Patience and the Long Game are REALLY Important for Creative Careers

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Whenever I hear the phrase “Be patient!” I think of The Empire Strikes Back when Yoda and Obi Wan are talking about Luke’s training:

Luke: We’re wasting our time!

Yoda: [looking away] I cannot teach him. The boy has no patience

Obi-Wan’s Voice: He will learn patience.

It’s crazy to think that these lines were written over forty years ago, when my parents’ generation was young, before the internet, Twitter, streaming television, or Amazon two-day delivery.  Instant gratification, it seems, has been a staple of youth for a long time—even in a galaxy far, far away.
Continue reading »

Writing and Candy Wrapper Fashion: An Interview with Timothy Schaffert

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Timothy Schaffert is the author of six novels: The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters (2002), The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God (2005), Devils in the Sugar Shop (2007), The Coffins of Little Hope (2012), The Swan Gondola (2014), and most recently, The Perfume Thief (2021), in addition to being a professor of creative writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  He’s also an illustrator whose candy wrapper fashion series (selections from which appear throughout this interview) appears regularly on his Instagram and Twitter.

I first met Timothy in 2014 when I took his graduate-level fiction workshop at UNL and attended the Omaha Lit Fest, which he founded in 2005, and directed until 2015.  More recently, his candy wrapper fashion drawings caught my attention, so we sat down over Zoom to talk about MFA fiction workshops, finding the time to write, and how exactly he gets those candy wrappers to stick to the page.

[Cover photo: Candy Wrapper Fashion #356: The Ladies of Beverly Hills 90210] Continue reading »

Last Post From Japan…

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I’ve lived in Japan for the last three and a half years.  And now it’s time to go home.

In a way it feels like I’ve already uprooted since I left Toyama back in August, along with the apartment, Day Job, and social circles I’d been cultivating for the previous three years.  My current stopover in Yokohama has felt like just that—a stopover to get some work experience, live in a big city, and enjoy Japan a little longer.

Don’t get me wrong—Yokohama life is great.  I have a decent apartment in a cool neighborhood, and I enjoy my job teaching English at Kanagawa University a lot, even if it can get pretty busy.  Being down in a more populated part of Japan has also helped me reconnect with people, as well as opened a few doors—last week I Continue reading »

Guest Post: Gina Troisi on Trading Freedom, Time, and Health Insurance: Part II

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Ian here—Gina Troisi is a fellow writer, memoirist, and overall awesome person who wrote about finding security with a full-time Day Job in her BIAHADJ guest post last February. At the time she felt good about her decision, but over the last year things have changed, and I invited her back to write a follow-up to explain how. 

Gina’s journey shows us that what works for us at one time in our lives might not work in another, and that it’s always OK to make a change. Enjoy!

I took the Day Job in an office back in 2017 because I felt scattered and overwhelmed, and I thought having a conventional nine-to-five schedule might help me feel more organized and in control of my writing life. It was the first time I wouldn’t have to wonder how much money I’d make each week, and the job came with exceptional benefits that had always seemed desirable but beyond my reach: a retirement fund, paid time off, and excellent health insurance Continue reading »

The Stable Life vs. The Creative Life

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In my English courses with Japanese students we discuss a variety of topics.  A few weeks ago I posed them a question I was genuinely curious about: What is your Dream Job?

Part of why I like teaching abroad is that it gives me an insight into another culture and how Japanese people think, which in turn helps me understand my own culture.  I had no idea what kind of dream job a bunch of twenty-year-old Japanese English majors might have.  Teacher?  Hotel clerk?  Translator?  Lawyer?  Generic office worker with an important-sounding job title?

The notion of knowing your dream job is interesting to me because it implies that you have some passion for something you really want to do.  My dream job, of course, is being a full-time novelist, though when I was twenty I don’t think I really understood that yet.  Maybe when you were twenty years old you had a job you wanted to do more than any other, or maybe now you still have a job you’re aspiring to—don’t give up yet!

Anyway, I posed the dream job question several times Continue reading »

Here’s What I Got Done in 2021

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It’s been a long year, but it’s finally almost over….

That’s been my mindset for a while, since I’ve realized that I’m suffering from some pretty serious burnout due to taking on too much.  Thankfully, though, the year’s almost over, I’ve got a 2-week (!) break coming up for Christmas and New Years, and January on the Japanese university circuit is set to be pretty chill.  That means I’m almost out of the woods at last (hurray!!!!).

As such, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I did and didn’t accomplish in 2021, how things look differently now than they did last year, and where I’m set to go in 2022.  And there’s no better way to do that than with a year-end summary, both for those who may have missed my news, and as a personal reminder that things aren’t all doom and gloom ;-)

So without further ado, here’s what I got done in 2021: Continue reading »

I Told People At My Day Job That I’m a Writer and They’re Totally Cool With It

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One thing I’ve struggled with since the days when I first started working was how to present myself and my goals while at a Day Job.  Should I pretend that I was totally interested in whatever work the company was paying me to do so I could take care of my bills, or should I be honest with my boss and coworkers that my real passion lay with writing and a career where I could do something creative?

