On getting over-educated
I met this great woman today for coffee. A friend introduced us because we both write creative nonfiction.
My New Friend is getting her MFA through a low residency program and I was picking her brain about it because I NEED to double my student loan debt with a degree that will not in anyway enhance my salary earning capacity! Why do I want to do this? So I have an excuse to write!!
I’m not writing much right now. Oh sure, I put my fingers on the keyboard and type stuff (like now, for example). I type: emails, instructions, reports, brochures, landing pages, web alerts, etc. etc. What I’m not writing these days are essays or really much with the blog, which you all already know. But I haven’t written anything lately because I’m still kinda hung over from finishing my proposal (and I’m purposefully not blogging the whole getting-an-agent process but that’s what’s happening right now) and I’ve been so busy with work work work that CREATIVE work has taken a hit.
I was listening to my New Friend talk about people editing her stuff and it sounds so lovely! Because I do adore a good go-through with a smart editor!! I need a reason to write these days. A goal. Not a justification — because I can always justify doing things I enjoy, thus the 20 minutes I spent trying to beat my score on Tumblebugs before my phone interview — but a motivator.
I need to shake off my post-proposal lethargy and get onto something else but my head is so full of work right now that I haven’t been able to do it yet. Soon maybe.
Talking to my New Friend helped.
I really admire those who can just create create create, with no space between projects. I don’t have it in me, for even something as simple as sewing. For many of us, creativity waxes and wanes. Of course the challenge is to get back to it, because being lazy can be habit forming!
There are other alternatives to an MFA. Does your community have a writer’s guild or group? Can you form one? A friend joined one several years ago and finally got a book of short stories out. She found it very helpful to keeping her motivated.
Yeah, I really miss writing. But I have my blog and it entertains my family and old college friends. I used to belong, and don’t laugh…to the Romance Writer’s of America. We met monthly to talk about publishing hassle’s, agent searches, and such like. You didn’t necessarily have to be a romance writer, but the connections to the writing world were awesome…..
(I’m here from the blogher ads. You and I are featured on the badge.)
Of course, I never claimed I could spell….sorry.