ARCHIVE FOR Writers Who Relocate

In every class I teach, my students most commonly discuss the issue of prioritizing their writing. 

"I just don't have the time," they say. 

As we all know, the same excuse could be made for exercise, cleaning, and all of the other task that we dread. These things make us feel good, but only after the hard work is put in.

Maybe it's easier to be held accountable when there is an editor or agent bugging you, but for most writers, this is a non-reality. So how do we continue writing when no one is chasing us to produce?

The past weekend, we Launch Labbers had our last session together. We reviewed what we had learned and discussed future goals, then we had one final guest speaker visit us before we parted ways. The always entertaining, best-selling author, Jenna Blum, joined us, and I don't think that I am the only one who left her talk feeling totally jazzed.

After Jenna gave us a run down of all the things she did to market and publicize her books (talking to every book club she could find, making t-shirts, using social media to its fullest), she gave us a writing exercise. 

I teach. A lot. I teach at writing centers, universities, online. I don’t have family members in academia, and I have moved around a bit, so I’ve gotten these jobs with a limited number of connections. Because I don’t have a tenure-track position, sometimes I have to assemble different jobs into a “full-time” job. Yes, instructors, especially adjuncts, are under-paid and under-benefitted