I’m excited to be hosting this week’s Together Alone virtual writing group on Instagram Live! If you’re interested, you can join in for an hour of quiet* writing time Monday through Friday, 1-2 p.m. EDT.

Organized by the wonderful KT Mather and Chris Tebbetts, the Together Alone writing group is a zero-pressure, virtual write-in hosted each week by a different author on Instagram.

Although TA launched in January of this year, I wasn’t well enough to participate until April, while I was recovering from surgery. I’m so grateful KT and Chris have created this series! Together Alone has cultivated an incredibly supportive community and these sessions were instrumental in getting me back into a regular writing routine (and in helping me feel less isolated for those long weeks and months when I was bed/home bound)!

As you know, I generally avoid selfies or the ticktacs or any social format that requires me to be on camera. But for this, I’ve learned (barely) to do a livestream on IG! Old dogs! New (to me!) tricks! I’ve also discovered an unexpected side effect of hosting: a muzzle for my inner critic! While I haven’t fully examined the mechanics behind this yet, I think it’s a combo of not being able to mutter a constant stream of trash talk at myself if I’m responsible for hosting a quiet writing environment, and that my anxiety is diverting all critique resources toward keeping me from making weird faces on camera. No matter the why (gift horses, etc.), it’s been wonderfully helpful and my sessions have been extra productive! If you’re interested in joining in, I’m hosting every day this week, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. EDT. Come check it out! And if this week doesn’t work, Chris and KT post the upcoming weekly schedules on their Instagram pages:

https://www.instagram.com/kt.mather/
https://www.instagram.com/christebbetts/

Some additional info about the writing sessions:

Image credit: Chris Tebbetts

Image credit: Chris Tebbetts

*As I mentioned on my Instagram post on this (conjuring up that fast-talking pharmaceutical side effects voice at the end of ads): “Quiet” in Queens may include, planes taking off, planes landing, sirens, car horns, the ice cream truck that shouts at you, leaf blowers, a garbage truck perpetually backing up, jackhammers, the cement truck that sounds like an electric pig, one or more cats demanding attention, claw drills, the local murder of crows, the red tailed hawk that frequently pisses off the local murder of crows, the neighbor’s karaoke, the neighbor’s dog, the neighbor’s dog singing karaoke…