Discussion Topic 4

I think I am at the Culmination stage.  I don't pretend to be completely competent, but I believe I have reached the stage of my internship past feeling more confident in my ability.  I have reached the stage where I am facing saying goodbye to the people I have worked with, and I am looking to the future with regards to a possible ongoing professional relationship with my organization.  What the books describe as being a part of the typical emotional response has not characterized my experience.  I have not become resentful of my placement and I am not especially sad about my departure.  Perhaps my response is dulled by the fact that I will continue to keep in contact with the people I have worked with.  Nevertheless, I have always found that the reactions the books describe to be too extreme for an internship.  The book might be speaking to interns that find themselves away from home more than it is to me, however.  I managed to get a placement at an organization in my hometown so my experience may be atypical.

I have learned that writing requires hard work and diligence.  It is not easier than any other job though it may be more enjoyable than others.  There is a lot of technical work that must be done to publish a book and make money off of it.  Persistence is also necessary.  Without a solid work ethic, a writer will not be able to meet the demands of his readers and lose money.  I have also learned that writing is anything but a completely individual exercise.  Community is helpful, if not essential, to a writer.  It is easy to overlook your flaws when you work alone.  Communities like Critique groups or Facebook groups are places a writer can be told what needs to be done to improve his work.  A writer must make a community of his readers.  The more the readers are constantly interacting with you and each other, the more they will continue to buy your work.

I would still like to learn more about some of the more technical aspects of being an independent writer.  This is the kind of information that will have to be learned in the process of actually publishing a book.  I don't see any way to learn a lot of this without just trying to do it.  My Supervisor has said that she will help me if and when I decide to publish so I will be guided throughout the process.  I also still feel like I need to learn about my own habits and how to maximize my own ability to be productive each day.  Everyone does this in their own way.  Some writers have word counts they need to hit each day.  My Supervisor is the kind of writer that just sits down and keep writing as long as she can.  As I move forward, I am going to have to learn how I can pump out the content the readers demand.