My Thoughts on Clubs

These days, it seems like new literature clubs are springing up everywhere. In fact, there are new clubs of all types springing up, but as my commitment is largely to the literature community, I will be commenting only on this segment. I'm all for the development of the literature community, but often, these new groups are actually being counter productive.

Consider this: For every new club that opens, there is another club that is dead or dying for lack of staff support or member participation. By opening another new club, you are drawing attention away from existing clubs that desperately need more audience participation. Some current club owners would love to find someone else to take over their group, or would love to have a new admin to help them run things.

I suggest that, if you're thinking about opening up a club, that you look around at existing clubs first to see if they are already offering the service you're thinking about providing. For example, if you want to offer critique services, you will see that Wordsmith-Foundry and Adopt-A-Writer already it covered, as well as many other clubs that offer workshops and personal critique services. You could also provide critique services from your personal account. You'd be doing the community and yourself a great service, because many people would likely reciprocate. Similarly, if you want to provide prompts, you'll want to provide them in a truly unique way, as there are already a ton of clubs that provide prompts, some of which are struggling to get people to participate.

A truly unique idea, however, is always welcomed, such as in the case of Wordspill, Writers-Workshop, or six-words. Such highly popular clubs are so because of their uniqueness and, because of their ever-growing popularity, are often looking for help. For example, Writers-Workshop's is calling for Workshop Hosts, where essentially you run your own workshop with little supervision from the club--you just need an initial ok. It's the perfect opportunity to "do your own thing" with only a short term commitment.

So, tell me: Why consider opening up yet another club? Why don't you join staff of an existing club? Many would say it is because they want to do their own thing. I would argue that many of those people find themselves ill-prepared for the workload that comes with running a club. Most discover that they don't have as much time as they thought to devote to the club or that more work was involved than they originally anticipated. Others discover that they need help, but can't seem to find and keep staff members because everyone's too busy running their own club. Others find that members quickly lose interest or stop participating.

If people considering opening their own club would first join staff of an existing club, they'd be about to gage how much time they actually have to devote to it and test their level of commitment. They may even discover that they are allowed to run their own branch of an existing club providing the same service they would have provided had they opened their own. And, ultimately, they would be doing the literature community a great service by helping to keep an existing club afloat, maybe even helping it become a huge success!

If you really love literature and this great community that we have here, then please support it. Starting your own club is not supporting the existing community, it's fracturing it even more. Offer your skills and insight to any number of existing clubs instead; most people would welcome your assistance and input!

I had the idea for the Nonfiction Nook a long time ago, and considered opening it as a new club, but reconsidered when I thought about the number of prose clubs that already exist. Instead, I offered to take over ProsePlease, which was struggling to stay afloat, and opened the Nonfiction Nook there as a new service. This is the type of example I want to set, and would like to see the rest of you set as well. There are many opportunities out there to get involved and "do your own thing," you just have to take the time to look for them.

It only takes a few seconds to open a new account that you might regret, so take the extra time to look around and support the existing literature community!

One final suggestion: I am in charge of both PoetryPlease and ProsePlease, which collectively cover the whole spectrum of literature. We had a featuring service that failed for lack of suggestions being provided by members. We also have a personal critiquing service and workshops that are failing due to lack of staff support. The parts of the club that are thriving are doing so because we have a dedicated staff member helping to keep it afloat. If you're thinking about opening a new literature club or have been thinking about a service that is greatly lacking, please contact me. I would be happy to discuss your ideas and will even consider putting you on staff if you have a compelling idea that you are truly passionate about.