While I was in graduate school, a wise writing professor told me that a writing life and a writing career are not the same. The writing career is the publishing and business end of things: the time-consuming submissions to literary journals, the building of a platform, the seeking of an agent, and so forth. The writing life is something more personal and, as I have discovered after more years of writing, much more important.
A writing life is as it sounds: a life centered on and fueled by writing and all the observing, thinking, and listening that go with it. It’s where writing and revision happen, where you feel the rush of finding the right metaphor or the thrill of nailing a bit of dialogue perfectly. Even if I rarely publish, if I never have a “real” writing career in terms of book sales or awards, I will always have my writing life—that is, as long as I nurture it.
How do writers nurture their writing lives? By writing often, of course, but also by gathering experiences. Good writing depends on keen insight, vivid descriptions, and a rendering of the human condition that is engaging and moving. A trip to a foreign country, for example, can provide a basis for settings and characters for fiction writers. Meeting new people and hearing their life stories can spark ideas for an essayist. For poets, the sounds, smells, and sights of a natural landscape can inspire a new work. Sometimes experiences yield results right away, and others appear in work years later.
It’s also important to interact with other writers. Responding to someone else’s work can motivate you to improve your own, and fellow writers also give much-needed encouragement when the going gets tough. Try making your writing life a priority by setting aside writing time every day or every week, with a strict “no interruptions” policy. Finally, read! Reading is one of the most powerful ways to nurture the writing life. Musicians listen to music, chefs eat at restaurants, painters visit art galleries—all to find new ideas and techniques to incorporate into their own work. Writers are no different.
Writers often hope that a vibrant writing life will yield a successful writing career: a book, a collection of short stories, a teaching job. I’ve been blessed to make some headway in that respect recently: my essay “Greyhound” won the 2016 Payton James Freeman Essay Prize and appeared in The Rumpus. I’ll travel to Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, in February for a reading of the essay. But the career should not be the goal, my professor urged. A successful writing life, one that includes steady writing and experiences to fuel it, will make a true writer feel fulfilled.
Stephanie Anderson
Stephanie Anderson holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative nonfiction from Florida Atlantic University. Her work has appeared in Devil’s Lake, The Chronicle Review, SCOPE Magazine, and Farm and Ranch Living. Stephanie has taught undergraduate creative writing and composition courses at Florida Atlantic University, and her awards include the Aisling Award in Nonfiction from Coastlines literary magazine, the College of Arts and Letters Advisory Board Student Award, and the Swann Scholarship. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
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