Outside of the Instagram Grid
Writers are given oodles of advice about how to manage their social media and market their work. Much of that advice is to narrow your scope of things to write about, which is EXACTLY the writing advice I give to the college students in my classes. This advice is supposed to be helpful for writers—create Content Buckets, mini-categories, etc. And it is helpful.
And yet, here I go again, going against that advice. Writers have so many pieces of themselves—and those pieces all gravitate around our roles as writers. We have day jobs, and mine is being a full-time English professor and writing center director—so writing, in a multitude of ways, is my life.
But all of these aspects don’t always fit in neat and tidy Instagram boxes.
For example, right now, I am chairing the next SUNY CoW Conference (that’s the State University of New York Council on Writing) here in upstate New York in late October. This conference welcomes writing educators and professors to our lovely campus in perhaps THE most beautiful time of the year here to share their work, research, and experiences on teaching writing. It’s an organization that goes back to 1980, and the keynotes have included some major composition figures (this means folks who specialize in writing and writing education)—so, basically, the scholars behind our textbooks in graduate school.
Conference chair…see what I did there? :P
What Does a “Conference Chair” Do?
In my limited experience, ask for a LOT of favors, deal with complicated things that should have been simple, and then ask for more favors. Try to keep up with email. Fail. Try again. Make another spreadsheet, because surely THIS one will do the trick, and everything will magically be perfectly organized and ready to go (not unlike my rationale behind needing yet ANOTHER planner…).
Seriously though, for those who aren’t in these fields, a conference chair deals with the organizational stuff: finding excellent presenters to bring their work to the conference (DONE!), get them set up with hotels, accommodations, meals, tech, everything (in process!), arrange and prep conference space, manage accommodations needs, find various sponsors (because SOMEONE’S got to pay for this, right?), and I’m sure about 25 other things I’m forgetting at this very moment.
What Does That Have to Do with Writing?
I truly think that everything a writer experiences on their day-to-day funnels into their work in some way, even if it doesn’t always lead to picture-perfect social media posts. I find so very much of my day fascinating or amusing, but so very little of that makes it into the social media posting because I assume it would be trivial or boring for others. But in this conference-context—and perhaps, others—I need to just share what I find incredible about it.
Here’s one: Folks whose works I’ve studied for years—decades, somehow—are on the email list for SUNY CoW. If they even open the email (!!), people whose work I’ve used to guide my teaching career are reading my words and going, “Pfft, who the fuck is this?” And you know what? I’ll take it. It’s intimidating, but I’ll take it. ;)
Is it riveting to the outside world? Probably not, but it’s what’s occupying space in my head right now.
Help me feel normal: please share the “boring-to-others-but-it’s-my-life-right-now” elements of your life. :)
