When we’re talking about what sort of creativity and care work should be paid, the starting point has to be a better definition of work.
The serious consequences of not paying for creative work or care work
Revolutionary gems on mothering, survival, rebellion, and war
I read Mai’a Williams' book like some one starved for word gems and insights. I want to cover this book for this blog because no one talks about mothers like they are the key protagonists in this world. They (and women and people of colour and people in poor countries and..) are portrayed as being... Continue Reading →
What real “balance” in the media would look like
When the mainstream media world talks about the importance of balance, or "both sides of the story", what they are really doing is justifying also talking to the rape victim's attacker, to the cop who murdered the Black man, to the violent right wing in Venezuela, to the coup plotters, and to the company that... Continue Reading →
Writers: Stop counting your words
Writers' and journalists' pay and sense of achievement is often framed around a word count – and if that's working for you, fine. But writers shouldn't feel that daily-output counts or ideal chapter word counts are important to being a serious and decent writer. Though writing is work and requires commitment and regular practice, it... Continue Reading →
The harm done by claiming writers aren’t professionals
Many people would put creative writers (novelists, poets, investigative journalists, satire writers etc) in the hobby basket, alongside people who like camping, stamp collectors, and amateur basketball players. And for many creative writers, that might well be the case. But for others, writing is not a side gig, a Sunday morning past time, or a... Continue Reading →
Creative Free Web Apps for Rebellious Writers
OneLook: This is a beautiful, multi-functional thesaurus, and reverse dictionary. Look up the description of that word you can't think of, and the site makes at least 100 suggestions. You can also look up single words, and the site suggests synonyms that can be sorted by the letter they start with, rhymes with..., primary vowel,... Continue Reading →
Writing for liberation exercise: Madlib poem
The purpose of this exercise is to have some fun, play with those creative juices, and get them flowing for ideas to come. We're going to use someone else's poem though, so the product coming out of this obviously can't be used elsewhere: but in the process of doing this exercise or afterwards, who knows... Continue Reading →
Writing for liberation exercise: Who are you as a writer?
Our role as writers, and the way we write varies with the social and economic times that we find ourselves in, and with who we are. That is, our writing reflects and rebels against the current inequalities, the current discourse, and our own economic oppression. It can take up the current struggles, and it speaks... Continue Reading →
The unexpected impact of writing
Writers don't usually the see the impact they have. On Saturday, some friends who were visiting Mexico wanted to see the Frida Kahlo museum. It has gotten pretty intense since I visited it in 2009: now you either have to pay for your tickets online first, or wait in a very long queue. There are... Continue Reading →
What would a just writing world look like?
So we know that more men get published, reviewed, and read, than female writers. And we know that few books from poor countries are published or translated. We also know most writers are not paid for the work they do, and that many books aren't written because some people are too busy trying to stay... Continue Reading →
Why you should forget about read and share numbers
Lately, many of us have come to see read and share numbers as an efficient way to quantify a hierarchy of writers, journalists, opinions, artists, video producers and so on. We've adopted the market mentality that more article and post reads means more consumption, which is a good thing, no matter what. Validation is numerical,... Continue Reading →
Taking writers and journalists for granted
These days, people generally expect to go online and get news and analysis for free. Hell, a lot of us even expect to get movies, music, and books for free. Perhaps it's a materialistic mindset that sees people paying for beer or expensive lunches or new shoes without an argument, while refusing to do so... Continue Reading →
Writerly magic
There is a magical relationship between writers that have never met. It has something to do with shared experience and solidarity and a common cause, and what happens when poetic minds join. Toni Morrison captured one such relationship so perfectly, in this tiny story: Two-Minute Seduction I took my heart out and gave it to... Continue Reading →
Does every woman need a room of her own?
What if Shakespeare had been a woman, or it was his sister who wrote, Virginia Woolf asked. What conditions would have had to have been different for her to even think she had a right to have ideas back then, then a right to write and to be read? Would her plays be known today?... Continue Reading →
resistance words 