aaron hamburger

Monday, September 03, 2007

Back to Work

Summer is ending. Tomorrow, my roster of fall classes begins. I'll be teaching a creative writing class at Columbia, three ESL classes at NYU, and working with graduate students in Columbia's MFA program as well as the Stonecoast MFA program in Maine (by correspondence).

At the same time, I'll be keeping up my freelance writing and working on a new draft of my novel (yes, the Berlin one). Somewhere in there, I hope to have a life.

This past year has been one of the more difficult ones for me as a writer. I think one of the hardest lessons I've had to come to terms with is that you have to keep growing and moving forward with your work, and yet it's not a good idea to try to do something that you're not suited to either. Knowing where that line lies is not intuitive, at least not for me anyway.

Maybe the greatest lesson I've had to learn is humility. It's nice when you produce a book or a story or an essay, but sometimes the work you do may not result in some product you can share with the world. And that's part of being a writer too. As a writer, your job is to do the work. The hard part is that you don't know for sure what your work really is. I never understood before how it could take some writers years to produce a book. I'd think, just write the thing. Now I get it. They were writing, for all that time. For writers there are different kinds of success. This past year I've been very successful at getting myself to my desk and doing work. What's eluded me so far is another kind of success, and whether I can attain it is not something I know how to control or predict.

posted by aaron hamburger at 2:32 PM | 2 comments


	Monday, September 03, 2007 Back to Work Summer is ending. Tomorrow, my roster of fall classes begins. I'll be teaching a creative writing class at Columbia, three ESL classes at NYU, and working with graduate students in Columbia's MFA program as well as the Stonecoast MFA program in Maine (by correspondence). At the same time, I'll be keeping up my freelance writing and working on a new draft of my novel (yes, the Berlin one). Somewhere in there, I hope to have a life. This past year has been one of the more difficult ones for me as a writer. I think one of the hardest lessons I've had to come to terms with is that you have to keep growing and moving forward with your work, and yet it's not a good idea to try to do something that you're not suited to either. Knowing where that line lies is not intuitive, at least not for me anyway. Maybe the greatest lesson I've had to learn is humility. It's nice when you produce a book or a story or an essay, but sometimes the work you do may not result in some product you can share with the world. And that's part of being a writer too. As a writer, your job is to do the work. The hard part is that you don't know for sure what your work really is. I never understood before how it could take some writers years to produce a book. I'd think, just write the thing. Now I get it. They were writing, for all that time. For writers there are different kinds of success. This past year I've been very successful at getting myself to my desk and doing work. What's eluded me so far is another kind of success, and whether I can attain it is not something I know how to control or predict. posted by aaron hamburger at 2:32 PM \| 2 comments		Literary Blogs Beatrice Book Angst 101 Bookdwarf Booklust Book Ninja Book Slut Conversational Reading Emerging Writers Network Gawker James Tata Jessie Sholl Literary Salon Moby Lives Queer Type Rake's Progress The Reading Experience Tingle Alley Other Sites Eco Home Gear Recent Posts This blog has moved Don't Judge a Book by its Hype When a Story's Not a Story Why Write? Why Read? Book Recommendations from 2009 for 2010 This is Just to Say... I Like You, You Like Me, We're a Happy Family Yom Kippur Reflections Leaving Umbria An Italian Adventure Archives October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 September 2007 November 2007 December 2007 February 2008 May 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 August 2009 September 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 February 2010 April 2010