that go on there (yes, I said 'shenanigans'), and there are also little groups that form based on who is a fellow, who is a tuition scholar, and who is doing work study (waiting tables during meals). The general applicant (moi) is considered to be the less appealing way to go, but I really could care less. Cliques are for high school. I'm not going for the wild time; I'm going to work with great poets, meet other writers, and pitch my work to agents and editors. And for the beautiful scenery and the quiet - whatever I can get!

Because of the cost ($1495 for the conference, $738 for room and board), and when the full amount must be paid to the conference people (end of June, early July), I won't be staying on campus, so I won't be reporting on the accommodations firsthand. I've found a very cheap, but lovely room in an inn in Ripton, where the conference is held (near Middlebury, VT) and where, apparently, one of the breakfast offerings is Big Bill's Eggs. Can't wait!

Will also post pics.

Little known news - there's a book prize associated with Breadloaf - the Bakeless Literary Prize, the submission period for which is August 1 - November 1.

If you're interested in Breadloaf for next year, applications are taken through March, but the financial aid deadline is March 1st. Here's the link:

Breadloaf Writers Conference