The Multifaceted Writer: A Balancing Act

At the end of last week, a professional door opened for me that I thought was essentially closed. Okay, not so much a closed door as a door that was slammed shut, window shade pulled down, and then a sign posted saying “CLOSED FOR BUSINESS. COME BACK TOMORROW. THANK YOU FOR YOUR BUSINESS.” The big news? I was contacted by a local university about an opportunity to teach adjunct courses in writing.

Part of me is over the moon about the possibility of getting some solid teaching experience and teaching students about the art and profession of writing that I love so well. However, part of me also is cautious. This is partially because I’ve been badly burned by the academic system over the past 7 years. I’m also uncertain if this is the right time for me to be taking on extra work while I’m building my writing-based business, working on my own freelance portfolio, and finishing my first academic book.

My biggest worry: how on earth am I going to balance everything?

Ever since completing my PhD in late 2005, I have been courting and been courted by various universities about potential teaching opportunities, and have applied in earnest for hundreds of academic positions. However, as many people know, the academic job market has been in a slump, particularly in the humanities, for at least the past decade, well before there was ever a hint of an economic crisis.

When none of my seemingly thousands of applications, meet-and-greets, and e-mail queries went anywhere, I focused my career objectives in a totally different direction. I tasked myself with making a business out of turning English Literature into an applied field. In this new model, my academic publications, including my current book on Shelley and music, suddenly had weight as proof of my research skills, content expertise, and ability to write across fields, even in light of my lack of teaching experience (which is difficult to get in the British university system in which I studied). Building on connections and some good luck, I was finally able to start my own company this past April, and I am now fulfilling one of my longtime dreams: to write professionally. Yet, this renewed thrust into the world of words brought with it two problems that I never envisioned: 1) when you can suddenly do anything, what do you do first?; and 2) how do you decide if you need to set aside some dreams in order to pursue others?

The sheer act of writing, never mind attempting to make a business out of it, is a balancing act. Whether you are an occasional freelancer looking to build your portfolio or a corporate grant writer completing RFPs (request for proposal) to get much-needed funding, writing requires planning, energy, focus, and, perhaps most importantly, time. We all have other commitments in life, obviously. But I’m talking about the actual art of sitting down to translate ideas into written language. You have to balance nouns and verbs, establish a logical flow of ideas between sentences and across paragraphs, and maintain your reader’s interest while staying true to your outline and agenda as a writer.

For me, writing is always a mêlée. I am not a linear person. I make outlines but never precisely stick to them. I also am easily distracted. I have been known to spend more time searching for an appropriate quote to begin a chapter or essay than I do actually writing the piece itself. When I write, I throw ideas around, following this thought that leads to this other tangential thought that ends up being more topical than the first. Eventually, I write and write, virtually crumpling up drafts as I go (which usually means sticking it in another Word doc in case I need it later). I always am slightly amazed when I see a finished product, given the circuitous way in which I write.

With this free-form approach to writing, I have faced some hard choices over the past few months in balancing and prioritizing my writing agenda and, in turn, my business plan. Like many writers, I have a lot of different goals, so it’s often hard to determine what to do first and to feel assured that you’ve made the right decision at the same time.  

Three months into my new writing career, I feel like I have a decent routine and a respectable business plan. I spend most of my early mornings doing a variety of freelance writing, the late morning and most of the afternoon on core client business work, and my late afternoon working on my academic book.

This is why the whole prospect of teaching is confusing. Until last week, I had, at least for the most part, sealed off the dream of teaching as something to pursue later in order to focus on my writing business. But now I’m not sure what to do.

I’ve been highly successful in doing things semi-academically by building my academic writing into my business model. Teaching takes up a lot of time; and I’m already pretty inundated. Also, as an entrepreneur, I’m worried that the temptation of the academic world will distract me from my business pursuits. Yet, the word-addicted, poetry-loving, quote-mongering, professional and academic writer in me wants to seize this pedagogical opportunity to teach others about writing, since it is another of my dreams.

Is it wrong to go through an open door even if you risk being flooded? Or is it better to follow another dream first, do it well, and worry about other goals later? I clearly have no answers to these questions, but I have a meeting later this week about this teaching opportunity that should hopefully make my decision less agonizing…   

Jessica Quillin owns Quillin Consulting, LLC, a consultancy in Washington, DC, focused on content development, research, and strategy for the public and private sectors. She holds a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Cambridge.