WeSeWriMo Intro and Preparation

First, you may be asking... what is WeSeWriMo?

WeSeWriMo, aka Web Series Writing Month, is a writing marathon/project much like NaNoWriMo, but with far more flexible and personalized goals. (The project is hosted by the EpiGuide web entertainment and weblit community, and it's our mandate to encourage and promote the bountiful variety of webserial formats and genres.)

Since 2007, writers of any kind of serialized fiction or webseries are invited to spend August 1 - 31 churning out material with a set goal of ... well, whatever measurement you like! You might decide on 50,000 words or 10 installments or 50 scenes or 100 pages or any writing goal you wish. The idea is to make it ambitious enough to be a challenge, but realistic enough so that you're not dooming yourself to failure before you even start.

Starting July 1, would-be participants can sign up over at the EpiGuide and declare their goal. (Goals can be changed at any time up till the start of WeSeWriMo, but after that, you're stuck with it!) The goals and links to your website are published over on WeSeWriMo.org; those who successfully complete their goals will have their sites linked throughout the year. Not to mention the thrill of victory, natch!

Participation is free, of course! You'll receive an EpiGuide blog (usually a feature offered only to members with 25+ posts) and some very basic gadgets where you can chart your progress in public. Folks can discuss their challenges/obstacles, tips, and successes, in the official WeSeWriMo forum at the Eppy. And one can post/tweet about it anywhere else one fancies, of course. Last year I offered daily posts with ideas and links to inspire any flagging, weary writers to keep their eyes on the prize, and everyone chimed in with their own thoughts. Sometimes we offered fun/silly ways to challenge ourselves (such as including the name of their serial hidden within dialogue, or writing acronyms throughout several paragraphs, that sort of thing). I believe we had a 30% success rate last year.

There's a discussion topic on the EpiGuide about WeSeWriMo, but I'd also love to open discussion here, too, in order to brainstorm ways to make WeSeWriMo '10 a rousing success, both in terms of number of participants and improving the overall completion rate for WeSeWriMoers. I really hope more weblit people will join us. It's a lowkey event, miniscule right now in fact, but perhaps with your help we might be able to grow our numbers substantially.

If you have any suggestions or questions, please let me know either in that thread or right here. Thanks, gang! I hope you'll join us.