Hey all, Sam here.
It has been a little bit since I’ve had a post here on the blog. I keep saying that I have a bunch of half-written book reviews that I just need to finish and then post, but then stuff keeps happening and I just don’t manage to finish them. Trust me, I’m very annoyed with myself, and a part of my keeps saying that it’ll get better soon, but I keep being stressed and overwhelmed and it is making the things I normally enjoy doing not feel as relaxing as they used to.
I’ll figure it out. It just might take time. There’s a lot on my to-do list and I just need to start working on it little by little. I’ll actually talk about a couple of the things on my to-do list with today’s post about participating in the Pathfinders Writing Collective writing challenge again this year. I’m once again trying to take on the November, December, and January length challenge, because I am trying to build towards consistent creative output.
Anyway, you can find out more information here: https://pathfinderswritingcollective.com/ or by visiting the PaWriCo Instagram. But I’ll give the basic breakdown in just a moment.
In the Beginning…
Rain and Jen’s friendship began in the summer of 2022, then blossomed just in time for NaNoWriMo’s big November writing challenge: 50,000 words in 30 days. Both writers were nervous and support-system-less, so they banded together to cheer each other (and eventually a Discord of 40) on for the month. It was an amazing ride, and though the Discord eventually went dormant, Rain and Jen have been supporting one another ever since!
But, after concerns in 2023 and 2024 regarding NaNoWriMo, neither felt good about participating in a challenge they couldn’t confidently stand behind. And yet, both still wanted a challenge, and more importantly, the community that came with it.
This got them thinking…
Why not build a new challenge? And a community to go with it!
Very quickly Rain and Jen’s goals became three-fold: 1) writing challenges for motivation, 2) a community space for accountability, and 3) fundraising opportunities so as they and other writers bettered themselves they could collectively better the world at large. And just like that (over several multi-hour Zoom calls), the idea for Pathfinders Writing Collective emerged.
Why Pathfinders?
Creativity—the how, the why, the way—is unique to the creator. In more specific terms, there’s no right way to write. And thus, no right way to “writing challenge.” Each individual must walk their own path… with friends cheering them on, of course!
As such, you—a path-finder/ builder/ maintainer/ explorer/ sharer/ etcetera—ought to be able to pick your own path, your own pace, and how to define and track your progress while still participating in fun community events. To honor this, Rain and Jen have opted for customizable challenges, rather than implementing a hard “50k in 30 days” approach.
Drum Roll Please… #PaWriCo’s Very First Challenge!!!
Pathfinders Writing Collective’s very first, totally-custamizable writing challenge, #PaWriCo24, was a smashing success!! Our 3-month-long challenge brought over 3,000 writers together and as a group we raised over $2,000 for charity. Not to mention, it was so much fun! New writers started (and some completed) their very first drafts! Seasoned authors published their books! And who knows how many new friendships were made? (A lot, we know it was a lot.)
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And Now… More Challenges!
To keep the good times rolling, Rain and Jen have decided to host 4 challenges a year: The PaWriCo Challenge from November through January, PaWriCo’s March Madness in March, Scribble Swap in April/May, and a 6-week Bookish Bootcamp Challenge in June/July. Learn more about our challenges here.
How to Participate:
Honey, you’re here, you made it! *Hugs* To “join” join, check out our Instagram page where members are actively sharing their updates and supporting one another via comments and story swaps. And/or hop into our Discord full of fun, active channels for writers to discuss everything from helpful editing resources to strategies for overcoming writer’s block. Then, if you’ve got a little change to spare, consider donating to our current charity. Learn more here!
So whether you’re working on plotting or drafting or editing, or if you’re looking for a 1 month or 3 month challenge, PaWriCo has you covered. The flexibility of this end of year challenge is pretty darn awesome.
The flexibility of PaWriCo is one of the things I absolutely love, and I keep hoping that I can find the right balance of things so I can get back to consistent creative output. I’m going to be honest. One of the things I’ve been struggling with for a while now is that most of my home layout does not feel conducive to creative output. We’ve let things get too cluttered, and even my writing desk area has become a victim of clutter (surprisingly enough most of that is not mine, but it is overtaking my space anyway).
So one of my goals for the three month run of PaWriCo is to spend some time tidying up the house. I’m hoping that decluttering the house can help declutter my mind and open the doors and windows to creativity and a desire to consistently work on my projects.
For the actual writing, I still have the same two projects I’ve been trying to make progress on for the past couple of years. One is a hybrid contemporary romance and fantasy adventure story that is basically a fictionalized version of how my husband and I met and fell in love while playing D&D. The story takes you between the out of game get-to-know-you and dates and all the stuff you’d expect from a contemporary romance, while the fantasy adventure side of things is the in-game story of a group of adventurers who band together and find themselves on a quest to save the town that has begun to feel like home, which leads to hunting down an enemy that has far grander aspirations. My goal with this is to write one storyline and then weave the other one into it after the rough draft is done…so finish the fantasy adventure and then go back and weave the contemporary romance into it. This is partly because I’m more familiar with fantasy writing, but also because I want there to be some parallels in the overall plot arcs and I feel like that would be easier if I know the arc first.
The other project I’ve been working on is an expansion for the backstory of one of my D&D characters. I roughly have the plot figured out for the last few chapters I need for the main novella/short novel. But because of the character finding out that she’s been reincarnated in service to her deity many times, I now have ideas for sort of short stories for each of those lifetimes. If I combine the novella/short novel with all of the short stories, then I can have a nice full book length project to perhaps polish up and release.
Okay, for the actual goals for PaWriCo, I am giving myself a split goal and I am allowing myself to count time worked decluttering the house as well as words written on my stories or a combination of the two. I’d like to set my goal as either 3 hours or 1500 words per week. If I declutter and clean for three hours then it’s a success. If I write 1500 words then it’s a success. If I declutter for an hour and a half and write 750 words then that is a success (because that would be half of one goal and half of the other so a total of one whole goal) or any combination of the two that would technically still add up to a whole goal for the week.
If I’m very lucky then by the end of this my house will feel a lot more organized and spacious for creativity and I’ll have some decent progress on my projects (and maybe even the desire and drive to keep writing after PaWriCo has wrapped).
All right, well that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
