I’m going to be honest: I’ve never pictured myself as a journalist. I never picked up the Wall Street Journal or The Salt Lake Tribune as a child and thought, man, I really want to do that when I’m older! I didn’t watch the evening news adoringly, and breaking news stories never put a hitch in my breath (though I definitely screamed in triumph when the Bulls won the ‘97 NBA playoffs, but that’s just because Michael is my homeboy).
But that doesn’t mean I didn’t want to be a writer.
There’s something kind of special about writing. It’s a disease, really, and once it afflicts you, you never recover. I spent my childhood writing down all the fantastical ideas that popped into my head in notebooks, journals and on scraps of paper. I carried the dream of being a writer all throughout my life, scribbling poems and bits of prose whenever and wherever I could, including here. And then I went to Granada and discovered the pleasure of writing on the road: in a train, on a boat, in a car, on a bus. Because where you write drastically affects what you write, how you write and even why you write.
Two days ago, I discovered Amtrak is going to start offering “writer’s residencies” to those who, like me, believe long stints aboard trains can generate some really powerful prose. The idea was planted when New York Citybased writer Jessica Gross, after reading Alexander Chee’s interview in Pen America, tweeted his words to Amtrak: “I wish Amtrak had residencies for writers.” And wouldn’t you know it, Amtrak responded! And agreed! Their social media team denoted the need for a test run, an offer which Gross happily accepted, and bam, Amtrak writer’s residency was born.
Now, that’s all fine, well and good, you think, but doesn’t the ride cost money? Money that writers may not have? Well, turns out Amtrak took care of that too. Gross’ ride from New York City to Chicago and back was completely free. Unheard of, and absolutely awesome.
It’s pretty much been blowing up on Twitter, with users who are interested just tweeting @Amtrak their pitch with the hashtag #AmtrakResidency to get the word out. Why all the fuss, though?
In The Paris Review, Gross detailed her experience, saying, “I’m only here for the journey. Soon after I get to Chicago, I’ll board a train and come right back to New York: thirty-nine hours in transit — forty-four, with delays. And I’m here to write.”
Gross nailed it. Writing is never just about the finished product. It’s not about the words on the page, and it’s not about the number of times I crossed out and rewrote that Oxford comma. It’s about that time that I looked out the window of the bus and saw horses grazing in a field that made me write about the first time I went to a rodeo. It’s about basing an entire character in a short work of fiction around the person sitting opposite you and two rows up who’s breaking up with her boyfriend over Skype while sketching her own wedding dress in red colored pencil.
The Amtrak program is still in its infancy, as there’s no formal application process yet or even any discussion of who will be assuming the cost (if not the writers, Amtrak will). But Amtrak has figured out something revolutionary with this idea.
I’ve grown up with this burning desire to write. It calms me down, and it stresses me out to no end. It’s my therapy and my drug and the way I connect to myself when the world makes no sense. And Amtrak is setting up a perfect environment to exercise those muscles — for those of us who are born with this itch to write that we can never quite perfectly scratch.
Amtrak’s got the right idea, and I’m totally on board.
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