How Teaching Can Help Your Writing
And how anyone at any stage of their writing career can teach
People may not know this but I did a photography MFA prior to focusing on writing, and one of my favorite parts of that experience was an “unofficial lecture series” a friend organized where students gave lectures to each other on topics they were interested in. I remember doing a lecture on something like, “How to Troll Your Professors,” which was really a workshop on Photoshop editing but involved superimposing professors’ faces onto funny images. Ah grad school.
While one of the old adages has been, “If you can’t do, teach,” what I’ve found for myself is something. like, “If you can’t figure it out, teach it.” Over the past several years of giving talks as well as teaching at conferences and residencies, I’ve found that those experiences have been wonderful opportunities to untangle issues I’m having in my own work, and also put into conscious thought ideas I’ve been working with intuitively. I also love reading for classes because my attention-deprived brain is highly distractible, but is much better at focusing when I can look forward to discussing books in class.
So regardless of what stage you’re at in your writing career, I highly recommend finding ways to teach, whether it’s something like leading discussion in a book group or maybe organizing a teaching series with other writers. This is one of the principles behind our Fairest Writer Workshop Series this season, which has allowed folks within our little group to teach each other. Hope to see you at one of the classes!
-Meredith