After receiving Monday’s email from the Outreach Team, I hope all UCWbLers are just as excited as we are for the upcoming third annual National Day on Writing (NDOW)! Not only will October 20 be an opportunity for us to share our love for writing with the DePaul University community, but it will also be an opportunity for us to collaborate with writers from coast to coast and learn why it is they do what they do.
Lucky for us, modern day social media has made it easy for us to connect with other writers and share our motivations for writing and our excitement for the third annual NDOW. As advertised by the New York Times and National Council of Teachers of English, writers everywhere will be tweeting away about why they write simply by adding the hash-tag “whyiwrite,”and/or sharing their excitement for NDOW 2011 by adding the hash-tag “dayonwriting.”
When researching NDOW, I was surprised to see that it has such a strong social media presence. This made me wonder which came first, the social media craze, or the popularity of reflecting on why writers do what writers do. After some very efficient Google-ing, I found that George Orwell actually began taking part in this trend roughly 60 years ago in the Summer of 1946 with his essay, “Why I Write.” In “Why I Write,” he discussed how his motivations for writing have evolved since he wrote his first poem at age 5. Since Orwell began his journey down this reflective trail, many noted authors have followed in his reflective path and shared their experiences and their stories of the development of their writing processes.
In an attempt to jump on this excited writers’ bandwagon, as Monday’s email discusses, the UCWbL Outreach Team will be displaying a “Gallery of Writers “showcase in both the Lincoln Park and Loop student centers. Be sure to send in your responses
Writers are: ____________.
As a _________________
I write because ____________________.
I usually write:____________.
To ucwbloutreach@depaul.edu and attach lovely picture of yourself that you can look for at the aforementioned “Gallery of Writers” showcases.
Keep writing (and tweeting), UCWbLers!