Those who can't?

The last few months I have struggled, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, to stay motivated. Time is ticking and my career was seemingly going backwards, so I have had to take action. Something that seemed like a wild-card idea back in Nov 2010 has now come into fruition. I have quit the advertising industry and started a post-graduate certificate in education. To me this decision initially seemed like a cop out, as I’m sure it does to many people, but the more I considered the reasons I disliked my previous job the more it made sense. I disliked being stuck behind a desk all day, I didn’t enjoy the monotony of the campaigns I worked on – the strategy behind each was beginning to feel like a template and the spiel the same in every meeting. I longed for something more real and more tangible that would allow me to switch my brain back on. I worked hard at a world-class university for an English degree only to forget everything I knew. I could almost feel my brain atrophying. And one thing they say about teaching is that it’s never boring! I am now three weeks in and so far it’s going brilliantly…although I am yet to come into contact with a real live surly teenager, which I’m sure will be the real test.

When I made the decision someone asked me if that means I’m forgetting all about writing and editing. I responded that it’s quite the opposite: teacher’s holidays will provide me with more time to write and more inspiration out in the world. I can work every day with literature and creative writing, I can work on drama workshops and take my students to the theatre. And beyond the school gates there is working with adult literacy or creative writing, creating plays with young people, working on prison writer schemes, teaching abroad and experiencing the world. All in all, I think it’s a pretty good decision. My choice was almost tested when two days before starting I was sent a job spec for an agent’s assistant role came up at Blake Friedmann literary agency in their film and TV department. The job involved assistant’s admin duties including audio-typing, data entry, liaising with writer clients, dealing with unsolicited material and writing script reports, invoicing, a degree of contractual admin depending on aptitude, information gathering, and so on. It was so tempting to apply but I felt that may have been taking the easy way out; initially rewarding but not the right decision long-term. Especially when it said:

We are not expecting the post to develop into an agent role in the immediate future, but the job would be a good training for anybody with the ambition to become an agent.

Pen Envy still exists, but I guess this strand to the blog will become ‘and other stories.’ Turns out the title was somewhat fortuitous.