Six years ago today I started a writing chat room colloquially known as the War Room. Its purpose was to create a space where the writers I knew could log in and encourage one another to write. The idea is basically a chat room where you don’t chat, you just shut up and write, but in the presence of others, so that there’s some accountability. It’s a way of creating a work environment for a job that often expects you to get it done with nothing but your own self-discipline ruling you. We generally do 30 minute sprints, aka “word wars,” at the end of which we return to report our wordcount, admire one another, stretch a little, and do it again.
I had a book–one of the Walker Papers, maybe DEMON HUNTS–that desperately needed finishing, and I started the war room in the hopes that it would last six months or so, long enough to get through the book, at least, and maybe help a few other writers get through their projects of the moment.
Six months have become six years, and a startling number of the original Word Warriors still log in almost daily. There have been long stretches where I haven’t been able to be in there regularly at all, and it still kept going. We bounced through a bunch of locations before my friend Merlin offered us a Forever Home, and it still held on through all the uncertainty. We have new writers come in regularly, often with an air of excitement.
I’m really proud of the War Room. I’m really happy to have created a virtual place where writers can come to do their work. I’m really grateful to all of the writers who log in, who encourage each other, who share advice and woes, and who (most of the time) shut up and write together.
So Happy Birthday to the War Room, and thank you to Di Francis, Laura Anne Gilman, Michelle Sagara, Mikaela Lind, Karina Sumner-Smith, Chrysoula Tzavelas, Earl Miles, Robin Owens, Patricia Burroughs, and at *least* half a dozen more people I’m forgetting while I’m writing this post, for all of the words and the writing and the wars. I’m so glad you’re in there with me. ♥
I am glad you create it! I am also glad I dared to log in to it despite being unpublished. :)
Hi,
God knows how many years ago you were in Dublin, Ireland. You were in my taxi and we got talking. You gave me your card. I was going through old stuff today when I found the card (other cards as well….. why the Korean ambassador left his card God only knows!). Looked up your web site, glad to see you are still writing, the War Room is a great initiative, well done.
So I thought it would be fun to remind you of your time in Ireland. Hope you had a good time. All the best, Eamonn.
Hah! Hello, Eamonn! Believe it or not, I still live in Ireland! I don’t know if the same Korean Ambassador does, though… :)