Writing about writing! One of my favorite things to do, when I don’t know what to write about. This is an exception, though. I’m choosing to write about what I wrote this summer.
I signed up for a writing marathon over Zoom (by Scholastics Art & Writing + National Writing Project) and found myself traveling across the entire United States. I discovered the nooks and cracks of cities I had only known through association to a friend, landmarks, or textbook.
I ‘visited’ Kansas City, Jacksonville FL, Los Angeles CA, Central Texas, and finally Long Island. Can’t say I’ll ever be able to visit so many widespread cities in two months ever again!
The way sessions were structured, there was a brief presentation about one ‘dimension’ of the city (the food, outdoor public artwork, festivals…), then a prompt to pick up on and write about in any form. This cycle repeated two or three times per session.
For me, most eye-opening was seeing how attached to and knowledgeable the city’s presenters were about their home city. The longest I’ve lived somewhere is seven years, and I don’t really feel attached to any of the places I’ve lived in over any other. Seeing the history, traditions, and highlights of the cities through the eyes of a passionate resident was so cool! Sometimes they’d bring up Google-recommended sites like the Capitol building in Austin, but more often it was the city’s hidden gems like the Korean Bell of Friendship in LA.
Due to time difference, I was writing from 1-3 a.m., a once-in-a (my)-lifetime (up until now) experience (I’ve written at 1 a.m. before but never started writing at 1 a.m.).
Honestly, I surprised myself by showing up every time.
And in the end, I kind of created my own Wednesday 8 p.m. (or should I say Thursday 1 a.m.) writing/traveling hub.
I’d go back to bed, gazing open-eyed at my pitch dark ceiling, my head swirling with verses from my latest poem describing my favorite street in the world. I’d have to keep my notebook in proximity in case any additions presented themselves before I fell asleep.
This marathon has helped me find a new space to write, outside of school obligations. Although I love love love writing, I often feel too burned out at school to write outside of class prompts, with no guidelines, just free flowing. During the summer, I journal occasionally, but having this weekly 1 a.m. session (yes, I WILL continue to refer to the time, for increased dramatic display) was a great grounding writing time. I also integrated a new type of writing community. At Groton, we strive for commentary and production in our writing. However, the leaders of this program outlined a new degree of “listen to understand, not respond.” Feedback was limited to “thank you” in order to limit disparities in the response we give to different writers.
Zoom is honestly great for things like writing. To me, writing in a room full of people is always so loud, you hear EVERYONE’S typing, pencils scratching, even mumbling and head scratching. Sometimes it's exhilarating, but online, you can find your own silence.
I also decided to write only on paper, something I haven’t done in way too long. I scarcely write on paper anymore, especially poetry, something that’s too effervescent for me to write out with no circling back every two seconds for edits. Not constantly editing allowed me to fully immerse myself in the paper and words I was writing.
Not knowing some of the references in the presentations also turned out to be quite fun. A prompt was based off of a funnel cake at a food truck in Dallas, Texas. I didn’t know what a funnel cake was … so I had to get quite creative with that one.
The beauty of it was the “300 participants” label at the bottom of the screen that reminded me that we were all just writers, at 9 p.m. (or 2 a.m.) giving up (or getting out) one hour and a half of a Wednesday to just WRITE!