This post is meant for the writers in my life that are getting demoralized and discouraged. Writing is resistance, and The Real Resistance needs you. (The same goes for those of you who are shutting down and don’t want to discuss all the craziness going on. Putting your head in the metaphorical sand won’t solve the problems at hand or the attacks on us.) I’m not saying writing is therapy, though it can be, but if we don’t get our ideas out, whether it’s through art or our other writing who will? They will with their fascist alternative-facts and rhetoric. Their campaign will be perpetual to get even more support for a fascist demagogue.
So, write and resist. It can’t help but be.
Enough pep talk. Well, maybe that will be an ongoing conversation from time to time, but take courage in your art.
This week, besides trying to write everyday, which as you will note the miracle that has happened yet again, (I managed to get up at 4:45a.m. to write!) I am going to write an article about my educational system. We have been under attack, and one aim is to privatize our community college system that is meant for poor and working class students.
I am supposed to do an interview for The People’s Tribune, which is long overdue. Separate from that I want to write an article because the attacks on education will only get fiercer with DeVos as Secretary of Education. We need to be prepared and inform people on what is really going on before teachers get blamed, even more than they are, and the new rulers wipe out public education and eliminate access to college for the students that need it the most. Education should be a human right, not a privilege for those who can afford to pay. That is my political writing goal for this month.
Now, back to my novel. This morning, I was working on adding some political economy into the Alan section. He encounters The Resistance, but there needs to be some dirt on the rebels. No group is ever pure, and I’m not sure what angle to take. I don’t want them to be insincere, and being ineffective isn’t enough because that isn’t’ a character flaw. But the conditions in their world are desperate, so it will have to be a justified action that they see as noble, but necessary. I’m thinking it will have to be with how they “recruit” children into their organization. We will see.
In any case, I added a couple of pages this morning. Yes, the novel is an ever-evolving draft, a third re-write from two previous attempts at this piece, and I am always open to constructive suggestions, even though once I revise the piece, it will be a very different animal. You can read the full text here: The Harvest.
Writers, keep resisting. The rest of you, keep thinking and engaging and staying informed. We need all of you in this struggle.
See the example below from political cartoonist Andy Willis who never stops:
So, write and resist. It can’t help but be.
Enough pep talk. Well, maybe that will be an ongoing conversation from time to time, but take courage in your art.
This week, besides trying to write everyday, which as you will note the miracle that has happened yet again, (I managed to get up at 4:45a.m. to write!) I am going to write an article about my educational system. We have been under attack, and one aim is to privatize our community college system that is meant for poor and working class students.
I am supposed to do an interview for The People’s Tribune, which is long overdue. Separate from that I want to write an article because the attacks on education will only get fiercer with DeVos as Secretary of Education. We need to be prepared and inform people on what is really going on before teachers get blamed, even more than they are, and the new rulers wipe out public education and eliminate access to college for the students that need it the most. Education should be a human right, not a privilege for those who can afford to pay. That is my political writing goal for this month.
Now, back to my novel. This morning, I was working on adding some political economy into the Alan section. He encounters The Resistance, but there needs to be some dirt on the rebels. No group is ever pure, and I’m not sure what angle to take. I don’t want them to be insincere, and being ineffective isn’t enough because that isn’t’ a character flaw. But the conditions in their world are desperate, so it will have to be a justified action that they see as noble, but necessary. I’m thinking it will have to be with how they “recruit” children into their organization. We will see.
In any case, I added a couple of pages this morning. Yes, the novel is an ever-evolving draft, a third re-write from two previous attempts at this piece, and I am always open to constructive suggestions, even though once I revise the piece, it will be a very different animal. You can read the full text here: The Harvest.
Writers, keep resisting. The rest of you, keep thinking and engaging and staying informed. We need all of you in this struggle.
See the example below from political cartoonist Andy Willis who never stops:
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