Stuff! Going on!

[salvagejob]

1. I applied for a teaching job.The sad thing is that this constitutes a big deal for me. I had to write a CV! And some of the stuff I poured onto the page went back a VERY long way. College publications? High school awards? Let us look away quickly. But I had to do it. I want to teach a workshop and by the time I finished writing the CV I was

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[salvagejob]

Oh, you are kind to ask. It was for the Writer's Center in Bethesda, MD, where I have been a student for many years. Do you know it? (I took my first class there in 1986, the summer before I went to college. My teacher at the time has since become famous and I am always hopelessly awkward and weird around him when I encounter him now, for a bunch of reasons but mostly because I haven't accomplished anything in the ensuing 25 years!) Professionally speaking, I may not have enough publications to snag a job there. They really like it if you have a book, even just one, and I don't think they particularly care if you're just an old MFA student, you know?

On the other hand, I've been apprenticing teaching for years now by going to workshop year-round with a great teacher, and so I tried to make the case that I have plenty of teaching experience (which, frankly, matters more).

The sad (ironic?) thing is, I still want to take workshop. The whole time I was studying the course descriptions I was thinking, "Now this might be one I could try...."

Writer's block -- I try not to talk about it much anymore because I've been told so often that it's not worth discussing, probably because I want to talk about it ALL THE TIME. But I will mention a great book I read years ago by Victoria Nelson, "On Writer's Block," and then shut myself up! (Not that you were looking for advice, I realize.)

[decemberthirty]

I'm not familiar with the Writer's Center, but I did just have a look at their website--looks like an interesting place! I'll cross my fingers that it will work out for you. It's sort of a shame that so many place who hire writing teachers are concerned with the number and/or prestige of one's publications, when that's really not at all indicative of the skills needed for teaching...

I felt very workshopped out, as it were, after finishing my MFA. I keep waiting for the workshop fatigue to lift, but three years later I still feel no real desire to put myself back in that position. But I don't think there's anything sad about your wanting to take workshop and wanting to teach workshop at the same time. At the yoga studio I attend, the teachers are always taking classes from each other--why shouldn't writing be like that?

I'll make a note of that book. Have you read Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland? It was helpful to me during a recent bout of block.

[salvagejob]

That's a lovely way to put it (about taking workshop and yoga). I know the feeling of being workshopped out. I am in fact workshopped out. But I have failed to produce anything significant in several years without having the hard workshop deadline that I find so helpful, so I clearly need either a writing group or workshop. I have not written a full, long story in some time and feel terrible about my progress most of the time. One problem with workshop, though, is that I have outgrown it in another way: my stories have gotten too long for workshop, especially in the early drafts. So I end up turning in the first 18 pages of a longer work or simply never completing a first draft because I don't have a deadline for the second half, as it were. It's a silly-sounding and slightly embarrassing problem -- and yet a serious one. I've been stagnating for about three years now.

You've mentioned the art and fear book before and I haven't followed up on it. I am going to order it today. It sounds good -- thanks for mentioning it again!