{"id":4378,"date":"2009-05-09T12:43:38","date_gmt":"2009-05-09T16:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=4378"},"modified":"2009-05-11T11:09:04","modified_gmt":"2009-05-11T15:09:04","slug":"write-your-a-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/write-your-a-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Write Your A** Off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nywriterscoalition.org\/2009\/04\/the-4th-annual-write-a-thon-is-right-around-the-corner\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" title=\"2009 NYWC Write-a-Thon logo (click for more info)\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/images\/WriteAThonLogo2009RGB_sm.gif?resize=275%2C275&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"2009 NYWC Write-a-Thon logo (click for more info)\" hspace=\"5\" width=\"275\" height=\"275\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"highlight\"><em><strong>Important:<\/strong><\/em> Please read the update at the foot of this post. If you can&#8217;t read that, at least read the boldfaced parts of the post itself. Thanks for visiting!<\/div>\n<p>The blogosphere &#8212; or maybe it&#8217;s just the corner I&#8217;ve been mostly visiting, the one with the writers and other assorted wordsmiths &#8212; seems to have been overtaken by despair recently. Or maybe it&#8217;s not despair, exactly. Maybe more like <em>anomie<\/em>, a sort of formless uncertainty about the whole enterprise of getting language onto paper or screen, into lyrics and scripts.<\/p>\n<p>Many people mutter, darkly, about the prospect of ever getting published &#8212; traditionally, or even at all. Others just want to take a break. Go on hiatus. Explore other creative avenues. Bug out.<\/p>\n<p>Hmm.<\/p>\n<p>I think we could all use a shot in the arm. Maybe we need to take a page from the New York Writers Coalition, which has designated next Saturday, May 16th, as their <a title=\"NYWC Write Your A** Off Day\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nywriterscoalition.org\/2009\/04\/the-4th-annual-write-a-thon-is-right-around-the-corner\/\" target=\"_blank\">4th Annual Write Your A** Off Day<\/a> (or, less in-your-face, the Write-a-Thon).<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>At the NYWC&#8217;s page of information about this year&#8217;s event, you&#8217;ll see that it comprises several activities:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Devote a full day to your writing<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Meet Novelist Jennifer Belle!<\/li>\n<li>Attend free, fun, inspiring workshops<\/li>\n<li>Help fund NYWC&#8217;s free creative writing programs for the formerly homeless, at-risk youth, seniors and many others<\/li>\n<li>Enjoy gift-bag freebies and compete for top-pledge Prizes<\/li>\n<li>Munch on Free Lunch and Light Breakfast<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now, I&#8217;m not saying we should all board (as the movie title goes) planes, trains, and automobiles and descend upon the Big Apple. Certainly not with just a few days&#8217; notice &#8212; and I&#8217;m not sure that even NYC would be prepared for the arrival of tens of thousands of even well-off, flexibly-scheduled novelists, essayists, non-fiction authors, poets, and screen- and songwriters from the hinterlands and other six continents. (Hello, <a title=\"Cool Antartica: McMurdo Base\" href=\"http:\/\/www.coolantarctica.com\/Community\/mcmurdo\/mcmurdo_base_antarctica.htm\" target=\"_blank\">McMurdo Base<\/a>!)<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not even talking about duplicating all their events with your local versions. Again, awfully short notice and all that.<\/p>\n<p>But, hmm, that one event does sound sort of appealing:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong><em>Devote a full day to your writing<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What a&#8230; what a <em>radical<\/em> idea. Not asking us to set aside 30 days, a la <a title=\"National Novel Writing Month\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nanowrimo.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">NaNoWriMo<\/a>. <strong>Not even asking us to <em>write<\/em> for 24 hours straight, or even for a standard-issue eight-hour workday.<\/strong> (The official NYWC &#8220;day&#8221; is only 7-1\/2 hours, from 10:30 to 6, with a break for lunch.)<\/p>\n<p>Nope. <strong>It&#8217;s not <em>write for a day<\/em>. It&#8217;s <em>devote a day to your writing<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Write <em>some<\/em>, sure. Nobody could object to that. But <strong>even if you never lay your fingers on your keyboard, never pick up your pen or handheld voice recorder<\/strong>, even then: can you <strong>set aside 7-1\/2(ish) hours in a single block of 24 hours to think about, work on, research, accommodate, market, and\/or otherwise <em>honor<\/em> the act and craft of writing? <em>Your own<\/em> writing<\/strong>, that is, and not someone else&#8217;s?<\/p>\n<p>Would you ever consider taking that time to attend a workshop or conference in your town, for free? If so, why not take it on your own, or with a partner?<\/p>\n<p>Even if not on Saturday, May 16th: doable, you think? Any takers? Reactions? Bueller?<\/p>\n<div class=\"highlight\"><strong>Update 2009-05-11:<\/strong> A few points to emphasize:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you want to spend the whole 7.5 hours actually writing, sure, go ahead. But give yourself a break somewhere in the middle of it. It&#8217;s not healthy to spend 7.5 hours in front of a computer &#8212; even counting BRBs.<\/li>\n<li><em>The exact day isn&#8217;t important &#8212; not even the exact weekend, or month, or what-have-you<\/em>. This is a day to make you excited and happy about your writing. If you&#8217;ve got to jump through hoops to crowbar it into the coming (or any other) Saturday, weekend, whatever, you are <em>not<\/em> going to enjoy the experience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I wanted to emphasize these points because it seems an awful lot of people are stressing out and saying <em>No, thanks<\/em>: it&#8217;s too inconvenient, it&#8217;s flat-out impossible, and so on. If you&#8217;re interested in doing this, please make it easy for yourself to do it. And if you&#8217;re <em>not<\/em> gonna do it, don&#8217;t bail because it&#8217;s &#8220;too hard.&#8221; If you need to relax a &#8220;rule&#8221; or two, I think it&#8217;s better to do that than to dismiss the gimmick out of hand.<\/p>\n<p>But that&#8217;s just <em>my<\/em> opinion. :)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update 2:<\/strong> The New York Writers Coalition, those sneaky devils, changed the URL of their Write-Your-A**-Off page. I&#8217;ve updated the link from their logo, above, accordingly.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Important: Please read the update at the foot of this post. If you can&#8217;t read that, at least read the boldfaced parts of the post itself. Thanks for visiting! The blogosphere &#8212; or maybe it&#8217;s just the corner I&#8217;ve been mostly visiting, the one with the writers and other assorted wordsmiths &#8212; seems to have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[183,94,5,372],"tags":[1215,1216,1217],"class_list":{"0":"post-4378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-everyday-life","7":"category-02_in-the-news","8":"category-06_writing","9":"category-style-and-craft","10":"tag-write-your-a-off","11":"tag-nywc","12":"tag-write-a-thon","13":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-18C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4378"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4387,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4378\/revisions\/4387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}