Getting ready to write
The first of the year seems like a good time to revive my Substack, which has puttered out like an old motor.
I started this with the intention of writing once a week. That decreased to once a month, to every so often, to never. Often there’s not enough time in the day to rev up the brain cells after work to create something meaningful on the page.
But these past several months, I’ve been thinking about writing. Intending to write. But the writing I want to do is not so easy. It takes planning, preparation.
I’m getting ready to write.
Last summer I went to an The Black Cat Book Fair in Belfast, Maine and had the chance to speak about my personal favorite early anarchist, Jeremiah Hacker. This fired up my interest again, and I told the gathered crowd that I wasn’t done writing about Hacker. There was still more to find out about the elusive old journalist who left many thousands of his own words behind, but was left out of written history.
Some months later I attended a Zoom meeting with the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society book club. They were discussing my 2019 book on Jeremiah Hacker, and had some great questions, not all of which I could answer. I was left with the same feeling: that I was not done writing about or learning about Jeremiah Hacker. There is still much to find out.
Look at anyone’s life: it’s multilayered. People are deep. You start to think you know them, but they surprise you. As I read more letters, articles, and various accounts, I’ve learned things about Hacker and his friends and acquaintances these past few years that have surprised me. And I need to write about them, but I’m still not ready yet. I’m still mulling them over.
All this thinking has given me new insight. I’ve been thinking about the ups and downs of Hacker’s career and life. I’m gathering facts and arranging them to form new stories in my mind.
Because history is a story. We think of it as facts, but it’s not entirely. It’s made of facts, sure. Facts are the blocks. If you lay them out end to end, they’re not very interesting. You have to construct them. Look for patterns and parallels, find your story. Find the shape your blocks want to make, and build it. The trick is to use them all, though. Don’t leave out the ugly blocks—or truths—find a way to work them into your structure lest it be too pretty. We don’t want to glorify.
As I continue to read and uncover and construct stories in my mind, I’ll be writing down snippets that I’ll likely be posting to Substack. Stay tuned for some more historically focused essays as the new year unfolds.
Happy new year to you and yours. If you’re a writer I wish you happy writing, whatever stage you’re in. Me, I’ll go back to thinking for a while. But I hope to reach out again soon.