ABOUT US
Our group, Central Iowa Authors, strives to connect writer’s together and to encourage each other to meet our writing goals.
Write
We are a group of people who get together to get the words out of our heads and on to paper. We celebrate all words, any word we write is progress towards our writing goals.
Connect
We offer several opportunities to meet other writers and gather together to write. Our group is inclusive, everyone is welcome no matter race, gender, sexuality or abilities.
Encourage
We hold events, write ins and workshops throughout the year to help reach our goals. Our group encourages one another no matter where we are in our writing journey.
History
The Central Iowa Authors group has been around since the founding of NaNoWriMo; National Novel Writing Month in the early 2000s. Nanowrimo was a challenge to write 50,000 words in the month of November. Our group covered the Central Iowa region of the state to help bring writers together during the month. As a group we supported each other and encouraged each other to ‘write ALL the words’ even if they were crap which is how our motto ‘Yay crap!’ came to be. During the month we hosted numerous in person and virtual write ins. Our biggest event was our Write-All-Night, which is a potluck stlye event hosted by Johnston Public Library the first friday of the Month. This event always helped participants get a jump start on their word goal.
Every year we created a new theme to help encourage our regions participants to meet their goal. We would create stickers and other small things that could be earned as writing goals were met. Some stickers would be attending an in-person writing event, writing 10,000 words in one day, interacting on line and of course, word count goals. These stickers have been a driving force for many of our participants being able to reach and even exceed their goals. We have a list of past themes and goodies handed out on our (page link here) page.
In 2024 we split off from NaNoWriMo and became CIA inkwell, as NaNo as an organization was disolving. Even though the event that formed our group was gone we wanted to keep our mission and goal the same. We want to connect writers together, encourage people to write, and give them the encouragement they need to reach their goal. We created our own event in the Month of November called Inkathon. Inkathon differed slightly from Nano, for this event you create your own goal; writing 50,000 words, writing 100,000 words, editing for 30 hours, writing 4 novellas, the end goal is completly up to you. We partner with local libraries and restaurants to set up designated time and space for people interested to gather and write together as a group
Even though we created our own writing event called Inkathon, we wanted to keep some of the November traditions alive. Our Write-All-Night potluch still occurs the first Friday of the month. We still host a wrap up where we congratulate each other for doing the hard thing of dedicating the time and energy to meet our writing goals for the month. We raffle off prizes to those that have participated in the event, discuss the number of words written for the month at our events, and talk about what CIA Inkwell will be doing in the next year.
Since we offically became CIA Inkwell we have expanded our events to now include an editing focused event that spans the months of April+May called Refine + Reimagine. We offer reunions throughout the year as well as Inkathon prep events in the month prior to Inkathon. We still use a new theme for each event and hand out prizes to those who participate and meet their goals, these themes get teased the month before the event starts.
We look back on our past with fondness and to our future with excitement. We are excited to grow our community to help other writers reach their goals.
