The Letter I Wrote to Start Writing Again

I'm sharing this because I think it is an honest and accurate account of the way my writing life has changed over the last year and a half.

Letter of Interest

RE: Jenny McKean Moore Free Community Workshop

Five years ago I wrote, “The writing life I lead now exists in stolen moments, free time at the office, early morning alarms that call me to write something, anything.“  Less than a year after writing that sentence I quit my job, packed up my apartment and moved to middle of nowhere to write. I spent three years in a small college town, teaching and writing.  I was experiencing the kind of professional and artistic fulfillment most people only dream of. 

When I came to Baltimore to take a job in the fall of 2010 I had high expectations. I assumed that I would somehow make it possible to continue leading the kind of life I had been living. As it turns out, teaching ninth grade English and guiding anywhere between twenty and forty high school seniors through the college search process leaves time for very little. I write on a daily basis, letters of recommendation, comments on five paragraph essays, and course evaluations twice a year. But I don’t write.  My novel lies in pieces on my hard drive and I have several short stories that are varying states of completion. The writing groups I once a member of have disbanded and my attempts to recreate them have been unsuccessful.  It’s hard to devote time to writing when everything else shouts out for attention with a much louder voice.

            As a writer, I thrive in an environment where I am forced to consider not only my art, but also the art of those around me.  Between 2005 and 2010 I took nine fiction writing workshops and taught an additional five. During that time I believe that I have produced my best work because I have inspired by the simple fact that someone out there would be reading it, thinking about it and assisting me in making it better. I find that I am most motivated when my writing is given more than those few stolen moments in between meeting with frenzied seniors and terrified freshmen.  I look forward to having the opportunity to work with other gifted writers in the same kind of environment that first encouraged me to embrace a life in which writing is central.

                                                                        Sincerely,