March 2025 Newsletter
Hello Drafters,
By now you’ve likely seen the email or video sent out by NaNoWriMo. As you know, we originally started as the Detroit region of NaNoWriMo, so we certainly have a lot of feelings wrapped up in the shutdown.
We, the Board of Directors for First Draft Detroit, are saddened by the shuttering of an organization that meant so much to us–and a lot of you–for so long. Despite the controversy of recent years, NaNoWriMo was ultimately responsible for bringing this community together. It gave us the opportunity to find our creative voices, and for many, it gave us a community and a path to service. The relationships we’ve built along the way and the stories we’ve told individually and as a group have been integral to our lives.
That is what we, the board, want to focus on. We want to be able to continue to foster that community, the connections that we’ve made and the support that we have for each other. We firmly believe this community and the strong foundation we’re building will be the living spirit of NaNoWriMo’s original mission of bringing people together and helping them unlock their creativity.
We know NaNoWriMo meant a lot to many of you. It meant a lot to many of us! Our president, Owen, was involved in NaNoWriMo for over two decades! NaNoWriMo was a way for me personally to find a local community after relocating 2,000 miles across the country. Without it, I wouldn’t have any of you. I know this is a common story. It’s all right to mourn what we’ve lost, but don’t forget to celebrate what we still have. It was our first draft, but we can continue the story together.
We have a new Pacemaker challenge set up for April: April Author! You can set up a project and attach it to the plan here: https://www.pacemaker.press/users/OwenBondono/challenges/april-author. Remember that Erika has a pin template set up for you to commemorate each of these Pacemaker challenges you participated in. (You do not need to complete your goal to celebrate it on the pin!)
We’ve still got all those monthly meetups–called scribbles–available to help you to reach your goal! You can find them on our calendar here: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/firstdraftdetroit%40gmail.com/public/basic.ics or at https://firstdraftdetroit.org.
Every first and third Wednesday you’ll be able to find Chesnaye for a scribble at
Dessert Oasis in Ferndale from 4:30 to 7:30 PM. Dessert Oasis is located at 927 Hilton Rd, Ferndale MI, 48220. Bring your WIP and your beautiful, friendly face, and we can’t wait to see you there!
Every second Thursday you can find me (Erin!) for a scribble at Road Less Traveled Books in Downtown Farmington from 4:30 to 6:30 PM. RLTB is located at 33300 Thomas St, Farmington, MI 48336. There’s free parking, and free tea and coffee–the coffee’s local, too, from Ground Control Coffee Roasters!
Every final Friday we have another scribble at The Office in Royal Oak from 5:00 to 8:00 PM. The Office is located at 402 S. Lafayette Ave, Royal Oak, MI, 48067. You can bring your art, your crafts, your writing, whatever it is and we’ll hold the space for you to work!
As a reminder, we are a 501c3 nonprofit, which means any donations you make to us are tax-deductible! We have several avenues available for you to donate to, if you’re interested:
- Kroger Community Rewards (search for First Draft Detroit)
- Paypal: firstdraftdetroit@gmail.com
- Cashapp: $firstdraftdetroit
If you desire the shiny gold donor role in Discord, do any of the above (including signing up for Kroger Community Rewards) and let one of Da Board know! (Remember the NaNo halos? This is our version!)
As always, you can reach us via this email and in several social media-type places!
- Discord: http://discord.gg/GZxdWjs
- X (Twitter): http://x.com/firstdraftdet
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/firstdraftdetroit/
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/firstdraftdetroit.bsky.social
Creatively Yours,
Erin
Director of Community Engagement
First Draft Detroit
(no jokes in this email–besides, how can we outdo Jet’s saying they’re discontinuing their ranch? no contest, for real)