Michael Abayomi: IWSG: Back to School

Wednesday 2 September 2015

It's the first Wednesday of the month, and time for members of the Insecure Writer's Support Group to share their writerly insecurities. The group was started by Alex J. Cavanaugh, and those interested in joining in can visit www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com for more information.

Today is the day of the big IWSG announcement that has been alluded to since the last round of IWSG posts. It's been a somewhat lengthy month-long wait, but I have no doubt that whatever the Ninja Captain has in store for us would make it worth it. You'll need to head over to his blog for the answer though, since this post was written and scheduled before the announcement was made.

But while you're here, I also have an announcement of my own to make, one that I have equally been keeping close to the chest until the right moment. And as you may or may not have guessed from the title of my post, it has something (read: everything) to do with school, or my higher education to be precise. That's right, this IWSG member has decided to further his education with a master's degree.

The degree in question is in Computer Science, a field that has always been a huge part of my evolving interests, and the course itself is to be delivered online, which means I can still continue to work and whatnot. The decision was made a few months back, even though this is a move that has been in the pipeline way before I started this blog or decided to publish any of my writing. In fact, one of the reasons why it took this long for me to pursue it was because I had decided at the start of 2012 to focus exclusively on my writing, a year that resulted in one of my most productive as a writer.

But I guess there comes a time in every writer's journey when you need to weigh the difference between what you want to do and what needs to get done. Getting my master's definitely falls in the latter of the two categories. So I guess my biggest insecurity right now is where this would leave my fledgling writing career. Would I still be able to squeeze time out to write, as unrealistic as that sounds, or does this mean I would be putting everything on hold for the entire duration of my course?

Michael Abayomi3 September 2015 at 11:26

Thanks, Alex. I suppose there's always a way to squeeze in the time, provided the desire to do so is there as well. That's my fear really, that I might not be able to muster enough desire to want to write something in the first place. Only time would tell I guess. Either way, I would definitely be entering the anthology contest, so there's that to look forward to. :D

Michael Abayomi16 September 2015 at 10:38

That's some sage advice right there, Stephanie. Thanks. The 100-day challenge sounds just manageable enough to work out for someone with a packed schedule. I'd definitely be noting that down for future implementation.