Essay Club

Publish something by the 1st of every month.

Whether you're 5 weeks or 5 years into writing, it’s hard to publish consistently. I started in July of 2020 and still struggle. I’ve lost my groove several times, but two things have always helped me reboot: starting streaks and finding groups. Still, streaks and groups are equally fragile. By declaring, “I’m going to do X every week forever,” you risk falling into a mechanical routine that can’t evolve with you. And while community helps, the majority of the 13 writing groups I’ve joined have dissolved. My goal here is to create an indestructible metronome.

Essay Club will help you keep a long-term writing habit. We’re all unified by a simple ritual: we publish something by the 1st of every month. You’ll have both freedom and momentum. Each month, you can set your goal to be as ambitious, as relaxed, or as experimental as you want, but regardless, we hold you accountable. And once you lock into a publishing groove, the curriculum of Essay Architecture will help you learn the pattern language of essays.

More details below, but here’s the gist of what you’ll do in Essay Club:

• Publish by the 1st of every month.

• Join Zoom calls to exchange feedback (Fridays 3pm ET + other slots).

• Share drafts, ideas, and updates in a private Substack community.

• Unlock all Essay Architecture posts.

• Get early access to software that will show you the patterns in your writing.

Essay Club is hosted here on Substack, and it costs $25/month. Since it’s on my “Founding Members Tier,” it’s (weirdly) only available at $300/year. In any case, it’s an opportunity to publish for a whole year without missing a month. You’ll get to know a range of writers, all unified by a shared vision—that writing essays online can unlock many dimensions of your life.

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How it works:

• Get a monthly invitation to set goals and join our loop: In the last week of every month, I’ll send you a Google Form. This is where you set your goals. You’ll set your publishing pace (daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly) and share a quick blurb that the whole group sees. You’ll also opt-in for live events and vote on different decisions to help shape the group. Example (note: this was for last month’s loop; each month has its own form).

• Join weekly calls to exchange drafts and meet writers: Our group voted on Fridays at 3pm ET as our primary time. We have additional bi-weekly slots (currently on Tuesdays at 7pm ET) to account for other time zones. Each session is an opportunity to either (a) exchange drafts for live feedback, (b) talk through ideas, or (c) carve out some writing time. These sessions typically end with optional, open-ended hangouts.

• Share drafts and updates on our Substack page: Each month has a dedicated private Substack post. This is where you’ll find events and see what everyone else is working towards. You can use the comment section to post drafts and coordinate feedback exchanges. Example.

• Publish by the 1st to keep your streak: As someone who makes little justifications to betray my own publishing deadlines, I want to incentivize everyone (including me) to publish on time. To that end, I’ll measure streaks and organize them onto a leaderboard. Over time, there might be “rewards” involved for different levels, but we’ll vote on those as a group. For now, here’s how the streak system works.

  • If you meet your goal on time, you get +1.0. 

  • If you meet your goal but you’re late, you get +0.75. 

  • If you miss your goal but still publish something, you get +0.5.

  • If you miss a month, you restart at 0.

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Values:

I’m going to keep a running list of values that I want Essay Club and its members to embody. For now, I’ll list out some ideas. I could imagine this expanding into a Constitution that members of the group can help shape.

• Think in years, not weeks.

• Let time be your muse.

• A monthly cadence lets you explore while staying consistent.

• Avoid niches & narrow optimization.

• This club is for essays, not content (and the distinction matters).

• You can transcend algorithmic feudalism through the right virtues.

• Be honest, rigorous, patient, experimental, kind, and self-aware.

• Have faith in your destiny (and trust fall into the Internet).

• Embrace paradox.

• Sometimes aim for perfection, sometimes publish typos.

• Quality is only worth considering once you’re in a groove.

• I can’t be a leader unless I’m in the trenches.

• Community emerges from shared vision, actions, and deadlines.

• Scale matters: keep Zoom calls to a single grid.

• To give members ownership, important decisions should be voted on.