I had another bumpy month as a writer in October. I took a second job working as a sales girl at a department store last month because I thought it was the responsible, mature thing to do. The result? I made a little extra money and lost all my spare time. Not worth it. I put in my two weeks notice and my last day will be the 13th of November. Counting down the days . . . In addition to that I came down with a nasty bug a few weeks ago and I was pretty much completely out of commission for a whole week – lost my voice and everything.
Which means that not only did I not meet ANY of my goals for the month of October, but I didn’t even come close on any of them. I feel frustrated about missing my goal yet again and about the fact that I haven’t really been hitting it hard as a writer ever since I left Alaska. But I guess this is what people talk about when they talk about not having time to write.
So I’m setting the same goals as I did last month – spend an average of an hour a day writing, query five agents, and submit to ten journals – and this month I’m hoping not to have too much trouble meeting them since I’m almost done with that second job. Being so busy has given me a new appreciation for my writing time and I feel really excited and ready to get back into it.
November’s goals:
- Minimum of 30 hours spent writing
- Query 5 agents
- Submit to 10 journals
6 comments:
I hope you get back into it. I'm kind of resolving myself to setting much of my writing aside for the next month or two. I'll have four classes worth of essays to grade in the last weeks of the semester. I haven't done the math, but I'm sure it will amount to hundreds of essays between now and December 18. Although I'd like to quit my retail job like you, I feel that the money is enough to keep me there a few more months, and I don't want to put my manager in a bind right before the holidays since I know she relies on me as one of the best employees, and I genuinely like her. So my plan is to do little bits of revising here and there when I can, and then try to really dig into a new schedule of serious writing in the new year.
Well, if I was working at a bookstore I might be willing to put up with it through the holidays. But selling shoes just isn't worth it.
I spoke too soon. Evidently I will get some writing done. Even though I should have spent a ton of time grading papers today (I have about fifty to be graded right now and I collect more tomorrow), instead I spent several hours working on "Burgers and Sushi." I'm trying to really look carefully at every sentence, searching for the best language and flow. I think it's really getting good. So I don't know if that makes me a good writer or a bad teacher.
Well, college writing teachers are expected to write, right? So I think you're doing fine. Some of my profs neglect to hand back papers until the end of the semester, and they DON'T write...no excuses! Haha. Like I'm one to talk. But I am starting to appreciate the amount of work my profs put in to their classes more and more...and I am always growing in excitement at the prospect of someday being on their (and your) level.
Ashley, maybe you could channel your frustrations at the sales job into a story...? At least then something worthwhile could have come from that job...
At the university full professor level, there's certainly the expectation that one writes and that's part of the job, but at the community college adjunct level, there's not really the expectation built in that one is pursuing other tangents. That's why I look forward to landing a full time creative writing job some day.
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