The Breakdown: Communitycore

Okay, it's a weird term, but I'm making this up as I go. They can't all be bangers. See: rotWIPs

Hey, Runners!

We’re 3/4 of the way through my breakdown of the rotWIPs description as a “process-first, writer-focused, communitycore guided writing challenge.”

Today… we’re taking a look at communitycore.

Um…. what is communitycore, exactly?

Good question. Glad you asked. It’s a play on “cottagecore” the aesthetic movement that romanticizes a simple, homespun lifestyle and while it’s based in a fantasy world that never really existed, the -core part of the term speaks to the concepts valued by the people who align with this idea.

Cottagecore people like cottages; communitycore people bend toward community… or at least, they really want to¹.

A couple of years ago, I knew two things; that I wanted to start writing again, and that I wanted to write in community, the way we did during Nanowrimo² back in the day. When we were all writing together, I felt that communal energy coming for me. When I had a day where I just couldn’t get any words written, someone was in the chat group to tell me it was okay, they didn’t get their words either. When I was frustrated and didn’t know what to do with a character, we’d all brainstorm together and figure it out.

The magic of community… year round.

Nanowrimo is wonderful, but now, what I wanted wasn’t to have community only during one month of the year, during one phase of writing. I wanted community for all of it. I couldn’t find a year-long workshop that felt like what I was looking for, so I built it myself: The Year of Writing Magically.

And as a result of that community, I wrote my first book in nine years.

Question: What is your favorite experience working in community?

---

That wasn’t a fluke. I’m 1/3 into my second book now and it is flowing and moving and it’s because of the people I’m writing alongside. Sure, I’m teaching the workshop, but I’m also taking it, and this stuff is magic.

Community is magic.

But, as I said in my introductory post, we need small cohorts of writers so that no one gets lost in the crowd. I can’t scale the Year of Writing Magically out because it needs to be small. But by guiding y’all through the process, and giving those who commit to the full year their own Discord channels for their cohorts, I can make it possible for you to do this, too.

In community.

So… communitycore. Less an aesthetic and more a principle, but still.

I think it works.

Maybe.

See you next time, when we break down “guided writing challenge.”

1. Community is challenging, y’all. Groups of people can be magical, and they can be terrible. We’re going to go in with a recognition of this fact, and work together to be as magical as possible.

2. Did I ever tell y’all that I’m the first previously unpublished writer to sign a publishing deal with a Big Six (it was six back then) publisher with a Nano novel? Now that’s a claim to fame, amiright?