Behind the Scenes Sunday

Alone or Together – Writing Habits

Let’s take a peek at the cogs inside the machine and talk about why I write and how I write on Behind the Scenes Sunday! Today I’d like to talk about the benefits of writing alone and writing with others and why you might want to consider doing both from time to time!

As an introvert, I’m not a particularly social person, so you might be surprised to hear me suggest that you take some time to find folks to write with — but I highly recommend that you do! These might be folks that you do simultaneous writing sprints with via Discord or Zoom, or even IRL writing sessions with a group at a coffee shop or library, but writing in real time with others offers the following benefits:

1. We’re all in this together! Writing is hard, but when you know you’re not attempting it alone, the courage you get from that camaraderie can lead to some great work coming out.
2. Keeping each other accountable. Knowing that you all agreed to write for X amount of minutes and that you’re all in the same (digital or physical) space trying to do just that can make slacking off (or getting up to clean the house instead) a lot harder to do!
3. People to celebrate with! When you’re done, there are a natural group of people to celebrate your writing accomplishments with! Not that you can’t have a party of one, but let’s be honest, hanging with your friends is almost always more fun, right?

Now, just because it works some of the time doesn’t mean it’s going to work all of the time. The fact of the matter is, people’s schedules often conflict, or inspiration may strike in the dead of night and you need to write solo. Is that so bad? Absolutely not! I think writing alone can offer some real bonuses, such as:

1. You can go at your own pace. Writing alone, you can write for as long as you want or for as little as you want! You are on your own schedule!
2. You control the atmosphere. Writing alone, you can turn on music, light a candle, go to a busy cafe, do whatever you need to do to your surroundings to make the words flow.
3. Lower pressure. If you hit a snag, or a rough spot, there’s no one to compare yourself too. You are writing for yourself alone.

What about you? Do you prefer to write alone or in the midst of a group of fellow writers? There is no wrong answer, but let’s chat about it in the comments below!