Our Story

It all started with a typo.

In 2018, as National Novel Writing Month crept closer and closer, when founder Lex Vranick found herself continuously (and hilariously) mistyping the event hashtag as #NaNoWineO. She tweeted about this anomaly, thinking that it would largely go unnoticed as a niche joke.

“That should be a chat!” someone commented. “We can write and drink wine!”

So, as any millennial on writing twitter in the 2010s would do, Lex ran with the idea. #NaNoWineO became a chat intended to run throughout the month of November. It ran for an hour on Friday nights, and found writers from across genres and around the globe coming together to drink, commiserate, and inch their way toward 50,000 words.

As National Novel Writing Month drew to a close, the idea of keeping the chat going floated around. When put to a vote, chatters unanimously voted to keep it running - and to change the chat’s name to #WriteAndWine.

From there, all bets were off. Writers congregated on the hashtag once a week to talk about writing, publishing, books, and mental health. A newsletter started to circulate, a Discord server was formed, and the community even started to meet face-to-face for virtual happy hours and write-ins.

The Write&W(h)ine community strives to provide a safe, inclusive, and encouraging environment for writers of all genres at all stages to talk openly about their craft. The community also aims to destigmatize discussions of mental health in the arts by offering a judgement-free space for writers to talk about their mental health struggles and find support in one another. Above all else, Write&W(h)ine is a community made by writers, for writers.

Twitter chats are held every Friday at 8:30pm Eastern. Search the #WriteAndWine hashtag, or visit twitter.com/lexvranick to learn more and participate. All are welcome. BYOB. We hope to see you there!