For the third year, students and faculty gathered on the lawn behind Founders Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 17 to celebrate the National Day on Writing.
Four different activities were developed to allow passersby to tap into their creative potential for writing. Returning from previous years, the six word memoirs let people share their life, goals and ambitions in exactly six words. Twit-fic, which made its debut at last year’s National Day on Writing celebration, challenged writers to create a piece of fiction which fits in the space of a Tweet. Creating a haiku was the last returning activity from previous years.
Literary Mad-libs were the new feature for the 2012 National Day on Writing celebration. The Mad-libs took excerpts from the works of authors such as Shakespeare and Charles Dickens and removed key words, replacing them with blank spaces. Participants were then asked to fill in the blanks on a separate sheet of paper based on whether the word was a noun, adjective, adverb and etcetera and match it up with the original story to see what they had concocted.
Associate Professor of English and Director of the Writing Center, Dr. Jennifer Kunka, saw the National Day on Writing as a great way to bring FMU together and celebrate one of the most common things people do every day.
“I really enjoy the opportunity to see the FMU community come out and write something that they enjoy,” Kunka said. “To take a few minutes to write something fun is a good way to think about how writing affects, shapes, motivates and inspires us.”
The National Day on Writing this year was put together by the Writing Center, International English Honor Society Sigma Tau Delta and the FMU Spirit Writers. These organizations were responsible for planning the different activities and creating the literary Mad-libs.
According to Kunka, the day was an overall success and there were a lot of good contributions to celebrate the day.
“I think the turnout has been really positive,” Kunka said. Some people are writing funny things and some people are writing some serious stuff today. It’s always great to see the FMU community come out and celebrate writing and thinking a little bit about the importance of writing in our lives.”
The National Day on Writing was created by a senate resolution to help celebrate the writing we do on a daily basis.
A portion of Senate resolution on the National Day on Writing for 2012 reads:
“Whereas more and more people in every occupation deem writing as essential and influential in their work; Whereas writers continue to learn how to write for different purposes, audiences, and occasions throughout their lifetimes.”