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

Comments

[decemberthirty]

Funny timing--I just popped over to livejournal to take a little break after spending the morning working on my own course proposal for the fall! I hate the language of those things. Whether you use the typical words or a more, shall we say, "touchy-feely" vocabulary, I hate writing them either way.

What sort of school/organization are you submitting your proposal to? I'm curious about details, of course, but I'm not trying to pressure you into sharing more than you want to share.

Sorry about your block. It sucks. I was just talking to my students last night about how it doesn't really make a difference whether you have a "real" block or just something you perceive as a block--the end result is the same. Hope you can overcome yours soon.

[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

[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!