Looking for a positive, supportive writing group? The slushpile community is moving to Discord. Join us!
“It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this.”
As writers we’re used to sending our characters off on daring quests, whether that be literal or metaphorical, but we don’t often push them through the threshold empty handed. They’ll have their trusty tool of choice, perhaps a special sword, and are occasionally packed with more supplies than might seem possible – looking at you, Link. However, a hero usually has something else that’s of far more importance: a group of people to take that big step into a brand new world with them.
While we aren’t actively dismantling a dictatorship, or literally bringing dragons into the world, the journey of writing a novel is its own sort of quest. Your end goal is clear, and you surround yourself with your favorite tools, whether that’s Scrivener or a special pen – it is mightier than the sword, they say. But to get the job done, from brainstorms to bookshelves, you need to find the people to help you along the way.
Frodo has Samwise Gamgee, Percy Jackson has Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood, and for the past couple of years, I’ve had the writing community. Whether it’s on Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter, or another platform, it’s motivating to be part of something bigger than yourself and join other writers who have set out on quests not so dissimilar from your own. Doing fun activities with the Slushpile Monster crew has especially led to so many special memories!
However, recently, Steven poked his large, furry head out of his cave to complain about how there seems to be fewer and fewer writers on Twitter whose souls he can snack on. A lot has changed on social media over the past year, and I know some have either turned to new social media platforms or are just less active than they used to be. And so, Steven has tasked me with creating our own special little corner of the internet to keep up his supply of hapless writers.
We’re Throwing a Discord Cave-Warming Party!
Where better to form our little community than Discord, one might ask? It’s a little mysterious, a bit off the wayward path, and the perfect place to huddle around and share our stories, just like Steven’s cave. If you haven’t heard of Discord before, it’s a chat app full of servers, each related to a specific interest all the members share. Our server is one of the many spaces dedicated to people who love writing, but it’s the only place you’ll find Steven lurking around.
Whether you’re old hat or looking to try something new, we want to welcome you to the Slushpile Monster server! We’ll be running a special Camp Nano Check-In event on July 15th. Join us from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. PT, or 1 to 4 p.m. ET, for fun and games, writing sprints, and an opportunity for us all to get to know each other a little better. By the end, you’ll be a bit closer to completing your July writing goals, and you’ll have a new place to hang out with your fellow writers.
The CliffsNotes of How To Discord
If you want to know a bit more about what to expect before making your way over to our Discord, you're in luck! The first thing you'll notice is Steven's cheerful blue self, and the next thing might be all your fellow writers who have already made their way over. You may even recognize a few of us from Twitter!
When you're ready to join the conversation, you'll be faced with a set of channels. Each channel is dedicated to a specific topic – we have ones for writing sprints, self-publishing, querying, and more. While most of the channels are text channels, similar to group chats on other apps, there is also a channel open for voice chatting. And if you're not sure where to start, the "general" channel is the central catch-all for conversation. And the beauty is we can create and delete channels to fit our needs.
Join Us!
What fun can you expect in joining us? Well, the party is just getting going! We do sprints every week with a writing bot called Sprinto that keeps track of the time for us and when the sprint is over, it even calculates how many words we've written. It's just a simple /join to participate and /words to update your word count. Our server is also a great place to go to for advice, and we'll be doing reading swaps in the near future!
So, if you're feeling a little bit lonely in your writing journey, just remember, it's dangerous to go alone. Take this: >> Slushpile Monster Invite. <<
Trapped in the slush pile? Don't suffer alone! Meet Steven, the big blue monster that lurks in this hopeless black pit. When he's not munching on the souls of hapless writers, he hosts an online writing community dedicated to making friends, having fun, and improving our literary skills.
Don’t forget to join our mailing list so you never miss any of the games or competitions for bookworms! We also share resources for writers. It's much more reliable than getting updated on Twitter, and we also have special mailing list-only content!