Always Be Learning
By: Sara Zarr
Tags: Learning, Professional Development, Business Strategy, Writing Tips, Freelancing

Photo by David Travis on Unsplash

Forget “Always Be Selling” — ABL is the new ABS

When I budget out my freelance expenses every year, no matter how tight money is I know that I’m going to spend anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars on continuing my education as a writer. It’s a line item I call “professional development,” and I don’t consider it an optional expense.

I’m far from a beginner. I’ve won awards for my books, have been a National Book Award finalist, and have seen a project go successfully from film option to movie. I’ve been invited to travel nationally and internationally to talk about my books and writing, and I’ve currently got contracts carrying me well into 2022.

But honestly, who cares about all that? When you’ve been at something nearly fifteen year s— with consistency — you rack up some accolades that sound nice in a bio, but that’s all the past. I can’t sit there and read my bio and let it convince me I’ve arrived. And the bio is meaningless when you’re doing the work. When I recently finished drafting my tenth book, I felt no closer to knowing what I was doing than I did when I wrote my first.

Which is why I try to always keep a learner mindset. Every new project feels like beginning again. Even in the rare times I do feel like I might know what I’m doing, I don’t want to stagnate, get too comfortable, or become bored (or boring).

So the main categories of professional development for me are:

Workshops and classes.

In the pre-Covid times, I might sign up for a weekend or even a week away to take a writing workshop. Something to get me out of my usual setting and into an intense stretch of time where I’m clearly taking on the role of Student, hopefully with someone in my field whose work I respect.

Some of the online things I’ve done in the past year include buying an all-access MasterClass pass, registering for an online class in fast drafting, and just to balance it out, one on slow writing. I took a one-day Zoom with Alexander Chee talking about autobiographical fiction. And I taught myself the indie publishing process, just for kicks and to add more tools to my box.

Travel, retreats, fellowships.

Obviously, these was more Before activities. A little different from workshops and classes, retreats look like booking a house (somewhere scenic, ideally) with a select group of peers and vacating our usual lives to spend three or four or five days just Being Writers Together.

The main activity is writing, broken up by meals, walks, martinis by the fire, and showing off our charcuterie board skills. I love these types of retreats, because there is nothing like spending time with people you like who understand exactly what you do, not to mention leaving all other obligations back at home.

Sometimes what’s in order is solo travel. Maybe I need to be alone to work on a project, or do a research trip, or be in a new setting to stimulate my creativity in a new way or so I have time to think through what I want to do next. (Also I get — or used to get — some of my best ideas while on planes!)

Fellowships are a different beast. I’m talking places like MacDowell, Yaddo, Djerassi, and the like. You have to apply and the competition is stiff. And although most of the big ones give you free room and board once you’re there, you end up spending some amount of your own money to get there, and possibly a token nightly amount as well. The end result is a lot like a retreat, except you’re doing all that stuff with new people, which means exposure to new ways of working and thinking. (Most of these places are on hold until the pandemic gets sorted out some kind of way.)

Books!

Most years, I pick up at least one or two more books on writing craft, plus a few biographies or autobiographies about writers or other artists. I tend to actually get a little more out of the biographies and memoirs because I like that up-close at the scope of a creative career — what it takes to sustain it, where the pitfalls are, and that ups and downs in a career are normal.

Make a plan.

Whatever industry you’re in, whatever your hustle, there are means to broaden and deepen your knowledge. And remember, learning doesn’t directly have to be about what you specifically do. There’s lots of “adjacent knowledge” that can make you better and more interested in your thing. (e.g. a personal trainer taking a class in human psychology, a coder improving her communication skills, anyone learning how to best use a new platform.)

The main thing is to spend some time every year asking yourself: What do I need to put in right now in order to keep making what I make? What do I feel hungry for? What do I want to know more about? What do I want a refresher on?

Then budget in the money. Make it a part of your annual P&L for yourself, and keep records so you can write it off.

No, I don’t always get something amazing out of every learning experience, but I always get one of two rewards that are just as good: either a reminder of something I already knew but had forgotten, or a reminder that I do actually have a lot of knowledge and experience of my own to draw on and that will keep coming through for me, too.

Lastly, thinking of yourself as a lifelong learner keeps you in touch with your humility and empathy. There’s nothing like being a beginner at something to remind you that you don’t know everything, and it’s easier to put yourself in the shoes of clients, coworkers, or direct reports who may be feeling unsteady in a new role.

Cultivating a learning mindset can make you not only better at what you do, but also better at who you are.