It was the summer of 2008. I'd had this very vivid dream where my book clubbers were having this huge disagreement over which book to read next. Some wanted serious. Some want chic lit. And some wanted just romance trash.
In the dream I suggested that instead of reading someone else's story, why don't we write our own? The next morning I told my husband about the dream and he suggested that I just might be onto something. While the kids spent their days on the tennis court, I spent my days researching. I found a few online story clubs, but no actual box game where friends gather regularly (like book, bunko and bridge club) and write stories.
I partnered with friend, KC Kiner who's oldest was finally of driving age, and therefore, she magically added hours to her day. We spent the rest of the summer outlining the process of how-to-play. We knew that there would be a journal-like storybook, as well as, starter cards, character cards and wild cards. So we just began to write. We'd write for hours making up characters, googling names, occupations, famous quotes and places. Inspiration came from everyday occurrences. We'd meet at Barnes and Nobles for ideas skimming the backs of romance novels, review game displays and riffling through magazines.
Once we had the first draft written and handmade cards and a storybook put together, we sent an email out inviting friends to a new kind of Girls' Night on October 23rd, 2008. Not only did the game work, but it was a hilariously fun night. We received great input that propelled us to forge on. Most excitingly was that everyone wanted to know when we could meet again. Ha! They were already calling it StoryClub.
Graphic designer, Elyse Salamon, joined our team and in between shuffling her daughter, Maggie, to football (yes she's the only girl on the team) and dance class, she came up with a way to make StoryClub look fun, fresh and pretty. KC and I continued to fine tune the cards that were ultimately separated into four decks and deemed Story Starters (which get the stories going), and People, Places and Things (which keep the stories going).
We researched printers and game companies and negotiated costs for production. In addition, we learned a lot about trademarks, copyrights and lawyers. All the not-so-fun stuff that is necessary. We took delivery of the first pallets of games in September, 2009, nearly one year from that first Girls' Night. Since then, StoryClubs have been popping up from coast to coast. And even the most traditional of book clubs are trying StoryClub and writing rather than reading.
What's next? We are working on our second edition, Kids' Stories, which we hope will be used in schools as a tool to help improve writing skills. From there, the sky is the limit. We have loads of ideas for StoryClub and hope to be able to offer something for everyone because it's just too much fun.
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