I’m putting in a plug for The Practice Room today – which is a group writing session set up by Tina Laurel Lee. If you haven’t heard of The Practice Room, you can check it out in detail here. But basically, a team of hosts – Tina Laurel Lee, Marisa Hopkins, Heather Kelly, Jon Arntson, and me – set up a schedule for dedicated writing sessions of one hour (or an hour and a half, if you start at the check-in time), followed by an online chat for participants.
My usual spot is Monday nights, 8pm EST, with check-in starting at 7:30pm and chat starting at 9pm. There are also plenty of day time slots. The schedule is posted every week on Sunday. What I love about TPR is having that dedicated time for writing. My family knows Monday nights are for TPR, and they don’t bother me during that time. Often, I’ll “save up” something to write during that time, letting an idea simmer all day so that it can boil over between 7:30 and 9:00 that night. Of course, the company is great, too. Every week, I get to see how my companions’ projects have progressed – and I’ve also scored some new critique partners and beta readers.
If you’re interested in joining us, here’s how it goes.
1. Show up at http://tinalaurellee2.blogspot.com/sometime in the half hour before the scheduled session. Check in by adding a comment to the post and establishing a goal for the hour. (You can draft new words in your WIP, write some upcoming blog posts, work on revisions, outline a new project – anything!)
2. At the designated time, a post will appear (if you refresh the page) announcing WE ARE UNPLUGGED. At this time, close the internet and unplug (or ignore) your phone. JUST WRITE.
3. When the hour is over, return to The Practice Room and refresh the page. A chat box will appear for everyone to report on their progress and talk about writing. On your first visit, you will have to take a moment to register with Chat Roll. Returning visitors need only sign in and start chatting.
Occasionally, TPR will spill over into video – using Google+ Hangouts to hold the writing session “in person.” I really enjoy this, too! And on Thursdays, Amy McBay hosts CritChat, for sharing pages of your manuscript.
Practice makes perfect. We’d love to see you in The Practice Room! Maybe I’ll see you tonight!
remind me to come tonight. I need to work on ch. 13.
Sounds like fun! Don’t know if I can make it then, but I hope you have a productive hour. 🙂
That does sound like fun! Maybe I’ll check it out sometime. I don’t do well with schedules for my writing, but you make it sound so tempting …
This is such a good idea, but I’m terrible, I can only handle 20 minutes before I’m itching to check my email or something. Bad me.
I used to do this, regularly. I should try and start again. I miss Tina.
What a great idea! I’m west coast time so I’ll see if they have any late-late nite sessions.
Thanks, Dianne, as always, for the TPR plug and the hosting. TPR works because of those people that come and use it for their own work. I posted about TPR today too and the whole movement towards pooling our energies and coworking. It is a model of doing that virtually I think. I linked to this post because you always say things so well!
Johanna, We lack the late night sessions, but Dianne’s session is good for west-coasters, if you have afternoon time. I am a horrible night writer. We need to get ome of those night writers and a west coaster on board to host.
I’ve got a couple of different places where I write like this (what we call sprinting). It’s a wonderful way to really focus–and be accountable.
This is a great description of what we do in TPR–I love it, and can’t say enough about how helpful it is to make me sit down and write!