I write a lot about work. I’m fascinated by the claims work makes on us, the crowds it places us in, the behavior it forces on and from us, and the madnesses, variously and usually unsuccessfully disguised, that we bring to work with us.
I’ve written and published essays, articles, and an interview about aspects of my life in higher ed, where I was part of that army of administrators who, oddly, tend to be ignored by fiction and nonfiction writers. Those writers overwhelmingly have focused on faculty and students, while the busy herds of administrators have been left largely uninvestigated and unexposed.
Here’s a link to the first of my fairly benign writings about higher ed administration (http://www.chronicle.com/article/Reasons-for-Leaving/45069), published in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the major newspaper for the gargantuan higher education industry.
The first five essays for the Chronicle were written under one of my pseudonyms, Lauren Moore. My colleagues at the college discovered the identity behind my pseudonym, but the often-prickly president’s council members surprised me by praising the essays.
From the first essay (“Reasons for Leaving”), you can see the others by searching the Chronicle site for Lauren Moore and for Marie Pelangy (my second pseudonym, which was not discovered).
I have a vague sense that the essays became more and more pessimistic over the two years that I wrote them.
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Over the past 3 months or so, I’ve written more than 70 articles about writing careers for Examiner.com (www.examiner.com/x-15281-Boston-Writing-Careers-Examiner).
It’s been tons of fun. Writing my Examiner.com articles leads me to folks I wouldn’t have access to otherwise. But it can’t compete with the satisfaction I get from teaching and writing about Tools & Tactics for Creative Writers.
So, I’m taking a brief break from the Examiner for a little reflection—a necessary and enjoyable indulgence for us writers.
I’ve been thinking about this blog—mostly about what to reveal. This space is different from my Examiner space, which is entirely about its readers, not about me. With only one or two exceptions, I always write in the third person there.
This blog is different, too, from the creative writing blog I write for Simmons College (www.simmons.edu/reconnect/lynette-benton). As Simmons is both my alma mater and my former employer, discretion is the better part of valor for me there.
Here, I’ll share what I’ve been wanting to for a while: honest writing. And it won’t all have the happy endings that the mainstream magazines require no matter how dire the story.
I’ll post my published work, my not-yet-published work, and my (thankfully few) rejected works, and offer some ideas about why I think those pieces were rejected.
Finally, I’ll write about my favorite writers and the thinkers I try to learn from. My debt to them is as gigantic as their art and their minds are. I’ll never succeed in emulating them, but I’m glad they’ve taken up residence in my mind.
Tags: blogs, Examiner.com
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