Starting Go Write Me:

A collaborative writing website brought to life

I started Go Write Me after stumbling across an old notebook of half-finished thoughts. Inside were story ideas, drawings, chapters, one-liners… just a bunch of random bits of brain activity that would hopefully one day evolve into a cohesive concept of awesomeness. When bursts of creativity take over, one must respond.

In flipping through this dusty college-ruled tome, one finished chapter in particular stood out—it wasn’t half bad. I liked the setup. I could clearly see the character. It seemed like a cute start to a story. I barely even remembered writing it.

I had too many other stories in various stages of completion at that point. Two full novels—met with absolute zero fanfare, thank you very much. Finished rough drafts of others. Some untold tales that were just waiting for me to get them out of my head and onto the page. It was then, glancing back over those pages, that I realized this little spark of a story would live and die in that notebook. The character’s entire existence would be trapped in a desk drawer with nothing else ever happening to them – never seeing the light of day and never getting a ‘The End’ of their very own.

And it made me sad.

So, I said to my spouse, “Wouldn’t it be cool if you could post a one-off chapter online and someone else could write the next one? Like a collaborative writing website.” They joked back, “What would you call it? Go Write Me?” We both laughed. What a silly idea.

And that’s where it stayed— a silly idea. For years. Just a thought that would pop up on long walks or sleepless nights. It would be a cool site, I think. Oh well. Probably never happen.

Then, during a boring meeting at work, my coworker and I were talking about writing and she said, “I think I’m a pretty good writer, but I wouldn’t even know how to start writing a story. What the heck would I even write about?”

“That’s the opposite of my problem,” I replied. “I have too many beginnings.” And then I continued, gingerly, “Actually… I have this idea for a collaborative writing website…”

She was immediately excited. Over the moon! “That sounds amazing!” she gushed.

And, suddenly, it didn’t feel so silly anymore.

So, with the idea now out in the open, I figured I should probably do something about it. Therefore, I did what every single person in the 21st century does when they don’t know how to do something.

I Googled it.

“How do you make a website?” [Click]

Step One: Register the domain. Easy enough. Found a host. Name available. $85 bucks later—done.

Step Two: Get a degree in a technical field that teaches you to code. Damn.

Step Two-A: Hire someone. Okay. So, I booked an initial meeting with a lovely developer on Fiverr who politely asked for the name and concept of my site at the beginning of our chat. Obviously, right? They’d have to know THE NAME of what I was asking them to build. I couldn’t mind meld it to them or send it in smoke signals. And, after the name, I had to, of course, tell them the concept of Go Write Me – a collaborative writing website that brings writers together for some fun, improv story telling, blah, blah, blah. But, at that moment, staring at that poor man’s face on my laptop screen watching me fidget my way into practical convulsions, I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud. I hadn’t ever mentioned it to anyone outside of my spouse and during that boring meeting with my coworker. What if they laughed? Or worse— what if they took the idea? I hemmed and hawed for as long as I possibly could, until, finally, I made a frantic excuse about not being ready for this stage just yet, apologized profusely and logged the heck outta there. OMG.

After I got over my idiocy (it took several days), I Googled it again and got a little further down the page this time.

Step Two-B: Teach yourself to code with online learning sites like Khan Academy. Interesting.

One weekend, I binged the HTML/CSS course on Khan Academy. It wasn’t too bad. Seemed pretty straightforward. Maybe I could do this… Cue the self-destructive bombardment: Am I actually going to do this? I’M going to build a website? I don’t do things like that. Who does things like that? No one I know does things like that. I can’t do things like that!

So…I quit.

Several times, in fact.

But I kept coming back. “Maybe I’ll just look at this one thing…,” I’d say as I coaxed myself along, piece by piece. I figured if nothing else I could just learn a little bit. It wouldn’t be a complete waste of my time. Learning is fun, right?

So, I played around with learning how to build a website here and there for a while, surely annoying everyone in the various support forums I visited with my newbie-ness. At least they were kind enough to laugh at me behind their screens. No one straight out told me my questions were stupid, which I appreciated. Eventually, though, I discovered plugins, snippets, and even dipped into JavaScript and PHP a little bit. Each level-up of knowledge built my confidence until I realized I wasn’t flailing anymore. I didn’t have to look everything up. I knew how my site worked, how to keep improving it, and how to make it a place where people could confidently create their own stories.

And, nearly two years after that first Google search, after countless stuttered starts and little triumphs, I had launched Go Write Me.

[Imagination] Cue the angels singing! Hordes of writers fought to be the first to sign up. ‘Simmer down, people,’ I assured the masses. ‘There’s enough Go Write Me for everyone.’  The Today Show called for an interview! My phone wouldn’t stop ringing with congratulations and, slightly irritating but obvious, disbelief from friends and family alike! It was glorious!

[Reality] ……Crickets. Not one person signed up. For months. No hordes. No interviews. No endlessly ringing phone. In all the learning how to make the site, it didn’t occur to me that people actually have to be shown the site. I just assumed they’d stumble across it. I mean… it’s the internet. People are always ‘on the internet’. Someone would have to find it eventually, no?

Yeah, no.

SEO? What’s that?

Aw, man…

So…we are still evolving. Like any good story, we are allowed to grow, change, and develop. SEO is next on the list of fun stuff to learn, and we’re very much looking forward to the next chapter: getting our site noticed. But Go Write Me is live and I am excited to see where it goes when those who would have fun with it can find it.

In any case, the aim here is simple: to give all those little forgotten stories a ‘The End’ of their very own.

If you would like to be part of the Go Write Me story from the very beginning, please click here to join as a charter member.