One way to be more accountable about your writing is to join a writing group. One of the many positive outcomes of participating in the Writing for Mystic Activist Workshop is that a community was born. We continue to meet via Zoom on Monday afternoons and Thursday evenings. If we want to come to both, that’s fine. If we can only make it to one, that’s fine too. We spend an hour together each session. One week we use for writing and the other week we use for reading from something we are working on and receiving feedback from the group.
On the weeks we write, we spend about 10 minutes at the beginning for a check-in — what have we been working on; what are we going to work on during this hour? The last 5 to 10 minutes of the hour we share with each other how the writing time has gone, what we accomplished. The time in between, there we are on Zoom together writing. For me, sometimes I get more done in these 40 minutes or so than in some of my longer writing sessions. I look up and see the community of writers working and it gives me the inspiration and the discipline to do the same.
Two of us sign up for the weeks set aside for the workshop. We email what we’ll be reading to the group a week in advance so everyone has a chance to read the work ahead of time. The feedback each gives is 1) what worked in the piece, what captured my imagination, what made me think and 2) what questions do I have, was something unclear, where am I confused. It is a respectful and helpful time.
So consider joining a writing group if you can. Such a community can help you with the discipline and accountability you need to get your writing done.
Thank you, fellow writers in my group.
