Back in August I decided to try an experiment. I would run a virtual writing group. I contacted a couple of people to see what they thought. They were enthusiastic. I figured out a structure, decided on a time, picked a price out of the air, and started promoting it.

This experiment was A Meeting With Your Writing. We meet by conference call Mondays at 10 am Eastern for 2 hours.

By October, I had 11 participants ranging from graduate students to full professors. They were geographically dispersed: some of them got up very early; others found someone else to pick their kid up from kindergarten in the afternoon. All of them came. All of them wrote.

When I asked them for feedback in November I was overwhelmed with the positive responses:

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Not only did they get stuff written, they changed how they worked.

The magic

Here are some of the elements that make A Meeting With Your Writing work:

Habit: Every Monday at the same time we do the same thing with the same structure. It becomes your default activity for that time slot. You start to need a really good reason to not-write at that time.

Accountability: Other people expect you. I will never chastise you for not coming. You are not required to send apologies. You don’t lose marks or incur other penalties. I deliberately set the price at a level where you wouldn’t even feel like you were wasting your money if you missed a few.

And yet, when people need to miss the meeting they often email to tell me. Sometimes they even tell me when they are going to make up the time later in the week. Something about the meeting makes you want to keep that appointment even if you have to miss the group.

Structure: I try very hard to ensure that you have a full 90 minutes to write. There is a structure for before and after that 90 minutes that gets you focused, gives you clarity, and motivates you. I put you in a positive frame of mind. You know that others are writing with you. You celebrate at the end. And I help you build in springboards for more writing later.

Boundaries: Having only 90 minutes bookended by the warm up and celebration gives your time intensity. You focus. You stay at your desk. If you get distracted, you bring yourself back.

In the first week, one person reported that the first fifteen minutes she looked at the clock every minute and thought it would be the longest 90 minutes ever. Then all of a sudden a whole hour had gone by. Knowing it is only 90 minutes helps you stick with it through that tough first 15 minutes.

Join us

Registration is now open for the next session. It runs January 7 to March 25. Mondays at 10 a.m. Eastern time. This is very early on the west coast of North America and late afternoon in the UK and Europe.

It’s $95 (CDN + HST/GST for Canadian residents) for 12 sessions.

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