I woke up this morning thinking about the space between teaching writing and being a writer. They really are different modes and different skillsets. As a teacher my focus is to help others understand the structures and the rules and to help them cultivate their voice into something others will read. As a writer I am pulling down stories from the ether and settling into the skin of a world and the skin of the characters who inhabit that world. The space between those two roles is vast to the point that I’ve forgotten at times how to learn for teaching. So, I’ve decided that I need to go back to the basics and start thinking about learning as I teach. This has perhaps been my best process all along. I penned dozens of stories sitting in classes and absorbing what the instructors had to share. I want my students to experience that. On the other end of the spectrum, I truly want to get back to telling the stories I want to tell. Of course, that requires having stories I want to tell.
When I think about that the first thing I think about is the Smoker’s Club, a collection of misfit assassins in the Shadowrun universe. I have a few stories about them that need telling, and I think I ought to come round to telling those stories and exiting them from my headspace.
I’ve also been thinking about what I am good at, and that feels like writing in existing worlds. I think I would be really good at writing for Star Wars or other universes. I ought to think about how I can get that connection, because those realms still have good stories to tell.