Announcing the 1 Million Words Club!
A membership community for writers who are seriously committed to upping their word count, improving their craft, and honing their skills!
Hey y’all, it’s KimBoo! I’m an author and a podcaster who is also a librarian, text technology historian, and former I.T. project manager. I write about a lot of interesting things, I hope you agree! Please consider supporting me (and my dog!) so I can keep throwing errata & etcetera into the Scriptorium!
I have belonged to a lot of writers’ groups over the years, and I've done a lot of fanfic challenges (where people get together and either gift each other stories, or write to a theme or a word count). Of course, I’ve also done the now-classic NaNoWriMo challenge that so many writers are familiar with.
Every time, what I wanted was a community of writers who, no matter their experience or focus, were willing to explore the creative journeys we were all on collectively in a supportive and motivational way.
Yet, even when the group I was “with” (IRL or virtually) did help me, there was always a time when it disbanded (either planned or not) or I left it (usually disappointed in both myself and the group). I kept hoping, and looking, and joining (and leaving).
This common longing is famously why NaNoWriMo caught on so hard, so fast, in the first place: a month long challenge with daily check ins and a large community committed to the goal of “write a novel.” It is also why challenges and gift exchanges in fandom are so popular and result in so many stories, with people writing tens of thousands of words over a short time period.
Having a common goal is also why the 20 Books to 50k community has been so successful. It offers a very concrete goal that people can aim for, and writers help each other achieve it. You've got to write twenty books and you've got to make $50,000 off of those twenty books! It’s a big goal, but it is possible, as attested to by the many people who have done it.
My point is that concrete goals make for very good and supportive writing groups, but such groups are rare.
When I started talking about writing one million words, several people responded with how much they liked that as a goal.
Sure, it’s a goal that is difficult to hit and takes a lot of work, yet it nonetheless feels very achievable. No less so than writing twenty books, after all! If you don’t think it feels achievable, put it in terms of writing ten to fifteen full novels. I said it is a lot of work and that's no lie. Not a lightweight commitment, but also not impossible.
I realized that I had stumbled over the vague beginnings of creating a goal-based writing community. The idea shimmered with possibilities.
So of course I did absolutely nothing with it for a couple of years. I never claimed to be quick on the ball! Maybe it’s just that I needed time to figure out exactly what such a community would look like?
Well, guess what! I’ve figured it out!
The 1 Million Words Club is going live in early January, 2024!!!!!
What, Where, How???
The 1 Million Words Club is going to be on Discord, which I know is not everybody's favorite cup of tea, but it's actually pretty simple to use.
Most younger people (millennials and beyond) are pretty familiar with it already, but if you're an oldster like me, then just think of it this way: ye olde AOL chat room! Yes, really! It's not that different! Discord is better organized and easier for me to manage on the back end, but essentially the 1 Million Words Club is an online “house” (server) with multiple chat “rooms” (channels) on different topics. Easy peasy!
What's the value of this to you, aside from the goal? Well, as I said, I've been part of a lot of community writing efforts over the years, so I've included the things that have always worked best, not just for me personally, but for other writers I know.
That includes writing sprints, co-writing sessions, and, most importantly, accountability in the form of tracking and reporting word counts!
Accountability: This has been a game changer for all the writing productivity clients I coach. The idea that you have to actually tell people how much you've written over a period of time is a fantastic incentive to, you know, write! I understand that this can intimidate people, especially those who are not used to being held accountable for how much they write or how often, so I will have both weekly and daily check in options. The goal is for people to report on their progress in a way that's most comfortable for them.
Co-writing sessions: Co-writing sessions are where an individual starts a writing session and leads it, while other writers follow along. In this case, I would be will be doing multiple co-writing sessions a week where I will be actually streaming my work as I write on Scrivener (!!!!) so that others can feel motivated to keep up with me if they want to. I’m not nervous at that at all. Nope. Not me!
Sprints: Anyone who is a member can start a writing sprint using a special command in the sprint channel. You can start one and just be the single person in the sprint, or you can do sprints with a bunch of other people where everybody is writing at the same time. And at the end of the sprint, the sprint robot reports on how much each person has written. It's a lot of fun and can become really addictive!
Because this is going to be pretty time and labor intensive for me personally, I can't make the server free. Alas. In a better world, we would be above such mundane concerns!
I have looked around at what other people are doing and tried to find a balance of price points that people can actually commit to but will support me in the work that I'm doing as the administrator:
The first 25 founding members will get a lifetime deal of $5.99 per month! As long as you sign up as a founding member and remain a member, that is all you will ever pay.
General membership after that is $9.99 a month, which IMHO is still a pretty good deal.
I've seen some authors charging $25 to $100 a month for just a few co-writing sessions and a community forum. This is so much more than that!
Right now I have the waiting list set up so that as soon as it goes live, you can join, so please add your name and get it on the ground floor!!!!