Life. Who knew? The Beatles I guess. So almost two years ago I lost my job as an adjunct writing instructor. It wasn't that they were dissatisfied with my performance, but that they had run out of work for me to do. I was forced to find a new job. I was fortunate and found one a few months later and found myself moving in August 2010.
I immediately stepped into orientation for my job as a full-time instructor at a community college. One of the deans of the college cited his plan from decades ago when he got hired: work as a teacher and do his artwork on the side. However, he soon began spending so much time on work that he never found time for his art, and he said that he never regretted it.
At the time I thought that I would not become him. I would maintain my writing in spite of the pressures and demands of the job. I would be published! It was even encouraging to find that someone in my department had recently published a novel. I could find support for my goal. I would still be a writer.
Now here it is almost three years since my last blog post and my writing habit has gone down the drain.
I am determined to reverse this trend. This was motivated by several factors. The first was the roleplaying campaign my group was playing. I spent some time writing the summary that I thought I would novelize it. The first few chapters were well received by my gaming group and that gave me support to continue.
The second motivation came while preparing for courses. This semester I decided to fall back on a technique from my adjunct days. The assignment guide. I used an old assignment guide as a format for the new ones I was preparing. In the process I came across this old assignment.
"DAILY WRITING
Due Monday, June 14th (Bring to Class)
100 points
To become better writers it is necessary that you write every day. For this class you are required to write a minimum of 200 new words every day, Monday-Saturday (including holidays)."
I still believe that. If you want to succeed as a writer you must write every day (or as close to every day as is feasible). I believe it, but I haven't been doing it. I am going to change that and get back in the habit of daily writing. It shouldn't be too difficult: there is a lot of writing to do.
The third motivation was New Years. It's a time to make a fresh start and I made a resolution to finish a novel this year and revise one. That's a stiff order if I don't spend time daily working on it. However, I believe it is possible and this blog is going to help me get there.
