Our Story
Since that first Inksters meeting on January 8, 2021, The Inksters has expanded from a writing community to a small publisher. As we move into the publishing space, we hope we can continue to grow our membership and inspire each person who joins us to find the confidence to tell their story.
If you would like to be featured on this page, consider purchasing the full Inksters’ slide set. Purchase also comes with access to the Inksters Discord forum, where you can start building a writing community of your very own.
Inksters – much like certain babies, puppies, and sourdough starters – was born during the pandemic. Boredom and a selfish desire to have a community with which to talk about writing led Tess to encourage two of her best friends, Hannah and Jenna, to write a book.
That is the belief that lies at the heart of Inksters – that anyone can write a book.
The name is inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis’s famous writing group, “The Inklings.” The group featured over a dozen members throughout its near-20-year span – though Tolkien and Lewis remained steadfast members, meeting regularly at The Eagle & Child pub in Oxford. The Inksters (so named because we consider ourselves a steadfast sisterhood) instead meets virtually over a Zoom chatroom that we call “The Birds & the Babes.”
Inksters began with a crash course in how to write a book. Through a series of slide sets, Tess imparted all of the knowledge she had acquired from studying screenwriting and fiction, scouring the internet, and writing a few books herself. These slides demystified the often intimidating task of writing a novel and offered a resource that was both easy to understand and fun. With this toolbox, they built new worlds together.
Fancy degrees, life experience, a gift for prose – none of these things are prerequisites to start your writing journey. All that is required is an idea and discipline. All that is desired is friends to help you along the way.
That’s what Inksters is.