Frustration (Part Three)
After years of teaching at the university level, my pursuit of writing took off when I started to submit my work. Read on for more thoughts about how (and why) I let my creativity take center stage!
We’ve been talking about the frustration that comes with trying to break into this business and how you deal with the potential rejection.
As I’ve mentioned, one type of writer needs the security of a career that gives them a decent lifestyle as they pursue their dream of writing and the other type of writer does NOT need that security in order to keep their mind focused on the pursuit of writing.
The only case history I know really well is my own, so I thought I’d share how I dealt with this dilemma.
Having received my Master’s in 18th century rhetorical theory, I was prepared for about one thing: being a professor. And since no one actually wanted to know anything about 18th century rhetorical theory, I taught communication classes—interpersonal communication, small group communication, intercultural communication and many versions of public speaking classes. During this time, by the way, I was not pursuing writing. At all. Never even occurred to me to try.
In fact, I remember sitting in my grad school class room in Amherst, Massachusetts in a seminar on Plato and across the hall from me was a class of grad students studying film. And I thought, Wow, can you imagine that? Having a career in the movie business! I even went to parties with some of these film students—my best friend actually dated one—but they seemed like a different animal to me. It seriously never occurred to me that I could dream that big. I came from small-town Iowa and things like writing or acting happened to special people, certainly not me. Plus, the only film students I met were men—no women.
It wasn’t until about 7 years into teaching at the university level that I had this tiny little thought that there were things I wanted to say and that maybe I should try writing. I had these ideas…. So I wrote a play and submitted it to a contest. It didn’t win, but I got a letter from a prominent NY theater producer who asked to see more of my work.
Gulp. That was it. The one play. I was a busy college professor and that was my focus—and I loved teaching. Truly loved it. But it seemed to me that my life was all giving, giving to my students, and I wasn’t sure that was enough to sustain ME. I wanted to do something creatively.
This was also about the time I was coming up for tenure—and I knew that if I got it, I’d probably never leave academia. If you’re not familiar with tenure, it’s basically a guarantee that you’ll have your job of being a professor for life.
I knew if I stayed, I might never have the courage to leave. And something in me told me that having that safety net would mean I’d never REALLY pursue my dream. So I quit.
Gulp again. What was I thinking???
Next week I’ll tell you how I dealt with the frustration of pursuing my writing dream without that safety net.
You certainly followed your intuition!
Great post!