Organizing with Writers

Isn’t organizing writers like herding cats?

Herd of Maryland cats, by JB

This issue: Reflections on Organizing with Writers * Activist Fiction Writers’ Circle * Movement Building Writers’ Collective *

Free-spirited, isolated, surrounded by a mess of books and papers, alone in our garrets¹, under the sway of ungovernable artistic temperament. These are common images associated with writers. If “organizing” and “writer” appear in the same sentence, it must mean gathering piles of notes off chairs, or color-coding novel scenes. Right?

Orderly notes and color-coded scenes are great, but “organizing with writers” has additional meanings. Whether in garrets, cafés, or writers’ rooms, writers are workers. And just like other workers, writers need to organize—and, when all else fails, strike—for fair working conditions and pay, as the small- and large-screen writers of the Writers Guild of America are doing now.²

Strikes make the news, especially when famous folks are involved, but most organizing happens in one on one and two on three conversations, leading to meetings, solidarity with others, eventually larger actions. Power in numbers is built in tiny increments.

I have experienced this first hand in various unions, including where I am now, the National Writers Union. We are mostly book authors, journalists, and freelance writers who support each other’s individual writing, and also do many things together to bring more people into the field in ways that, instead of isolating us, encourage solidarity and writing for justice—such as sponsoring a Juneteenth essay contest for young people. Our union enables us to discuss the law as it pertains to writers,³ solve individual problems, and think together about larger questions where we can make a difference to our whole sector, and beyond.

Organizing humans, including writers, is even more challenging than herding cats. But the institutions running our society relentlessly herd us into upholding the status quo, where the few control and profit from the many. If we want our lives and our society to be more fair, we have to organize to make it happen.

Stereotype of what unions are…NOT (Collage by JB with Internet angels)

Unlike the stereotype—one of so many—that claims worker organizing is done by manipulative outsiders, most organizing is done by peers, comrades, regular people saying to one another, “Hey, looks like we’re in the same boat on the same stormy sea. Let’s paddle in the same direction.” An organizer is someone who notices such sentiments in themselves and others like them, decides tackling the issue together is better than flailing and failing separately, and works with the others to make it happen.

Anyone who has tried to organize people to make a meal or cross a busy street knows that unless you are a chef directing paid employees or a nursery school teacher with kiddies on a string, organizing even a relatively simple task requires reasoning, cooperation, discussion, and collective decision-making. The manipulation and other malfeasance we’ve been conditioned to associate with organizing requires power over others. In which case, it’s not organizing—it’s bossing. And dominating others is what we aspire to overcome.

Organizing Cultural Workers for Movement Building

For me, organizing writers has yet another facet: getting together with like-minded writers to focus our craft on supporting social movement building for justice. Music, theater, poetry, and visual arts (posters, puppets, murals, etc.) have long been integral to organizing. Activist Explorer is delving into ways fiction writers can use our art and craft in support of movements working for a better society—in particular, encouraging writers to fully and fairly depict activist culture and the daily life of social movements in our stories.

In the past I’ve done writing programs with children and youth, and some with adult activists. And I’ve been part of many projects around social movement-building. Now I’m working on melding the two, reaching out to writers to come together to explore writing for movement building. The result so far: an activist fiction writers’ circle and a movement-building writers’ collective.

Activist Fiction Writer’s Circle working logo-ES, JB, and anonymous protester

Activist Fiction Writers Circle

We are novelists whose stories all center activist characters. We write fiction—stories from our imaginations—but it’s fiction striving to paint an authentic picture of social justice activists and the movements we’ve been part of.

I first put out this idea at a social justice writing workshop late last year, which my longtime friend, who is also writing a novel with social justice activism at its heart, suggested we attend. Both she and another attendee liked the idea, and the latter invited a friend who is also writing a novel about activists. And we became a group!

In our half-year (so far) of monthly meetings, we have…

• shared highlights and struggles of our writing lives

• discussed the nature of our genre—fiction featuring activists

• shared lists of works that fall into this genre

• read and commented on the novels we’re writing

• begun developing a collective indie publishing initiative.

Quite a lot, considering our newness, and the fact that our members have during this time period also wrestled with acute and chronic illnesses, jobs, intense caregiving situations, and more. As it happens, we’re all elders coming to fiction writing from activism, education, and other socially oriented work.

My novel, Rainwood House Sings, book 1 of my Rainwood House Movement Mystery trilogy, will likely be the guinea pig⁴ for our publishing adventure, though other works are coming along as well. Look for updates!

Rainwood House Sings, a Movement Mystery, will be our Collective’s first foray into indie publishing

Movement-Building Writers Collective

In April of this year, I put out a call to start a Movement-Building Writers’ Collective to comrades in the DC Metro area where I live. Since then we’ve had a couple developmental meetings and have recently begun doing weekly “write-ins.” Before our summer hiatus, we gathered virtually for an hour, updated each other on our week’s writing, and then we turn off our sound and video. For 10 minutes we each write to a prompt about something related to activism—a poem about a compelling event, a story about a scary activist experience. We might continue with that for the whole hour, or turn to another writing project. Then we tune back in and share our our writing.

And we’ve had a talk with some writers from a couple other places, who have been organizing for a longer time, to learn from them and explore ideas. Exciting prospects!

I would love to hear from writers—fiction and nonfiction—who write about the experiences of being an activist and participating in movements for social change. How do you see your writing work connecting to movement-building?

1. Actually, I do work in a garret! (Thanks, Rain, for pointing that out!) But it is a pleasant, cozy one.

2. Now joined by their screen worker colleagues of SAG-AFTRA.

3. Including protecting us from wage theft, copyright infringement, plagiarism, and a host of other issues. We’ll likely be seeing more of this in relation to AI siphoning up writers’ work. See, for instance, Sarah Silverman’s suit against ChatGPT—thanks for the reference, Colin!

4. I made this graphic, with an image of Rainwood House, because guinea pigs are cute, but I recognize that, unlike me, guinea pigs don’t get to choose whether to be experimented on. So I’d be happy for a new expression signifying ‘the subject of an experiment.’