Wasn't I a Writer?

I've been working on my taxes this week, and I can't believe the changes this last year. The biggest change was on that line that identifies my job. For as long as I can remember, the answer has always been "journalist." Until 2008, and my new job description is "teacher." Out of all the money I made in 2008, only $500, earned during the first two weeks of the year, was from writing.

I can't complain. It turns out that my jump from journalism to teaching came at the perfect time. My friends still working at the local newspapers report that their hours have been cut back to 35 hours (or less) a week. When I worked as a full-time reporter, I routinely worked well over 40 hours a week. A cut to even 35 hours, would have meant a loss of a good chunk of my income.

Another thing doing my taxes made me realize -- I haven't had any of my writing professionally published for over a year. This is unheard of. I began writing professionally when I was still in high school. When I was still an undergraduate, I landed a job at a local newspaper. For most of the last 20 years, I have had a byline on an average of 7 articles a week plus I did freelancing and other writing work. In 2008, except for those first two weeks, I didn't write a single thing for publication other than blogging here (which was few and far between) and on my own site.

Could I still claim to be a writer if all I'd written were comments about other peoples' writing?

And then today, I went to my post office, and I found a check. It was from BlogHer, and it was my first advertising revenue from my blog. It wasn't a direct payment for my writing, but it suddenly renewed my pledge for 2009. I am going to write again.

This semester ends May 2, and I will have a bit of last minute things to finish up, but I also have plans. I have that research paper about plagiarism that I want to submit for consideration in an academic journal. And I have my memoir, with approximately 30,000 polished words, waiting for another 40,000 or so.

I am a writer, and I have been sidetracked the last few years with teaching, and I know I no longer want to be a journalist, but I am a writer, and I need to remember writers write, but I am a writer who writes for an audience, and I can't let my audience down.

"I" is Interesting

My gentle high school English teacher Mrs. Callaway spent the first several months of my senior year striking all of the "I"s out of my literature essays. She was one of my favorite teachers of all time - she was strict but encouraging. (I can still see her face, stricken with the joy of epiphany, whenever she read one of my essays. It wasn't that I was really that awesome, I suspect. She was just thrilled anytime one of her students showed genuine interest.)

After a year in her class, basking in her praise and sweating under her tutelage, I finally managed to write something without the word "I" in it.

But Mrs. Callaway couldn't have predicted the breakout trend of blogging. And that's why I don't feel any tremendous amount of guilt for rejoicing like a heathen when I read How Freelance Writing Almost Destroyed My Blog. Rebecca Laffar-Smith, an Australian freelance writer and author of the Writer's Round-About blog, explains how site stats finally convinced her to make her posts more personal. And that means using "I" once in a while.

"I" couldn't be happier. And "I" didn't need more convincing. But if you want more proof - complete with graphs and bullet-points - check out SelfMadeChick.com's post: The One Word That Helped My Blog Grow to 800 Subscribers in 17 Weeks

Obviously, there are blogs that do quite well by giving readers useful, helpful information without a lot of navel-gazing. But you know, when I think about the blogs in my feed-reader, I can't think of ONE - even technical ones - that isn't written in first-person.

"I" is interesting. And I really don't think Mrs. Callaway, if she were alive and reading blogs today, would disagree.

