Escapril 2021: An Unintended Experience

I didn’t know that I could write every single day, until I was accidentally doing it.

I didn’t even know Escapril was a thing, and now I’m thanking Savannah Brown.

It wasn’t until my time as a Director at The Young Writers Initiative did I start to realize there was a whole new world of writing out there, one within the realm of social media. Now, I hate social media, and I make it a point to avoid it whenever I can. But there was this one curious thing that they were all talking about, one called Escapril. Founded by the poet and social media maven Savannah Brown, apparently every April there’s a challenge to write poems every single day based around a prompt. It is probably in April because this is National Poetry Month, but I am not claiming this as a fact because I’m just someone finding about this event.

I did not do the prompts, but, somehow, I managed to write every single day. Since deciding my ultimate career path is to shitpost as a writer until the end of time, while casually deciding to get a PhD and hopefully teach young’uns on the side, I have been trying to increase my writing game. And guess what that means? Avoiding the remainder of my college work and life in order to actually go and write whenever possible.

Writing as a Routine

As writers, we are always told that diligence is one of the biggest parts of the job. If you can’t force yourself to sit down and write, or unless you’re someone who is just anal about getting their writing in, then you’re never going to actually do it. Take this blog I’ve been running, for example. Every Wednesday and Friday I sit down and I write five posts on each day. This is how I keep myself responsible for the jobs I’ve given myself, because I understand that deadlines are the only way to get any writing done.

Escapril kind of taps into this mentality, and so does other events, like that one month where you’re expected to write a novel in a single month. Personally, my best kind of work comes when I regurgitate a bunch of words onto a page. Actually writing stuff out is harder than making a concept. I have story ideas every five minutes, but am I writing poems or short stories all the time? No! I’m too lazy to do that and eventually my wrists start to hurt.

When I applied to the program called NSLI-Y, which is for learning critical languages, a keen observation I made was that when it came into who got into the program, a lot of people that ended up as finalists were ones that had written their application essays last minute. And this fueled this theory in me, one that I’ve been exploring for a long while now.

As writers, we tend to be more honest when we just dump all of our thoughts onto the page. You’re not thinking of ways to filter the way you want to be seen, or the format that you’re going to write this in. Instead you’ve managed to dump all of your raw, honest thoughts onto a blank document or page. That’s when you decide what you’re going to keep or what you’re going to edit down. The version of that you originally just slap onto the page, rather than carefully thinking it out and planning, is the truest reflection of what you’re going for.

It doesn’t mean it’s good or going to get you a bestselling writing contract, of course. But it is quite vulnerable, something that reflects what you were trying to go for. After that, it’s your job to figure out if it conveys everything in the best way possible.

Accidental Participation

I weirdly find opportunities in life. I applied to an internship at a theatre because I vaguely liked theatre, now I’m doing something super cool, like building a database about historical women playwrights throughout history. While I didn’t directly participate in the prompts that Escapril provides, I think I sure as hell put in the spirit of the entire event, because man was I pumped to write in April.

I ended up writing 30+ poems, several articles for journalistic purposes, some film criticism and essays that I want to work on and pitch to some film journals, and wrote about five short stories. Before this month, I rarely wrote any fiction, but it really came out. I also started reading a lot more, as I found an online site to download books, and I started journaling a lot more. Schoolwork took a minor hit, but I’m still keeping my super high GPA, so it’s a win all-around.

I’d do this again. I don’t necessarily want to go into writing as a career, so as long as I find events like this in order to motivate me, it keeps the flames of passion alive. The next challenge is to find homes for all these pieces I’ve written! And, when that month to write a novel rolls around, to actually write the novel.