Last week was the first meeting of the updated version of the writing club at work. Generally, I'm a hopeful person (politics not included), but I was not optimistic when it came to this program having a good turnout.
Let me provide some context.
I started the first iteration of the Writing Club back in 2018. Initially, I would only have 1 member attend at a time. They would return for a few meetings, and then I would never see them again. Later, I had a trio of teens who would faithfully attend. They were a riot and we came up with some interesting, joint story ideas (when I could keep them on topic, that is).
Enter COVID, sending the Writing Club online. My original teens graduated high school during this time and were replaced with 3 new, just as passionate, youths. On occasion, they were joined by 1 or 2 others.
A request to talk about mature topics without the presence of minors saw me divide the club into 3 offerings: separate clubs for teens, adults, and all ages. Regrettably, this caused participation to further dwindle, as even the person who initially asked for the adult space stopped attending the meetings altogether.
Down on my luck, I introduced TeNoWriMo last fall so that I could focus on the current roster of dedicated teens. The content was good and the writers were stellar, but sports, part-time jobs, and general teen life prevented the program from reaching its full potential.
Flash forward to last week. I'd been marketing for Write of Way, an 18+ peer-led writing club, for over a month and I'd only heard of one person who'd shown interest. On the night of the first meeting, I prepared the space and retreated to the back workroom. When I went to check on the person in attendance, I saw that there were 5 more people in the room with him! I was gobsmacked! I stayed to chat with them for a bit, helping drum up a conversation (not that they needed any help from me) and then a 7th person showed up!
I joked that maybe this version of the club will be successful because I'm not running it, merely facilitating it, but whatever the reason, I am excited. They're already anticipating the next meeting and have begun holding each other accountable for getting writing done. A bonus is that everyone is at a different stage in their journey and has different writing preferences/styles. I can't wait to see what they create.
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