Discussions
theemdash
Discussion Leaders write and make posts in our Dreamwidth community covering a wide range of topics related to writing.
Get Your Words Out is a community dedicated to developing and supporting the writing life. We do this through accountability, compassion, and encouragement to help writers achieve their goals, hone their craft, and develop a more positive and intentional relationship with writing.
Each year over 700 writers pledge one of our twelve writing goals and join monthly challenges, annual events, games, sprints, and discussions. Our members include writers who are traditionally and self-published, hobbyists, family historians, bloggers and journalists, and fan writers. We also have members who work within the publishing industry as agents, editors, illustrators, translators, and in other support positions.
In addition to being writers, our moderation team has experience in education, editing, publishing, and community leadership. Many of our moderators have been volunteers within other large writing communities and run smaller local and online writing groups.
Get Your Words Out is committed to offering an inclusive writing community. We center mental health and self-care as part of the writing journey and are sensitive to vulnerable populations and anyone dealing with difficult circumstances.
Founders
sopdetly & theemdash
Executive Mastermind
theemdash
Moderation Team
Dreamwidth Moderators: theemdash, lanalucy, tiny_ninja
Discord Moderators: hitokage, mchoule, racheloddment, sopdetly, theemdash, tiny_ninja
Tumblr Moderator: lakeglitter
Bluesky Moderators: racheloddment & theemdash
Volunteer Coordinators
GYWO Through the Years
Members & Progress
2024: Writers • Progress
2023: Writers & Progress
2022: Writers & Progress
2021: Writers & Progress
2020: Writers & Progress
Origin
GYWO opened in 2009 on Livejournal after Sopdet approached Em with a plan to increase the amount of time they spent writing over the year. Over the course of several GChat conversations—and a GDoc they actually still have archived—the pair created a loose plan for what would eventually become the community Get Your Words Out.
The challenge was to feature four pledge levels (200K, 250K, 300K, and 350K) with a monthly check-in for those friends willing to join this writing adventure. While the moderators were planning group word wars and status checks, posting was going to rely on members to share prompts, advice, questions, and snippets. With their mutual friends-lists and friends of friends, they expected to welcome 40 or so writers for a year-long challenge.
Well, the idea was more popular than they could have imagined, and by the end of December 2008, over 300 writers had made a pledge to improve their writing habits.
They quickly had to pivot their plans, including Em committing to a role as a full-time moderator instead of the support role initially planned, and the first version of Get Your Words Out was born.
Behind the Name
The name “Get Your Words Out” was inspired by the Todd Holland & Bryan Fuller created series Wonderfalls. In episode 3, “Karma Chameleon” (penned by Tim Minear), a puppet chameleon tells Jaye to “get your words out.” The chameleon in the GYWO logo pays homage to these origins.
GYWO Growth
Pledge Levels Introduced
2009: 200K, 250K, 300K, 350K
2011: 150K
2013: 500K
2017: 75K
2018: 120D, 240D, 350D
2022: 1M, 180D
GYWO Pledges 2009–2023
Highlights
2009: Pledging occurred via comments to a Livejournal post
2010: Experimented with Single Project Pledges & Multi-Project Pledges, allowing writers to pledge with a lower word count and focus on a novel project
2014: Introduced GYWO Bingo & Mid-Year Marathon and expanded to Dreamwidth, Tumblr, & Twitter
2017: Introduced 7 Days, 7 Stories
2018: Retooled GYWO Bingo into GYWO Yahtzee
2020: Introduced the newsletter and closed and archived the Livejournal community
2021: Expanded to Discord
2024: Expanded to Bluesky