On a cold Monday last month, I skirted a menacing horde of turkeys patrolling the southwest corner of Harvard Yard and climbed the steps of Lehman Hall. Once inside, I made my way to a cozy nook on the third floor—Lehman Library, one of Harvard’s many inviting library spaces.
That morning, this often-subdued place simmered with energy as graduate students gathered for the opening day of a January writing retreat. The week-long event brought together students representing 14 distinct disciplines around a common objective: to advance personal writing goals. Each morning, we took turns articulating a specific, realistic task for the day’s session; each afternoon, we reconvened to report how things went. By the end of the week, participants had outlined conference presentations, submitted fellowship applications, revised article drafts, and made progress on dissertation chapters. For some attendees, the week yielded something else as well: the discovery that there is much to be gained from making writing a journey that we share.
Writing is often a singular, even isolating endeavor. All of us disappear into our screens for hours at a time. Some of us make isolation an extreme sport by choosing disciplines that send us off to far-flung archives and research sites for weeks or months at a time. Although some solitude is necessary for most writers at some stages of their work, I would like to make the case for practicing writing as a team sport.
It is motivating to share the experience of writing with others. Making a joint commitment to a writing practice generates determination among all members of the group—there are people who expect you to show up for yourself, and for the collective endeavor. While this is true of virtual or in-person groups, gathering in a physical space with other writers may be especially helpful if you struggle to stay focused. You might still dart into your inbox or slip into scrolling on social media, but the energy of the room will help redirect your attention back to your work.
Making writing a group activity gives individual writers a sense of support. This community will be there to celebrate achievements and offer assistance when you struggle. In such settings, you can benefit from your peers’ collective knowledge and experience about the writing process and pick up helpful troubleshooting strategies. Hearing peers articulate their daily goals can also help individual writers to recalibrate their sense of how much work could be accomplished in a given amount of time. Many graduate students underestimate the time that big projects require or feel like they are “slow” writers. Working alongside others over time reveals that, for all writers, small, incremental steps are required to meet big writing goals.
If you are interested in trying out a writing coworking arrangement, there are several ways you can find (or form!) groups of similarly curious scholars. The Fellowships & Writing Center offers Writing Oasis groups and writing retreats, while the Academic Resource Center holds Accountability groups. You might ask your department administrator to send an announcement to your department’s graduate student email list about forming a working group. Or you might ask another graduate student—in your discipline or otherwise—to try a regular coworking practice, an arrangement that the FWC is also now facilitating with our pilot Writing Partner program. Whatever your approach, I think you will find that there is much to be gained from sharing the writing process with someone else.
