Write-A-Thon

"A writer's job is to show up at the page"

With the generous support of 10 family and friends, I participated Saturday in The New York City Writers Coalition annual Write-A-Thon. The NYCWC runs free writing programs throughout New York City, serving everyone from the elderly to niche communities to the underprivileged and regular folk (ha!) like me to the homeless too. 

What the Write-A-Thon was like:
More than fifty people came together at the charming library of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen in Midtown to, as the ad said, "Write Your A** Off!" 

To register, you needed to raise at least $150 (with you I raised over $575), which means they raised in a one day event about $34,000! That's $10,000 more than last year.  The top fundraisers did $2,800, $2,500 and $1,800. I won a prize including a subscription to the Bellevue Literary Review and gift pack from Month of the Novel with a mug that says "Can't Talk; Novelling."

What I liked:
The Write-A-Thon had a loose structure, but you could ignore it or follow it as much you wanted. It was set up so you could write at tables with paper or laptop from 10:30-6PM and come and go as you like. Fluid, like writing.

If you got stuck, though, you could visit the "Prompt" table and pull out of an envelope a prompt to get you going. I was working on a short story based on the Sleep Study I did last month and wasn't stuck but curious. So I went up to the table and grabbed a few prompts:

• "Think of an addiction you or your character has"
  
• "Write a letter by someone from the inside of a burning building"
  
• (On the paper is a Walt Whitman poem called Miracles) "Now write about a miracle."
  
• "Draw a quick outline of your body and put an X at every scar site. Now write about how you got one of those scars or how a character got scarred."
  

Throughout the day, there were free hour-and-half writing workshops for which you could register led by a facilitator from NYCWC. At lunch, Pulitzer finalist Colson Whitehead (for John Henry; he also wrote several other books and has written for the NYT Op-Ed) gave a talk about his insights on the craft, advice for writers, and his personal story and starting at the Village Voice.

I took at 2PM workshop which was, naturally, 7 other women and me (actually the whole day's participants was a mix of races and ages but about 75% women). 

The leader gave us two writing assignments with 15 minutes of writing based on a prompt and then whoever wanted to could read theirs aloud and others could say (only) positive things. This was interesting to me since my undergrad workshops at Cornell were pretty ruthless critiques. But they explained today that since it's just 15 minutes of writing being shared, it's not enough for serious criticism and people should just say what they liked or what stayed with them.

I dreaded the other writers sharing, worried most would be quite amateur but was struck by how sophisticated and compelling everyone's off-the-cuff writing was. Witty, funny, emotional, surprising endings. I can see why people love workshops so much when they're very good. My leader Alex found me at the coffee table afterwards and chatted a bit about the workshops she runs for the elderly (which sound terrific). What I learned when we said goodbye however was this: She just quit her job in advertising (where she's been a copywriter and a brand planner) to go to a MFA program in creative writing at Sarah Lawrence.  (I'll just end with that optimistic thought.)

Thanks again for the support, and I'll let you know when next year is in case you want to come and write with me!