When will I be able to register?

And more specific answers on the rotWIPs schedule...

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Quick note: I appear today on my friend Keris’ brilliant Ladybird Purse Substack. She speaks openly, honestly, and vulnerably on being a woman dealing with money, and it’s one of the few newsletters I read the instant it hits my inbox. A hearty recommend, well worth a paid subscription if you can swing it!

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Hey, Runners!

Today is going to be a big details day, but before we get started, I wanted to answer one great question from Christine in the comments:

Would you recommend starting rotWIPs and then transitioning to the Year of Writing Magically?

Absolutely! If you enjoy the rotWIPs experience and want the more in-depth experience of the Year of Writing Magically, which includes live video sessions led by me every two weeks and daily personal coaching via the private Discord, then you can easily shift from rotWIPs (which starts in September) to the Year of Writing Magically (which starts in March.) We’ll be revisiting some of the same material and schedule, so you’ll be re-engaging with Discovery and Drafting, but hey—most writers need the extra time, anyway.

And you’ll get whatever you paid for rotWIPs shaved off the top of your enrollment costs for the Year of Writing Magically.

A note: The Year of Writing Magically has enrollment limited to 20, so I can’t guarantee a slot, but anyone who has done rotWIPs will be prioritized.

Okay…. now on to the detailed part of today’s program. We are less than two months out from the start of the Running of the WIPs, and it seems like the big question everyone has is:

When can I register to be a Runner?

Registration for the Running of the WIPs opens Monday, July 22.

I have been looking at various alternatives to the Substack paid system, but I chose Substack because it’s easy and accessible for a lot of people, so… we’re doing this on Substack.

That means compromises. But as I will be actively beating perfectionism out of you over the next year… eh, best to lead by example, right?

I can’t turn off paid subscriptions without mucking up the whole system, so there may be off-cases where monthly Runners who finish the challenge end up paying a bit more because they signed up early, and some potential issues for annual Runners who can’t be added to a Discord server because they started too late.

We will case-by-case our way through it together; it’ll be fine.

TL;DR: Substack has the potential to be an imperfect subscription model for the way we’re using it here, so reach out if you have any subscription problems at all, and I will fix them.

Will registration close at some point?

That’s another place where the Substack subscription model is imperfect for this usage. Because we’re building community here, we really need people to sign up as close to the start as possible. Anyone signing up with an annual subscription after, say, October, is going to disrupt the Discord communities we’ve already started. But, I can’t turn off paid subscriptions or the whole system falls apart.

Once again… I’ll figure it out, likely on a case-by-case basis.

TL;DR: Registration won’t close. It’s best if everyone registers before mid-October, but I can either find solutions for or refund Runners who wander in too late.

Question: What is your favorite part of the writing process? Discovery? Drafting? Revision? Being done with the whole damn thing? Answer in the comments!

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Can you give a general rundown of the schedule?

I can! I shared a Google Calendar link last time that worked for some Runners, but not for others. I believe you must have a Google account active in the browser you try to use it in. If you use Google Calendar, you can add it to your list of calendars and have access to it all year-round, and any changes in schedule will be updated there.

However, for a simple at-a-glance, with the caveat that some dates may shift a bit in transit based on the needs of the Runners, here you go:

INTRO & MINDSET WORK: Monday, September 9—Sunday, September 22

DISCOVERY: Monday, September 23—Sunday, November 3

DRAFTING: Monday, November 4—Sunday, January 5

PROVING + CRAFT SKILLS: Monday, January 6—Sunday, February 2

FIRST REVISION: Monday, February 3—Sunday, March 23

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PART? + OPENING SCENE CRITIQUES: Monday, March 24-Sunday, May 4

NEXT STEPS—PUBLISHING & BEYOND: Monday, May 5—Friday, June 13

And now for our final question:

Is this going to be fun?

Oh, baby. You have no idea.