My day job as the Membership Engagement Manager for a national professional association has given me an even greater appreciation for my own professional association, AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs), and it has also taught me to take better advantage of member benefits. Standing on the other side of the association, I see the how the Board of Directors, the HQ team, and the volunteer leaders seek to not just further the mission, but to serve the members. Similar to writers, the members I serve tend to work independently instead of for companies, which makes their challenges similar to writers. Responding to the challenges of our members is not always an easy task, but I have learned a good deal about how a benefit can fulfill certain needs, which has made me see just how much I depend on my AWP membership, and how much more I can get out of my membership.
What Are the Challenges of Being a Writer?
- We Work Alone
Besides trying to build a whole wardrobe in varying shades of black, as writers, we encounter challenges that are both unique to writers and common to other professionals. Of course, all professionals can benefit from networking with other professionals, but writers, by trade necessity, spend the majority of their work time by themselves, shut off from the world. We do not often collaborate. Being a part of a professional association means being a part of a larger group. Annual conferences, online forums, and programs matching mentors and mentees are all opportunities to network, but also to not be alone. We no longer have to be in the lonely garret, we can share our writing lives with writers around the world, virtually and in person.
- Our Writing Careers Alone Don’t Always Pay
Some of us will be able to make a living off our our books and articles, but many of us will continue writing not because it pays the bills, but because the possibility of not writing sounds suspiciously like living death. In this way, we are similar to other artists--while we hope that our efforts will pay off monetarily in addition to being personally fulfilling, we still need to eat. AWP compiles a job list of academic as well as writing positions, residency opportunities, and awards. Sure, you can research these things on your own (Google is helpful) but having everything in one place saves a good deal of time and energy, which can be reallocated to applying for these opportunities and also toward writing.
- We Need to Keep Failing Better
One of the more standard needs of writers is professional development. We dedicate our lives to improving our craft. As Samuel Beckett observed, "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." Every new writing venture, every revision and edit is an effort at improving. Professional development does not happen without the influence of others, and writers don’t always have built in communities. We have to learn from others, whether as students, as mentors and mentees, or by studying others writing. Annual conference, publications like Writers Chronicle, and podcasts give writers several methods for professional development. For students looking for an MFA program (the terminal degree in creative writing) AWP has produced a guide to writing programs and a database to search by region and genre. This is an entirely different experience from when I was researching writing programs, and spent my time looking through the bios of my favorite writers to find out where they taught, and then find out if their university had an MFA program.
- We Need to Know What’s Going on
Also like other professions, we need industry news. Unlike some professions, there is not a lot of coverage of literary news in national or local media. When was the last time you heard your local news station announce the National Book Award finalists? With AWP, you not only know about awards, publications, and new writers on the scene, but also about legislation that affects us. We read about journals, writers in the news, and trends. Not only is the news important to our careers, it also helps build a sense of larger community.
- We Need Representation
AWP, perhaps most importantly, serves to represent the industry. With publication changing so quickly, and the threat of the printed medium becoming extinct always a dangling threat, we need advocates in the publishing world, we need to be discussing what is being published and what is not, and we need to be talk about how publishers are experimenting with media. It is no longer a matter of staying relevant, but a matter of staying alive. Personally, I do not think that the death of printed media is as close as some would have us think, but no one would question that the internet and electronic devices have changed the way that we publish and read.
You might argue that many of the services mentioned can be found elsewhere, and sometimes for free. Poets & Writers (of which I am a subscriber) also offers industry news, and even ranks MFA programs every year. The Poetry Foundation website offers professional development and produces some pretty killer podcasts. But neither of these give you everything that AWP offers. And neither offers you the chance to be part of something greater than yourself.
Independently, we are individuals scribbling in notebooks, writing in the margins of well-loved books, and typing away on computers and other devices. Together, we share a large part of our identities and lives. We have a bigger voice and can make a bigger difference. We can be united by our professional associations. We don’t have to struggle alone or fight some of the potentially frightening challenges of new technology alone. You can’t afford not to join a professional association.
