I have a friend I have known for years, who, about a year ago, expressed a desire to write on a more consistent basis. Last Spring I asked her if she would be interested in getting together once a week for the purpose of focusing on our writing.
Happily, she said yes and in the summer we organized our schedule accordingly and began. We have experimented with the location of our meeting by visiting various coffee shops in different parts of our city.
This once a week meeting of like minds has proven to be a time of mutual support and encouragement in the midst of our very busy lives which too often distracts us from our more creative pursuits.
To aid productivity, we have made a bit of a guideline for our time together. We settle in and have a catch-up chat about our week. Then, one of us brings a writing prompt, usually the beginning of a sentence and we write off the cuff using the prompt for about twenty minutes. It serves as a bit of a warm up you might say.Sometimes we share what we’ve written, sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we can use it for a scene on the project we are currently working on, or put it in a separate file for future possible use.
Once the writing prompt exercise is done, we then have thirty minute timed writing periods, broken up by a few minutes of chatting or snack appropriation. All in all we have a couple hours together and manage to get some words on the page.
In the last couple of months we have added to our numbers and we are now at four. Not everyone can attend every week, but we do make it a priority and rarely miss.
Are you part of a regular writing group? Write a comment and share your experience.