Activity

Before we begin: this is an important announcement, so please take the time to read it all.

 

First of all, thank you to everyone who filled in the survey. It was very helpful and I hope that we’ll be able to use your feedback to make the guilds even more awesome than ever!

 

Our vision for the guilds is to form a tight-knit group of creators who encourage and inspire each other in their craft. As guildmasters, we’re trying to help build this spirit of camaraderie and we have lots of different opportunities where you can join in the effort.

1)      Critiques. It’s immensely helpful to have your work critiqued, and we want to make a place where you can be open and unafraid to share snippets and ideas. That means we need people to actually be willing to get in and critique. There’s twenty people here. It shouldn’t be the same three people critiquing every single submission. 😉

2)      Accountability. There’s nothing more inspiring than to know that someone else is holding you accountable to your writing goals. If you make a topic about a goal, people are going to see it and hold you to that goal. No slacking off in this guild. But that also means that you need to look at other peoples’ topics and keep them accountable to.

3)      Improving your craft. Every week I post a new lesson or discussion idea on our current topic and that’s your chance to learn how to strengthen and hone your writing skills. Let me give you a little glimpse into my side of this: every Monday, I spend approximately 2-4 hours brainstorming a lesson, looking up references, finding inspiration, and writing out the post for you. I’m not pointing fingers at anyone, and I know people can be super busy, but…if I spend that much time on something, I want it to be worthwhile. If you ignore them, you’re being unfair to both yourself and me. You’re missing an opportunity to learn something that maybe you didn’t know before.

4)      Prompt Guild Wars. This is a chance to learn from the other writers in your guild. You get to write with them, see their edits, brainstorm ideas, etc. It’s a great time to learn new things, and also help other people. If everyone pitches in, not only is it a huge lot of fun and more likely for a victory, but it’s educational for all involved.

5)      A place to ask (and answer!) questions. The writing life is a life of constant learning. If you have a question, the guild is an awesome place to put it (under ‘Meraki Writing Discussions’ subforum). Don’t be shy. If you see someone else asking a question and you know the answer…answer it!

 

If we all pitch in, this guild thing can really pay off for all of us. If everyone helps everyone, then it’s a huge benefit to all involved.

I can’t do this by myself. I can suggest all sorts of amazing ideas and pump out activities like nobody’s business, but ultimately it’s up to you guys.

 

There are some people in this guild who are trying their best to make this a wonderful place that can fulfil those visions we have. There are other people who’ve signed up and are waiting to join a guild, hoping that it will grow them and encourage them in their journey.

If there’s people here that aren’t doing anything, it’s not fair on any of those others. Maybe the guild isn’t for you. Maybe the time it takes outweighs the benefits. That’s okay. Maybe that just means you need to contact your guildmaster (aka: me) and ask to be removed from the guild to make room for someone else who needs it more.

 

That leads me up to the announcement. There’s two parts of this:

1)      We’re asking all members to be active in the guild at least once a week. This only needs to take about ten-thirty minutes of your time, and it can still make a huge difference. (Obviously, more than once a week is ideal, but not always possible with busy schedules.)

2)      All current inactive members will be removed from the guild in another week or so. They will still be able to be on the SE forum, but not in a guild.

 

However—I definitely understand the busyness of life. If you’re going on a trip or you know that the next month or so is going to be killer busy, just let me know! Make a post/topic somewhere in the guild (or email me: jane(at)janemareeauthor.com.au) so that I know you’ll be back. If you leave for a little while, you don’t need to worry about coming back only to find that you’ve been kicked out.

In this guild, we’re looking to build a long-term support group. Which means that I’m not going to toss people out because of tiny little short term absences. 😉

 

That about wraps up the announcement. Thank you for reading through all of that. I hope that together we can make this guild super amazing and become a great team. 😀

 

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