Class 16 - Starting to Think Like a Writer

Welcome Back

In this session, we’re going to start moving towards thinking about our final assignment. We have just over six weeks. So this gives us a lot of time! But the aim here is to start moving from thinking about writing as something that you do in university to thinking about writing professionally.

We’ll be talking about lots of things, such as exploring the literary marketplace, pitching, and how to contact editors. So today, I’m going to get started by exploring the complex psychology of thinking of yourself as a writer.

Why Publish?

I’m going to start by saying something about the marketplace of words. I know that for many writers, the word ‘market’ sounds cold and miserable. But I want you to think of the marketplace of words not as something calculating and hollow, but instead as more like a crowded bazaar where people come to trade in experiences and ideas and stories. And this exchange is one of the most deeply human things of all. It goes back to the very earliest times, to the way sitting huddled around the fire, people said, ‘Tell me a story…’

As a nonfiction writer, you have stories to tell: so what you need now is people to tell them to. Not everybody will be interested in every story, so if you are wanting to publish your work, you need to first get a sense of who you want to talk to. When you come across a market that fits your work, the mutual excitement is tangible: the editor who gets back and says they love your piece, the readers who share it on social media, the knowledge that your thoughts and your words have found a good home.

So in the huge, global marketplace of words — this teeming bazaar — you need to find a place where people want what you are offering.

Why publish?

I want to start by talking about motivations for publishing. We’ll start with two writing exercises.

Write a piece for 5 minutes, exploring the question ‘why I want to publish my work’. If you absolutely don’t want to publish your work, you can write about ‘why I don’t want to publish my work’ instead, which is fine as well!

Now we’ll move on to a second writing exercise:

Next, write for another 5 minutes exploring the question: ‘what holds me back from publishing my work?’

We’ll discuss this in breakout groups, then feed back.

Knowledge and Curiosity

To start to build your own personal profile as a writer, what makes you unique, you need to explore the things you know about, and the things you are curious about.

Knowledge

For this first exercise, first note down five things you know about. These may be big things — macroeconomics, or Abhidhamma. Or they may be small things — the gossip in your village.Write these down under the title “Things I know.”

Curiosity

Now, write down up to ten things you are curious about. These are things you don’t yet know about, or don’t know as deeply as you want, but you want to know more, or you would like to spend your time researching. “Things I want to know.”

Why is the second list bigger? Because there are always more things to find out than we already know. And because however much or little we start out knowing, curiosity is the real engine that drives creative nonfiction!

Who am I as a writer?

This specific blend of knowledge and curiosity is a part of your profile as a writer. Now we’re going to do a final exercise, thinking about who you are as a writer. Part of the art of being a writer is tricking yourself into thinking that you are actually a writer (and you are!). So we’re going to work on

For this exercise, you are going to write a short biography of yourself as a creative nonfiction writer. Don’t worry yet if you haven’t published anything yet. Even the most famous writers in the world were once unpublished writers! So what’s important in this exercise is that you should start to think of yourself as a writer.

Write in the third person, “Will is a writer from the UK who loves cats, ideas, and stories…” Tell us who you are, give us a sense of your unique voice, your interests, and what drives you. If you need some ideas for how to go about this, do some research online. Find narrative journalism articles that you like, look up the authors, read their author bios (“author bio” is just short for “author biography”), and take the lead from there.

Write up to 150 words. Now, for your final task, write a two sentence author biography. You can think of this as the “tag line” that might accompany an article. It gives a snappy, short sense of who you are, and what matters to you.

Homework!

Post your author bio to the discussion board.