InsaneJournal

What is writingpals

writingpals is a community that turns your fellow comm-members into your novel-writing accountabilibuddies! Posts for word-count goals, general novelling resources and pep-talks are our specialty and our goal is to, quite simply, help you reach your goal! The only thing we won't do is write the novel for you, unfortunately.

From a South Park episode, "Cartman Sucks", accountabilibuddies are your Pray The Gay Away Camp bunkmates who are accountable for your actions! We're accountable for keeping each other on track with writing, and supporting each other in times of dire need.

Every Monday (whenever one of the maintainers can post during the day), a post will go up. Any participating writer can comment on that post with their starting wordcount for the week, and the numbers of words that is their word goal for the week. On the following Sunday, a post will go up for the writers to comment with their ending wordcount and a brief explanation of why they did(n't) make their goal for the week, what helped or hurt them in their journey, etc.

You don't have to do a goal every week if you're a member of the community! Nor are you technically obligated to follow up with a goal hit/miss if you comment on the Monday post. But honor system, people! You can also lie about your word count for the week, if you want to be a total dildo.

Joining the community doesn't mean you are writing anything, nor does it mean you have to participate at all. You're free to join if you just want to read some talented people's fiction, offer services as a beta-reader, give people some extra motivation, or just watch people flail.

The best way to make your word count goal every week is simply to aim low! If you think you might be busy one week, you can opt out of participating that week or you can simply set a very low goal! Then think of how great you'll feel to double or triple that goal, even if it was only 200 words to begin with.

Other things can/will be posted throughout the week. Pleas for help from someone who has dug themselves into a plot hole, cries for critiques, pep talks, "give me your ideas for stuff" posts, etc. They're all welcome. Anything related to the writing process can go here for other people to give input to.

As for "what happens if I succeed/fail?" the answer is simple: winners get adorable animal gifs, and those who fall short for the week get sad gifs and matronly guilt so persuasive that Molly Weasley would be jealous. Plus, both "winner" and "loser" get their names posted in the following Monday's goal post for the masses to see and praise/despair.

Writing Cheat Sheet
102 Resources For Writers (instead of picking a few to share, I'm just linking the whole post for people to pick through)
Nonverbal Dictionary
Anatomy of a Character
Behind The Name
The Snowflake Method
December and Beyond at NaNoWriMo -- lots of things like other NaNo-style writing challenges, plus writing contests with no entry fees.
750 words - write 750 words a day or be on the wall of shame.

If you have any questions about the nuts and bolts of the community's function (what's okay to post, what's not, etc. etc.) or have a site to recommend for our list, comment with it hear. Questions about writing/beta-readers/the down and dirty of the process can be posted in the main comm.