Taming the Beast: the Work-Writing Balance [Natalie Singer]

All Levels | In his autobiography, the poet and doctor William Carlos Williams wrote about his job with medicine and his job with words: “They are two parts of a whole. It is not two jobs at all . . . one rests the man when the other fatigues him.” How do we reconcile the demands of day jobs, careers, and daily responsibilities with the urge to make art? We’ll harness strategies to help you find the time and energy to write “on the side”; try out forms designed to get you into and out of your writing groove quickly and easily; and read writers who have managed to make art—sometimes directly inspired by their day jobs—while working, caretaking, and otherwise feeding the beast.