The good news is that you’re writing. Every single day you work to put words on paper, to gather the wispy intangible echoes and whispers from the far corners of your imagination and weave them into beautiful, true sentences, you’re taking part in the grandest tradition of humankind. You’re a storyteller, and your job is to remind us of who we are and what it means to be a human being, here, now. Your struggle, your long hours and your sleepless nights are not for nothing. Writing is important. Writing is holy work.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that Joe the Plumber has a book coming out.
In the New York Times yesterday, guest columnist Timothy Egan railed against the Joe the Plumber books of the world. “Most of the writers I know work every day, in obscurity and close to poverty, trying to say one thing well and true. Day in, day out, they labor to find their voice, to learn their trade, to understand nuance and pace. And then, facing a sea of rejections, they hear about something like Barbara Bush’s dog getting a book deal.”
While books like “Joe the Plumber—Fighting for the American Dream” (I can hardly type the words without wanting to punch a fist through the screen), Meghan McCain’s My Dad, John McCain (because writing a children’s book is SO EASY! I wrote four of them this morning!), and yes, Millie’s Book, may make you lose faith in the publishing system, not to mention the general justice of the universe, take heart friends. For one thing, you’re not alone. Everyone hates Joe the Plumber. And though freckle-faced Millie the dog may have been a famous author and even earned herself a cameo on Murphy Brown while you were still lost in a twisted plot maze of your own making, in the end, she was still a dog. At least you have opposable thumbs.
More importantly, what “authors” like Joe the Plumber, Meghan McCain, and Millie the dog Bush are missing is the truth at the very heart of writing, the reason we all keep coming back to the blank page day after day: in the end, writing isn’t about the paycheck. It’s not about the money. If it were, we’d all be fools to pursue it for years, to spend so much time worrying about subtly revealing details and perfectly unspooling plots. If it were all about the money, we’d be better off sleeping with someone famous and then finding a ghostwriter. If it were all about the money, Harper Lee’s friends wouldn’t have supported her for a year so she could write To Kill A Mockingbird. John Kennedy Toole’s mother wouldn’t have worked tirelessly to publish A Confederacy of Dunces. Thomas Paine wouldn’t have written The Age of Reason, Milton wouldn’t have bothered to reach through his blindness and dictate Paradise Lost, and I would have majored in computer science.
The good news is that the very trials and struggles of crafting a good story are worth the effort. The work of writing is its own reward, regardless of celebrity authors and huge payouts for crappy books. Joe and Meghan and Millie might get the book deal, but they’ll miss out on the best part: actually writing a book.
StoryStudio student Anne Laughlin is published again (the woman’s a publishing machine!), this time in Best Lesbian Love Stories 2009. Anne’s story is called “On Retreat,” and seeing as how she workshopped it in the Advanced Writer’s Workshop, I think she’d agree that she couldn’t have done it without us! Let’s hope she’ll show her gratitude by bringing us cookies. Cookies, Anne, cookies!
Seriously, we’re ever so proud of her, and excited to hear that she’s finished her second novel, which is now being shopped around to publishers. You go, girl!
Good morning writers! For someone encouraging y’all to get out, I certainly spent a good deal of time in last week. After seeing Anne Carson perform her essay last Saturday, I skipped the concert and spent Saturday night reading her Autobiography of Red. I cannot begin to describe how much I love this book.
Last night, like most of you, I was glued to the TV. Did anyone attend Obamapolooza? McCain gave a wonderfully gracious concession speech, and the mood all across Chicago is one of relief and of hope. I was struck by the fact that when I woke up this morning, everyone seems to be cleaning. My street is being swept, and both my apartment building and office building are being power-washed today. It seems America is ready to once more be the beacon of hope we all knew she could be. It’s a whole new world children, and it’s a shiny one.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Wednesday, November 5th
The Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago is calling for local writers and artists to volunteer for a MARATHON READING of On The Road on Wednesday, November 5th from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Volunteers will be asked to publicly read one section of the novel with 10-15 minute slots for each reader. Unfortunately, since each reader will need to pick up where the previous reader left off, there will be no way to assign specific sections. Contact Susan Babyk at to volunteer.
Through November 26th, the Gallery at Columbia Book & Paper Center is offering visitors the rare opportunity to see the original draft of On the Road, containing Kerouac’s own edits in pencil. This manuscript is a continuous scroll of semi-translucent paper, 120 feet long by 9 inches wide, that Kerouac created to feed through his typewriter without interruption. It was produced by Kerouac in a three-week writing marathon in April 1951.
Gallery hours have been extended for the Jack Kerouac: On the Road exhibition—Monday-Friday, 12 - 7pm and Saturday-Sunday, 12 - 5pm. The Gallery is located at 1104 S. Wabash, 2nd floor. It is free and open to the public. You can find more information here.
Also Wednesday, November 5th at Columbia College
John Murillo, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and Robyn Schiff will read next in the Music Center Concert Hall (1014 S. Michigan) at 5:30 p.m.
