TheWriting Journey(aka the Journey) is the year-round,a la cartewriting group that is associated with theNaperville regionof National Novel Writing Month. It is a completely free writing group where all are welcome to participate in our many Paths. A Path is an activity or event or project that one or more Journey participants creates and coordinates. Paths can be a one-time social event like a lunch or dinner out at a restaurant or a picnic or a musical (like Next to Normal or Heathers) or they can be as complex as ashort story anthology. Some recent popular Paths include: short story anthologies, the (in-person) Critiquing group, theEditing Path, the query path, the MiniWriMo challenge (10k in 2 weeks), the Writer's Voice workshop, Shakespeare Reader's Theatre, the Japanesey/Asian Paths, the Writing Excuses Master Class and the Poetry Path.

You do not need to be in the region to be a member of the Journey, though many of our events and activities are local. The Journey's core track are a series of monthly general meetings January through June and again in September (we take off July, August, October, November and December). Each general meeting typically features two interactive workshops (each presented by one or more volunteers) and somestory walls(which are small group feedback/advice sessions). Our sponsors are theWoodridge Public Libraryand theGlen Ellyn Public Library, so the meetings will be held there (seewritingjourney.org/eventsfor logistics). Meetings are typically Saturday afternoons.

To join (or rejoin for existing Journey members),please take this survey:http://journey.naperwrimo.org/survey2018/

Be sure to share your thoughts on new Paths you would like to see (e.g., there were some rumblings about a knitting Path and a children's book writing Path; and I think it might be cool to have an improv Path).

You can also post below and I'll update this list of members. Questions? Feel free to post below. We'll also gladly accept your suggestions.

2018 Journey Members

• NewMexicoKid
• CJEGV
• OddSoul
• thebloodluna
• Icspeedyg
• luckysharms
• WriterTodd07
• fua
• DJRM
• SadieRose
• KCSwier
• anitairons
• TRRDEDEAN
• PBJ63010
• Zora5128
• AnnaVanEast
• samcadams
• Cee-Bee
• fishmama
• GwenTolios
• aprilkitty
• tireddadx3
• cjpowers7
• Me-n-Jesus
• TurtleTalk
• Grachael
• Dohenyster
• P J Raymond
• Savannah Reynard
• Goddess_Astra

I plan to be in the Journey but the link to that survey is mostly just a blank page. I don't see any survey there.

I am also interested in starting a Path but I'm not sure how to get started on it.

DJRM wrote:I plan to be in the Journey but the link to that survey is mostly just a blank page. I don't see any survey there. I am also interested in starting a Path but I'm not sure how to get started on it.

Thanks, Daniel! I've fixed the link. Please try again now.

What is the Path you're interested in starting? We can help you brainstorm how to begin.

I wanted to take an idea I did with some other writers a few years ago where first someone wrote a thousand words and then passed it onto the next person who added another thousand words. In that group each person did a segment but then it kind of fell off.

I would like to try something similar in the Journey. I would have to be done primarily online in google docs but it would be the same idea. We start off with someone writing a thousand words and then pass it on every thousand words. Or course it might have something like a 100 word buffer in case people end up a little over or under. Or the story could only be 500 words each person, or just 50. It depends on how many people are interested.

Another possibility is having multiple thousand word each pieces going at once. Each person that wants to take part writes thousand words starter but each person also has to contribute some number of words to the other pieces.

DJRM wrote:I wanted to take an idea I did with some other writers a few years ago where first someone wrote a thousand words and then passed it onto the next person who added another thousand words. In that group each person did a segment but then it kind of fell off. I would like to try something similar in the Journey. I would have to be done primarily online in google docs but it would be the same idea. We start off with someone writing a thousand words and then pass it on every thousand words. Or course it might have something like a 100 word buffer in case people end up a little over or under. Or the story could only be 500 words each person, or just 50. It depends on how many people are interested. Another possibility is having multiple thousand word each pieces going at once. Each person that wants to take part writes thousand words starter but each person also has to contribute some number of words to the other pieces.

Interesting idea. Is the thought to use this to actually come up with a story (or set of stories), inspired by what each person is doing? Or provide everyone with motivation to write 1000 words per day (so what each person writes might be completely unrelated to what others write)?

The idea is to create a story in the end or a set of stories. I was not planning for anyone to write 1000 words a day, I was thinking each segment would be weekly at best. If I get ambitious I could say this would be like making a new kind of anthology but that depends on how many people are actually interested and how consistently everyone keeps up their contributions.