Starting a Writing Group has Helped Me Feel More Connected

A few months ago, I wrote a post about how I started a writing group, and how I didn’t know how it would be or what things would look like, but that I was enjoying it so far. 
 
It’s now been three and a half months since then (give or take), and I’d like to give you all an update about how the experience has been. 
 
This writing group has really only been family at this point. Every week, I either send out a prompt or a writing podcast episode to listen to, and we’ve spent the first half of our sessions discussing. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about our goals each week. It's been really nice to hold each other accountable and support each other when goals need to be adjusted.
 
Some of the topics we’ve discussed are…

1. Whether or not talent is important to drafting a story
2. Why it’s better to get words on the page than to perfect your work chapter by chapter as you write
3. How writing can help you grieve
4. How writing can help you preserve memories, even if you’re writing fiction
5. How writing every day can be helpful in building up your skill, focus, and writing stamina
6. How location – specific writing can help get you out of a writing slump

 
In each writing session, we would then have between 10 and 30 minutes to write as much as we could. This has been really nice, because it's given us all dedicated time set aside to sit down and get words on the page. And I don’t know, there’s something about doing this with someone who’s working on something also that has been incredibly motivating. 
 
Some things that I think have been working really well:
In our last session, I had prepared a couple of prompts that were general enough they could apply really to just about any piece of writing. At the very beginning of our session, I put them up on the screen and gave us five minutes each to write as much as we could surrounding each prompt. This was super helpful! It was a challenge, but all of us got words on the page, and it led to a great discussion.
 
Because we focused on writing first, we were able to share what we’d written aloud, which to me was incredibly motivating and inspiring. It spurred a full conversation on how writing can be.
 
Another thing that I feel has been going very well is our writing group chat. The few of us share a group chat in which we drop our progress for the day. On days that we do this, I find that we all write more words and more decent content. It’s also been a great way to hold each other accountable. 
 
I’ll definitely keep you all up to date with how this writing group goes. Overall, I think it’s been a really positive thing. It’s given me a space to talk about writing and stories and set just a little bit more dedicated time to write, even if I’m focusing mostly on editing in my other writing times throughout the week. It’s also been great to connect and support other people as they progress on their own writing journey. 
 
Stay tuned next week for more writing-related content, and have a great rest of your weekend!