Rejection versus perfectionism

Image by tanakawho via Flickr

I got an interesting email this morning - normally, after posting (like I did the other morning), I'd wait a couple of days, but this one just couldn't wait.
I was talking about rejections yesterday, and I wasn't entirely clear or accurate. Most of the pieces I'm currently having rejected are later accepted by magazines further down my submission chain.
But there are just some places I CANNOT get into - the elusive areas of fiction writing that would really make a huge difference to my morale, my goals and possibly my writing career.
Where does the email fit into this?
Well, yesterday I got a rather sniping email asking if I realised I was making 'smelling mistakes' (I'm assuming they meant spelling ;)) and that no American author should make the mistakes I do.
Well, for a start, I'm British, not American. We use the Queen's English instead of American English. Both are perfectly valid language variations in my opinion - and there's no reason to say American English is derivative, because both languages, in my opinion have evolved since splitting paths. I'd probably have etymological students up in arms right about now, but to be honest, for me, it’s splitting hairs. And if you prefer the look of color without the U, that's great! I can't write that though without my brain screaming 'WRONG!'
Secondly, I'm mildly dyslexic. I also rush when I'm writing blogs, because, to me they are very 'immediate'. I have spelling and punctuation problems, but I don't rely on Word to check them, and that's something I'm trying to teach myself to get over. Most of my favourite bloggers make the same mistakes as me ;). Its not an excuse though, so I'm trying to fix that.
Blog posts, for me though, aren't the same as the writing I'm sending to my editors. Both are equally important to me, for different reasons, but I *really* don't view what I'm saying on blogs as the same as what I'm sending to editors. The immediacy issue aside, I also feel that no matter how you cut it, blogs are less formal - they don't require nearly as much editing, and while that can lead to sloppy writing, it's more likely that the poster is just in a hurry. Again though, that's not an excuse for making spelling and grammar mistakes (my most common one is 'it's' and forgetting the apostrophe ;))
I am however making a few changes.
I'm going to 'slow down' - I'm going to write posts in Word and hopefully, I'll see a pattern in what mistakes I make - which will tighten up my writing, and feed my perfectionist streak.
And yes, I know, it sounds odd saying I'm a professional writer that makes all these mistakes – so I’m going to start removing them, just to make sure that I’m presenting exactly that. Though my blog posts and my fiction writing are two completely separate things, there’s absolutely no reason for me to handle them differently.

What do you think?

Did you miss me? I sure missed you....

Image via WikipediaOne of the things that I absolutely adore about a 'regular' gig, that writing my own blogs doesn't give me, is the fact that I know I'm reaching people that ordinarily, I might not get to talk to.
But...for the last two weeks, I've been finishing up my first year of Uni (errr...didn't I start when we started this blog? That's kinda scary!), and that meant somewhere in the region of 20,000 words that makes sense to my professors...
I think you can see the problem there ;)
Mainly the whole 'making sense' thing, if I'm being completely honest. And then, last week, I caught a kidney infection, and then...I was wiped. Entirely. Which meant that when I'd only intended to be MIA for maybe a week, I've been gone for around two, perhaps more than even that.
I don't take weeks at a time off blogs normally, because one of the main points of blogging is that you have to try to do it consistently - but sometimes life gets in the way.
Writing is like that too. Have you ever sat down and thought to yourself 'I MUST...' and then, instead, vegged in front of the TV? Surfed aimlessly around the internet? Played around with things that you don't really *need* to do.
Yep - most of us do that. Its not life getting in the way, but it is our brain's way of saying 'enough already'. I've given in fighting it - I can achieve 'butt in seat' but I find it wearing if I really don't want to write - so instead, I read, I draft, I plot, I plan. I spent most of this last month reading non fiction books on the 'how to' of plot and characterisation, testing out new pens, finding things that I enjoy...
I'm currently testing out some project support programs that should help me (yes, I'm still at it - I called ceasefire over the last two months, cause Uni got manic) - and by extention, anyone interested - reorganise, reprioritise, and most of all, gain control over my time completely again. I have to stress though, and I'm not in denial - I don't have a time management problem. I really don't. There's just not enough time in the day to do everything all the time. Which is why I'm working on shifting gears, amalgamaing....most of all though, I'm trying to find a way to make sure that my writing time is truly my own again ;).
There is something you could perhaps help me with though. Do you, as a writer, collect, or hoard pens. I do. I've got about a million of them - most of them rarely used - sixteen fountain pens - thousands of ballpoints, both functional and pretty, and fineliners, hilighters, hybrid, fancy, calligraphy and other pens. I've always wondered if it is a 'writer' thing. :)
And if you DO collect them - is it becuase you like pens, or because youve never got one handy when you wanna write? :) I'm talking about this on both my personal blog (Kai's Personal space) and my professional writing blog (Ardentwriter) but I'm curious, so I thought I'd ask here too ;)