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The Strengths Behind a Writing Group
Our successes during NaNoWriMo this year are directly correlated to our accountability group
Like every year, writers embark on a month-long journey to write 50,000 in November. For some like myself, they tackle a brand new draft of a brand new novel. Others, lovingly called ‘rebels’, choose to write their words on an existing novel or aim to fix a written manuscript. All of this is in the name of finishing a novel by the end of the month.
When I first started writing, NaNoWriMo was a solo adventure for me. I held myself accountable for getting up in the morning, reaching my word counts, and crossing the finish line. I cheered silently to myself with each successful day of writing. I celebrated the finish line at 10AM on a Saturday morning when most people were still asleep after a party the night before.
But something magical happened when I moved away from that small town in the middle of nowhere — I found a writing group. With a new city and a little bit of writing time under my belt, I sought a group that would continue to hold me accountable to writing. Little did I know that in less than a year I’d be leading the charge and inviting new writers to join our group.
We are not a critique group (though there is a core of us who have broken off to help each other there). Instead, we offer accountability, writing time, and support.
This year, more of us are participating in NaNoWriMo… and more of us are determined to succeed. This year is the first year we have done something different — we’ve taken on NaNo as a group. It’s amazing to see what we’ve accomplished in just a week of writing, and I strongly believe our successes this year are tied to the group’s involvement with each other.
These are some of the strengths I’ve seen in just nine days.
Accountability
Each of us announce our word counts at the end of the day. It varies, of course, because we all have different commitments in our lives. But because we are writers outside of this month, our daily word counts are often 2K or higher.
That’s not to say some of us don’t have bad days. One day last week, with a migraine, I forced out a…
