Almost Writer no apostrophe S club

When I put Almost Writers Club (AWC) into the world I just decided: no apostrophe.

Because, like Farmer’s’ Market, it can be problematic.

You always see “Farmer’s Market” (the market belonging to a farmer) on handwritten signs, when, assuming there’s more than one farmer attending, it should technically be “Farmers’ Market”(the market belonging to a plurality of farmers).

I mean, I guess it’s not that complicated:

·       plural is just S

·       singular possessive is apostrophe-S

·       plural possessive is S-apostrophe

·       (unless the noun is already plural – like children, women, or geese – then we’re back to apostrophe-S: the children’s school, a women’s group, the geese’s golden eggs.)

So I started with the Farmers’ Market reasoning, and almost named it Almost Writers’ Club – a club for several Almost Writers. I knew I would have to pause, think, and make sure I had it right every time I wrote it, and I knew everyone would put the apostrophe in different places, if they used one at all.

I was also pretty convinced that for the first few years it would only be me showing up – one Almost Writer. A club of one: Almost Writer’s Club.

Then, like Farmers’ Market… it is a market full of farmers, gathered to their sell wares to the people. It’s not really a market for or belonging to farmers, but a market made up of a gathering of farmers. Would that be a farmers (just plural, not possessive) market?

It’s like the Girl Guides of Canada. They don’t use possessive apostrophes. Even when it comes to their cookies. “It’s Girl Guide cookie time!” Not Girl Guides’ cookie time. But also not Girl Guides cookie time.

(Which, I just discovered while checking my work, is NOW if you’re local: Saturday, May 13, 8:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m at the Alderney (nope) Market. How fortuitous!)

Technically, I host an Almost Writers’ Club, designed to be a space where all those people who aren’t quite comfortable yet referring to themselves as writers can feel they belong and find support.

Or, I host an Almost Writer Club, a stuffed cookie of a place where any Almost Writer can find weekly accountability, feedback, and time to write on a regular schedule.  

However, the final truth is, we learn the rules of writing so we can break them for greater effect. And, in my tiny, quiet, harmlessly rebellious way, I’m breaking the Farmers’ Market rule which I am normally very insistent about. Because it’s my club. We get to bend the rules and make intentional mistakes. We skirt the pressures, expectations and self-doubt of being “writers,” so we can enjoy the rewards of showing up, expressing our ideas, sharing them with our people, and demurely announcing ourselves “almost writers (no apostrophe).”

You are absolutely invited. The deets are here.