#wordmongering: Are YOU In?

I said a while back I would do a post about #wordmongering, so here it is.

If you’ve followed me on Twitter for more than a week or so, then you have likely seen my bursts of excitement and confetti tagged with the mysterious #wordmongering hashtag. They looked like this:

So as you can see, I have a love affair with virtual confetti. Wait. I mean, I use the #wordmongering hashtag a lot. I mean…uh, MOVING ON!

There’s a point to this post and the point is this: If you’re a writer, and you’re on Twitter and you haven’t checked out #wordmongering yet, you definitely should.

But of course now you want to know why. WHY Ava, should we check out this mysterious silly-sounding hashtag? I mean, wordmongering isn’t even a word, IS IT? No, not yet my friends, but it shall be.

First of all, it was created by @notveryalice and @MonicaMarieV, one of which (@notveryalice) created an awesome website that explains all. So if you have any questions after reading this super-informative blog post, check it out because it’s pretty and holds all the answers. It even knows where the fountain of youth is and where your favorite sock disappeared to. Ok, I made that up. But that’d be pretty cool.

ANYWAY. Digressing a lot today.

I discovered #wordmongering a little over a month and a half ago. At the time I wasn’t really working on a manuscript, but I was trying to get one started. I saw people posting their word counts on this silly aforementioned thread and eventually curiosity got the best of me, so I checked it out. I was expecting a bunch of writers talking about how many words they wrote. What I WASN’T expecting was a community full of encouraging people with arms open to all newcomers.

Wow. I fell in love immediately. Not only that, but I started a manuscript. And finished it thirty-three days later.

The system just worked for me. Basically, at the start of every hour, those participating in #wordmongering write as much as they can for half an hour. After that they report their word count and relax for the next half hour. It doesn’t matter if you’re written 50 words or 1000 words because (and this is the best part) negativity is not permitted. So if you feel bad you only wrote 50 words, guess what? People will come and give you virtual hugs and say you did great anyway.

And they mean it. Because it’s 50 words you didn’t have half an hour ago.

The half hour writing spurts worked for me. It helped me conquer my ADD tendencies and I didn’t wear myself out because I was relaxing every half hour. I know it’s not perfect for everyone, but at the very least I’d encourage you to try it out if only for the opportunity to meet some amazing, warm people.  

As long as you don’t mind me attacking you with confetti, that is.