Welcome to #ZapWhamPow
A bookish space with multiple five part, fully inclusive reading and writing challenges meant to build community, foster support, and work towards collecting our exclamation points!
We know many of you are new to this challenge, so we wanted to break it down piece-by-piece to hopefully answer some questions you may have.
What is ZAP?
ZAP stands for Zealous All-consuming Planning and it will always be the first month of every #ZWP challenge cycle.
ZAP is meant for both readers and writers as a way to prepare and get into the mindset of what the rest of the challenge will hold.
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ZAP for WHAM:
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a monthly calendar with daily prompts meant to walk you through the process of preparing your WIP
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intended to be engaging enough for pantsers to be able to participate without feeling overwhelmed
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integration with the One Song Scene Challenge which is designed to get writers in the habit of creating consistently before heading into WHAM
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ZAP for POW:
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daily games and other activities that center around bookish themes like Bingo, ABCs, & cover challenges
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planning our your TBR for POW
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connecting you with other readers as a way to build community and add to the never ending TBR we have
What is WHAM?
WHAM stands for Writing Hard All Month and it will always immediately follow ZAP in the #ZWP challenge cycle.
While there are word count goals, Writing Hard All Month looks different for every person, every day. Celebrate every aspect of the writing process, even if that means words weren't physically added to your WIP.
Remember: We do not feel guilty for rest.
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Poetry:
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overall goal of 3,000 words
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every 600 words earns a letter or exclamation point
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every 300 words beyond the initial goal of 3,000 will earn an additional exclamation point
Short Story/Novella:
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overall goal of 20,000 words
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every 4,000 words earns a letter or exclamation point
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every 2,000 words beyond the initial goal of 20,000 will earn an additional exclamation point
Novel/Fanfiction:
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overall goal of 50,000 words
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every 10,000 words earns a letter or exclamation point
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every 5,000 words beyond the initial goal of 50,000 will earn an additional exclamation point
What is POW?
POW stands for Perusing Over Words and it will always immediately follow ZAP in the #ZWP challenge cycle.
Regardless of how you read, it counts. It was important in the creation of #ZapWhamPow that readers were also included in the challenge, and it was purposeful to overlap WHAM and POW so all parts of the bookish community were participating the challenge at the same time.
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There are three ways to earn a letter or exclamation point:
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listen to 10 hours of an audiobook at normal speed; if you listen faster than 1.0 speed, you could earn a letter for listening to less than 10 hours
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read 250 pages of an e-book, paperback, webcomic, or hardback book
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read 50,000 words; this is to make sure sites/stories on AO3, Wattpad, etc. are included in our challenge
Mix and match any of the three ways to earn a letter or exclamation point to spell P-O-W-!
How many exclamation points can you earn?
What is BOOM?
BOOM stands for Building On Our Manuscript and it will always be the final part in the #ZWP challenge cycle.
BOOM is meant for both readers and writers as a time to provide feedback in all its forms and work on polishing our WIPs.
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BOOM for WHAM:
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a monthly calendar with daily prompts meant to walk you through the process of polishing your WIP
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intended to break down the editing process in a way that makes tackling a self edit less overwhelming
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integration with WHAM to utilize word count as a way of tracking your progress regardless of how you write
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BOOM for POW:
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weekly challenges that focus on providing visibility, like reviews or hype posts, by sharing our favorite stories from POW
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connecting readers with authors looking for feedback in the form of alpha reading, beta reading, and ARC reading
Community Events Outside Challenges
It's important to the #ZapWhamPow community to build connections with other humans within this space; in order to do that #ZWP hosts regular events that have no connection to the challenge cycles (though you can use the events for the challenges!)
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#ZapWhamPow Book Club
One book will be selected per month for the #ZWP community to read, if they want as there is no obligation to do every, or any, book club events. We'll meet in the Coffee Shop Voice Channel in our Discord on the last Tuesday of the month at 6PM PST/9PM EST to discuss the plot, the characters, our reactions, everything that goes along with the book itself!
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For those wanting to participate in the book club but unable to attend the meeting, we will create a space to discuss the book, spoilers and all, so all of our #ZWP humans can join us!
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We will take book suggestions from the ZWP community, but please try to select books that are enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited (KU) program to help keep the books accessible to all those within the community
Community Sprints
Every Friday night and Sunday morning of the year, the #ZapWhamPow community will meet in the #ZWP Community Sprints Voice Channel in our Discord at 6PM PST/9PM EST or 7AM PST/10AM EST for weekly sprints!
You do not have to be reading or writing to join the sprints.
It's important to us to build a sense of community within the #ZWP space, so come join us to read, write, edit, craft, work on homework, body double, or whatever else fills your cup in that moment!
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We always start with a little chit-chat, breaking down what a sprint is, guidelines for chatting in between sprints, and how to use the Sprinto bot, then we jump right into our sprints that last between 20-40 minutes
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We sprint with our mics off, and there is never any pressure of obligation to have your video or mic on during the community sprint session. If you want to be present without verbally adding to the conversation, you're welcome to do so!
The Heart of #ZapWhamPow
An inclusive reading and writing challenge
What this means is regardless of how you read or write, you're welcome in the #ZWP community! It was important for us to bring the entire bookish world together to show and embrace the interconnectedness of literature. There is no one way to enjoy or create stories, and the diversity within the #ZWP challenge helps highlight that!
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Flexible to ensure accessibility
While there are word count goals within WHAM and minimum markers to hit within POW, it is not required to start an entirely brand new WIP or only read physical books during a #ZWP challenge cycle. And, most importantly, we do not shame for taking rest. Thinking about your plot bunny is still working on your WIP. You're still a reader even if you take a break.
Community focused despite having individual goals
There is no such thing as 'only' in this community because there is no such thing as progress too small for a celebration. Being creative is hard enough without adding unnecessary rules or expectations onto ourselves, so if you read an entire book in a day, we celebrate! If you didn't read at all because your body and brain needed a break, we celebrate! If you wrote an entire chapter, we celebrate! Even if you wrote nothing, we celebrate!
We are a bookish community focused on support and building connections, then we are a reading and writing challenge, and we're so thankful you're here!