Nov 7: Poetry & Chicago Convocation
12pm at Loyola University
Lake Shore Campus in Rogers Park
FEATURING TALKS & READINGS BY:
Lisa Fishman, poetry & farming
Jennifer Karmin, poetry & activism
John Keene, poetry & collaboration
Quraysh Ali Lansana, poetry & history
Robyn Schiff, poetry & publishing
Abraham Smith, poetry & performance
The event is free and open to the public
Lunch will be served between the poets’ brief talks and readings
Hosted by Loyola University Chicago
in the Multi-Purpose Room of the Simpson Living Learning Center
on Sheridan Boulevard at the corner of Winthrop & Sheridan
two blocks from the Loyola train station on the CTA Red Line
LISA FISHMAN is the author of several books, most recently Dear Read and The Happiness Experiment (both from Ahsahta Press). She lives in rural Wisconsin and Chicago and is Assistant Professor at Columbia College Chicago.
JENNIFER KARMIN’s Aaaaaaaaaaalice cantos are anthologized in A Sing Economy (Flim Forum Press). She teaches creative writing to immigrants at Truman College, works as a Poet-in-Residence for the Chicago Public Schools, and presents her public art projects nationally.
JOHN KEENE is the author of Annotations (New Directions) and Seismosis(with Christopher Stackhouse / 1913 Press). He lives in Chicago and is Associate Professor at Northwestern University.
QURAYSH ALI LANSANA is the author of several books including They Shall Run--Harriet Tubman Poems and southside rain (both from Third World Press). He directs the Gwendolyn Brooks Center and teaches at Chicago State University.
ROBYN SCHIFF is the author of Worth and Revolver (both from U of Iowa Press). She lives in Iowa City where she directs the undergraduate creative writing program a the University of Iowa.
ABRAHAM SMITH is the author of Whim Man Mammon (Action Books) and teaches at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
Tuesday, November 11
QUICKIES!
A monthly reading of very short prose. Each reader has five minutes to read a complete work of prose. No excerpts. No cheating. Quickies! takes place on the second Tuesday of every month at the Innertown Pub in Chicago.
This month we are featuring an all-female line up!
featuring:
Lauren Pretnar
Marisa Plumb
Kelly Xintaris
Amy Stern
Beth Wylder
Erin Teegarden
and Jessi Lee Gaylord
7:30 pm
The Innertown Pub
1935 W Thomas
For more information contact Mary Hamilton or Lindsay Hunter at or check out their “ title="website.">website.
As many of you surely know already, November is National Novel Writing Month. In its tenth year, NaNoWriMo continues to inspire tens of thousands of potential novelists worldwide with its message of speedy imperfection. 
The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. One month. It breaks down to an average of 1,667 words a day, and obviously it’s absolutely insane. But. The point of NaNoWriMo is to get the words down, to write more than you ever thought possible, to get a solid first draft (or even a really terrible one) down on paper so you have something to work with in your second and third drafts.
I love NaNoWriMo. I love the convergence of so many voices telling their stories. I love the celebration of writing and creativity and caffeine-fueled enthusiastic madness. I love a massive group deadline (second only to April 15 in this country), and the chance to share your deadline-induced misery with 89,999 other people. I love posting wordcounts and feeling like someone other than my own prone-to-excuses lackadaisical conscience is holding me accountable for my productivity or lack thereof. I love reading what my friends write. In fact, I wish that ALL my friends would write at least one novel, particularly if that one novel is a thinly-disguised memoir. Even better if everyone in my family wrote a thinly-disguised memoir, and then let me read it. As long as it didn’t lead to prolonged discussions of commas, punctuated (ha!) with claims that “that’s what the nuns told me to do,” I think that reading novels written by family members would be wonderful.
Will everyone reach 50,000 words? Of course not. But the point is to WRITE, and even 10,000 words in a month is 10,000 more than you might have written otherwise.
If you’re doing NaNo this year – or even if, like us, you’re doing a modified version we like to call “If I’m Writing Thousands Of Words They’d Darn Well Better Be On My Current Novel-In-Progress” (the acronym’s a little trickier) – then you’ll probably need to catch up on your wordcounts by mid-month, and we have just the thing: our November Write-a-Thon, Saturday November 22, 2008. We’ll open the Studio from 9 am to 9 pm, and provide tons of snacks, coffee, soda, tea, and good company, not to mention a fantastic writing space and free wifi, to help you write your heart out.
This is a very exciting week.
First off, writer or no, Hallowe’en is this Friday. Dress up and candy? It’s every writer’s dream. Hallowe’en events continue all weekend long.
I probably won’t be trick or treating this year because if the fates align, I’m going to be indulging my recent obsession with rocking out by seeing Million Dollar Quartet, which has closed at the Goodman Theatre and opens Friday at the Apollo Theatre. Readers of the Trib are giving the show rave reviews.
Saturday, I’m back on the job. Anne Carson, whose Eros The Bittersweet just confused and disturbed my freshman comp students, is reading at the Harold Washington Library as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. I just learned that tickets are free to students and educators (with a $5 total processing fee), so I stocked up.
Saturday evening, I’m back to being music-obsessed. Blackheart Record’s Girl in a Coma is playing at the Bottom Lounge. They’re my new favorite band since I saw them open for Tegan and Sarah on October 9th.
Of course, there’s one really important event this week that I haven’t mentioned. Perhaps you’ve heard: Tuesday is election day. Spend it glued to your TV, at a rally or party, or ignore all of the hub-bub, but for the love of my 401(k), please vote.
Get all of your spazziness worked out this weekend, because next month is going to be a beast. Stay tuned for Friday’s story starter!
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