Prioritizing Your Writing Begins Here (Dorothy Intro) (02/22/2020)

Prioritizing Your Writing Begins Here | The Weekly Atticus

February 22, 2020

A recap of the week's writing at Atticus Review. Introduction by Dorothy Bendel. Poetry Contest and Atticus Review Volume 3!

For a long time, I began each day by pouring a cup of coffee and plunging straight into my teaching work. There are always emails to be answered, first drafts to review, assignments to be graded. I thought that getting looming tasks out of the way first would free up time for working creatively. This approach became my default because I continually felt pressure to prioritize specific responsibilities. When I was younger, that responsibility was schoolwork. When I turned sixteen, my priorities shifted to my job. But what I failed to see is that dedicated writing time is a responsibility I must also hold myself to. 

It's a struggle to prioritize creative work. The work is slow. It might go nowhere at all (though I would argue the process still has value to our artistic development). There is often little (or no) monetary reward—or a payment could be months down the line. When we are raised to value narrowly defined measures of success, creative work tends to fall out of focus.

This is doubly true for anyone who's ever experienced poverty. If you've ever been poor, if you've ever worried where you might sleep at night, if you've struggled to pay rent, if you've felt the sustained emptiness of hunger, then the security of a paycheck is paramount. The fear of losing that security pervades every facet of how we live our lives.

I kept at the same schedule for years because alternatives felt unattainable and my fear of slipping back into serious poverty twisted my sense of reality. But, when I knocked out those looming tasks first (which tended to snowball throughout the day), I was depleted. My writing output trickled, and sometimes slowed to a halt. I no longer had the energy to pull all-nighters, and what I managed to produce left me feeling frustrated. I knew I could do better.

It may sound obvious to some, but it was years before I could fully absorb and accept this knowledge: if I simply take an hour or so each morning to write, for myself, before attending to emails and assignments, the rest will fall into place. I will still get the work done, and I will not endanger my job, and I will continue to get positive feedback from my students. I've allowed myself to shift the idea of purposeful writing time from a luxury to a priority. And I refuse to give into a warped sense of guilt in doing so.

Balancing writing time with other responsibilities is not an either/or situation, but what that balance looks like for one person to the next might be very different. The important bit to remember is that no one way is better than another. What we leave on the page matters, not how we get there. We owe it to ourselves.

Thanks for reading. We're glad you're here.

Dorothy Bendel

Managing Editor

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THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

FICTIONNI AQUI, NI ALLAby Beth Alvarado"When she stops to catch her breath, she listens, not this time for the escaping memories of the dying but for the calls of the living. She hopes her white hat might reflect the sun."READ ON

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CREATIVE NONFICTIONHOODEDby Christina Rivera Cogswell "The pregnant leatherback entrusts her nest to an earth womb. But what she doesn’t know is this black sand beach has warmed to new temperatures."READ ON

MIXED MEDIACOULD IT BE THAT IN THIS KITCHENby Josh Manley and Haines Whitacre"...questions our food relationships often taken for granted. The viewer is asked to consider the many hands that our food has passed through and the exploitative nature of food industries."READ ON

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