While I was working on my dissertation, I had a writing group. Two of my friends (sometimes more) and I would get together in a room at the school and spend two hours writing. We met once each week, and while some weeks were more productive than others, we were able to get some writing done.
Just the simple idea that other people would be there at this specific time and place each week was incentive enough for me to get some work done. Sure, I wrote during other times, whenever I found a free moment, but these two hours were sacred. Just as I wouldn’t schedule a meeting during my teaching hour, I wouldn’t schedule anything during writing group.
And I’m going to be totally honest. We didn’t share our work with one another. We didn’t keep tabs on how much each of us had written each week. I suppose we could have been working on something else during that time (and maybe sometimes we did). But for me, the simple act of needing to show up at a certain time and place was all it took to make sure I opened that doc and did something dissertation related.
After I graduated and my writing group moved on, I found it difficult to find that same kind of motivation. I would go to my public library just to be around others who were reading and writing, and most of the time it worked. But it wasn’t a weekly guarantee.
Fast forward to “Pandemic Times.” I developed a close friendship with other Academic Fangirls online. And while we live across the United States and even the world, it’s nice to have people who understand where I’m coming from. After we presented at a roundtable this summer we decided that what we really needed was our own writing group. So each week we “get together” online. We have a reoccurring zoom session every Tuesday in which we commit to write something. We spend the first 15 minutes catching up, write for 45 minutes, check in with one another, and repeat. It has helped so much. When the semester gets hectic and I think I won’t have another chance to write, at least I have Tuesdays.
Get yourself an online writing group. It can start with just 2 or 3 people. That can be enough. Set a weekly day and time and stick with it. Make it at least 2 hours long if you can. And check in with one another. Encourage one another. We need more of that in these times. Find your people. They don’t even have to be in your city, your state, your country, they just have to want to write!
