Today was the 4th annual New York Writer’s Coalition Write-A-Thon. Called “Write Your A** Off,” it’s the second year I participated, independently raising just over $500 for free writing programs in New York for disadvantaged youth, seniors, veterans and others who can’t afford workshops.
About fifty writers attended. Hard to tell but seems mostly amateur writers like me who simply want to get in the habit of doing more and need support from each other. Two I recognize from last year.
10-30-5.30PM
The writer-friendly, loosely-structured day was hosted at the charming Library for the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesman. Beautiful room of books and wood. They provided tables for writing with power supply, free workshops upstairs led by instructors, endless coffee and lunch plus a guest speaker -- published author Jennifer Belle — to talk about the craft. She was hilarious, and I’ll have to look into her work, such as Little Stalker and High Maintenance. She warned us against outlining things, holding back, forcing oneself to get up at 6a.m. to write because we heard we should, and most of all, from getting an MFA. She also talked about how publishing has changed recently, how contracts and deadlines really matter and plenty of writers have had books pilled for missing key milestones. Her deadline for her fourth novel is in about eight days. She cited exercises she gives to get people going when they’re stuck: Write about a friend you hate, or your favorite alcoholic. She also suggested agentquery.com to find a literary agent which I didn’t know about.
Got a fair amount of writing done -- deeper into a story I started a few weeks ago, some ruthless editing of an essay I want to resubmit some places, and some rough prose from the workshop exercises, each of which could become something.
The race for the top spot
My fifth place finish in fundraising gave me a choice of many unusual and tempting prizes. I chose an astrology reading with a woman in Oregon. By phone.
The executive director, Aaron Zimmerman, had gotten a google alert about my posting on Friday on AdAge’s Digital Next column, so I explained to him my experiment in fundraising. He's also been trying different things as well.
Next year: Join me
Definitely doing this again next year and if you want to do some writing and be a part of it, I encourage you to do it. Thanks to all those who donated money -- not only do you a good tax deduction but you did a lot for me and for the writers across NYC who will benefit from your generosity.
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