Five reasons to join the Running of the WIPs

And they're all really good

Hey, Runners!

Well… today is the day.

I opened up paid subscriptions to the Running of the WIPs, and I think it’s gonna be a good time.

But here’s something important; there are group discounts! So anyone who signs up with a friend, both people get 10% off, and if you sign up with a group of 5 or more, you can contact me directly to get 20% off for everyone!

I’ve written today’s post to help you persuade your friends and writing groups to get their novels¹ written this year in a process-first, writer-focused, communitycore, guided writing challenge, so without further ado, here are five reasons every writer should sign up for the Running of the WIPs writing challenge!

1. You’ll write using your strengths as your North Star

What makes my approach different from other writing workshops and coaching is that I’m not just here to tell you what you’re doing wrong and how to fix it.

I’m here to tell you what you’re doing right, and how to keep doing that thing.

I have learned in my over 20 years of professional writing that most of what makes a story work or fail is not on the page, it’s in the writer.

It’s in a writer who thinks they can protect themselves from criticism if everything is absolutely perfect, when the reality is, perfection is not a real thing.

Rather than wasting your time (and energy) trying to run away from the vulnerability of imperfection, you’re going to learn how to identify your strengths and lean into them, creating work that is more powerful and more you than you can imagine.

This is why we do mindset work and travel in packs. We need each other. We need positivity. We need to stop allowing fear to eat up the energy² we need to write.

2. You’ll have an experienced guide leading you

I sold my first novel in a two-book deal to Warner Books (now Hachette) in 2003.

I had no idea how I wrote the first one. I had absolutely zero idea how to write the next one.

I managed pretty well on storytelling instinct—which we all have because we engage in so many stories—but that wasn’t enough for me. I needed to consciously understand what I was doing, or I’d never be comfortable in my life’s work.

So I spent the next 20 years analyzing endless stories and podcasting about them in order to learn how stories actually work. I taught storytelling at Syracuse University, handed my theories over to a bunch of college sophomores, and discovered that they held up even under the rigorous case testing of 19-year-olds³.

In addition to all the mindset work and community support, I’ll teach you how story works, and help you use craft properly, as a support to your story, rather than ripping your story to threads to meet some draconian craft requirement.

My absolute rule is, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And I’ll teach you how to apply craft in a way that elevates your work instead of hindering it.

Today’s Comments Assignment:

A year from now, the book you’re thinking about can be drafted. How does that make you feel?

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3. Community

I wrote my first novel as part of Nanowrimo in 2002. I joined on November 1, a little after midnight, because I was part of an online writing group that was doing it. At the time, I did not know what Nanowrimo was. I had no idea what I was going to write.

That book became the RITA Award-Winning Time Off for Good Behavior.

But even more valuable than all of that, I remain friends with some of the writers I worked alongside that November. They continue to be part of my writing community now, and they are the inspiration for the Year of Writing Magically, which is designed to give other writers the gift I’ve had for the last two decades.

Community.

4. It’s a writing challenge, not a workshop

Here’s what I don’t like about the idea of a workshop.

Writers go into workshops basically asking each other to read their work and beat the shit out of them. And we do it, because we think we’re helping each other. Brutally honest feedback is a love language in many areas of the writing community.

Not only is that approach unnecessary, it’s actively harmful.

I didn’t write for nine years for a lot of reasons, but one of them was that I got to the point where absolutely nothing I wrote felt good enough.

It took me a very long time to realize that good isn’t the point.

Good isn’t my job. Done is my job.

Look, stories create meaning, and meaning is the love language of the universe. Your job isn’t to go out there and write the best thing ever written. Think of the most flawless, incredible piece of written work you’ve ever encountered, the work that changed your life, and I will find you a hundred people who hate it without even trying very hard.

Your job isn’t to be the Next Greatest Writer In The World. Your job is to create meaning in your stories, and in your life, by doing the work you were born to do.

So… are you gonna do it or what?

5. What else are you gonna do? Not write your book?

If you’re a writer, you want to write. If you’re here, you’ve probably struggled with it. The Running of the WIPs is designed to make writing easier (can’t make it easy, no such animal) through the powerful approaches of mindset work and supportive community.

These are the two things that have made all the difference for me.

Using this approach, I wrote my first novel in almost ten years last year, and I’m halfway through my second one now.

I am a NYT bestselling author, and I had a full-on writer’s block of almost a decade. I broke through, and I know that I can help you break through.

So right now, you have a choice. You can keep doing what you’ve been doing, and if that’s working for you, that’s wonderful. Congratulations, and I hope your success continues.

But if you think it’s possible to both happier and more productive while writing, you have this opportunity to join a supportive community led by an experienced author to help you take your writing life to the next level.

Trust me. It’s gonna be fun.

1. I say “novels” as shorthand, but this writing challenge will work for people writing screenplays, graphic novels, or any other long-form fiction project.

2. The very first exercise we’re going to do when the challenge starts is a guided energy audit designed to find the writing energy in your week, not the writing time. It’s not about time, baby. It’s never been about time.

3. And let me tell you, if you want to test the durability of a theory, give it to a college kid. If they can’t break it, it can’t be broken.