Each year on October 20th, we celebrate National Day on Writing to encourage people to engage in daily writing and acknowledge the various roles writing plays in our lives. This creative day aims to change public understanding of writing by showcasing its various forms—creative, informative, academic, informal, or digital.
We all have experience writing, even if you don’t think you’re “good” at it. We use it to express our thoughts, our ideas, and to record information into a readable format. Whether you are a professional writer, someone who types all day behind a keyboard, or someone expressing yourself through poetry, writing is a way to record language across time and space. National Day on Writing gives people around the world an opportunity to sit down and write.
Long before we had letters on keyboards, people used symbols to tell stories of their daily lives, as found in cave paintings dated around 35,000 BCE. During the Neolithic period, around 7,000 BCE, people in the Middle East used small clay tokens in different shapes to count and keep records of goods, like jars of oil or bushels of grain. Though this isn’t considered writing, it was the first step, laying the foundation for writing by using a physical object to represent a specific quantity or idea.
6 WAYS TO CELEBRATE NATIONAL DAY ON WRITING®
Celebrating today is all about one thing: writing! Few simple and engaging ways to participate:
Challenge yourself to tell a complete story in only six words.
Step away from the keyboard and write a handwritten letter or postcard to a friend or family member.
Send a quick email or social media message to an author, journalist, or blogger whose work you admire and thank them for inspiring you to become a better writer. Don’t be intimidated by a blank page.
set a timer for five minutes and write whatever comes to mind—your to-do list, a memory, or your goals for the day.
If you’re a list-maker, try writing a poem. Haiku poetry is very similar to making a list, so this may be a great place to start!
Share what writing means to you, post a picture of your journal, a favorite quote, or a few sentences about your passion on social media using the hashtag #WhyIWrite.