Fortunately, in the days when I stocked grocery store shelves or cleaned preschool classrooms as a college student, this wasn’t a problem because everyone realized I was just doing these jobs for spare cash.  They knew I was in college, that I was only doing the job part-time, and that I was majoring in an area that had nothing to do with grocery stores or janitorial work, so we were all on the same page.

The problem was, though, that after college when I went out into the world, I wasn’t sure which direction I wanted to move in, but needed Day Jobs to help me to pay my bills while I figured that out.  And while I was working those jobs, people tended to regard me with suspicion, derision, or just plain view me as incompetent Continue reading »

November 2021 Novel Update: Or Not…

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Warning: Vaguely self-pitying ramble ahead, though I end on some pretty kick-ass news.

It has not been a good few weeks for working on my secret new novel project—at all.  In fact, November was absolutely my slowest writing month since I got back to Japan in September full of energy and productivity.  So what happened?

Well, on one level, preparing MFA Thesis Novel for publication happened.  November is the big month for manuscript prep, and I’ve been going back and forth with Vine Leaves publishers Jessica Bell and Amie McCracken, answering proofreading questions, sending materials like back cover copy and Acknowledgements, and even updating some images that appear in the text. MFA Thesis Novel is complex and has a lot of special formatting in it Continue reading »

Why I Added the M to Ian M. Rogers as My Author Name

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Mark this as the first time I’ve written an entire blog post about a single letter.

MFA Thesis Novel is coming out in April, and I’ve got lots of decisions to make regarding how to market it now that the developmental edit is finally done.  Those decisions not only include what marketing steps I’m going to take as the author (in-person readings, Goodreads promotions, getting reviews, etc.), but how the book is presented, like the back cover copy and a shorter version of my author bio.

One of those aspects, believe it or not, is the name that goes on the cover. Continue reading »

Do You Use Your Day Job to Find Emotional Stability?

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This topic hits pretty close to home for me.

When I was 22 and just out of college, I worked a few temporary jobs and side projects, but had very little stability.  I was still living at home, didn’t know where I wanted my life to go, and didn’t have any real creative goals.  I spent a lot of time reading, sleeping, and meeting up with friends who were in similar boats as me now that they were out of college too.  Most days it seemed like the path I’d been on for the past 17 years from kindergarten until college had flipped off the tracks and derailed.  I felt stuck.

During this time I suffered from some pretty bad anxiety and depressive episodes that I had trouble talking to people about.  I felt embarrassed that I was having these problems, and it really hurt knowing that several of my closest friends had left New Hampshire to find new jobs and start exciting new lives where they had plenty of spending money and didn’t have to live with their parents.

I felt like I had a lot of energy to do things, but no focus, Continue reading »

My Day Job Mood Affects My Creative Work Mood

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This title of this post sums up something kind of obvious, but it’s worth talking about in detail.

At every Day Job I’ve ever worked (including my current one), when I’ve had a good day, a stimulating day, a chill day, or a day that was genuinely fun, I’ve come home ready and excited to do creative work.  When I get home after days like this I often throw down my bag, sit right down at the computer (or notebook, etc.) and dive into my work with a clear head and tons of energy.

Unfortunately, though, when I’ve had a day that was stressful, overwhelming, overstimulating, required me to make a lot of decisions, felt physically taxing, or just plain sucked balls, I’ve come home…well, not ready for creative work at all.  On days like these I’ve been known to take long after-work breaks, Continue reading »

I’m Back in Japan on COVID Lockdown…And It’s Not That Bad

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Quick catchup for those who missed it: at the end of July I finished my Day Job teaching Japanese elementary English on the JET Program in Toyama, and in August I flew back to the States for some long-awaited reunions with family and friends. Now it’s September and I just flew back to start my new job teaching university English in Yokohama, just outside of Tokyo.

Unfortunately, Japan’s still a tad behind on COVID vaccinations and is still being tight on its border rules. Only just this week (six days after I entered the country!) did Japan relax its rules to allow vaccinated visitors to go through a shorter isolation period.

That means that even though I’m fully vaccinated, as of now, I still have to go through a mandated 2-week isolation period (notice I wrote “isolation period” instead of “quarantine”) after arriving. I also had to do a TON of paperwork, install a check-in app on my phone so Japanese Immigration can robo-call me to check my whereabouts, and wait in a 2-hour line at the airport. Bleh…

Anyway, it’s important to note that the “isolation period” isn’t a quarantine per se—I’m supposed to stay in my apartment, avoid crowded places and anywhere with people Continue reading »