Writing Partners. Source: National Council of Teachers of English

The author Adair Lara suggests writers need writing partners. So does writer Natalie Goldberg.  And while both of them have a different approach, the goal is the same – to encourage you to write.  It can sometimes be daunting to toil away with your writing and not have anyone to share it with – especially if you just wrote a great line or made a keen insight while writing.

Goldberg advises finding someone you can meet with once a week.  It might be a coffee house, a restaurant, or any place else that allows you to sit for an hour or two.  Use writing exercises to get going and set time limits on the writing.  Then read what you wrote to each other.  Doing this gets you out of your writing cocoon, makes you write, and provides you a listener and some feedback.

Lara, on the other hand, found in her own life that having an e-mail writing partner was very helpful.  Choose a friend who is a writer and commit to writing 500 words a day (don’t worry about it being in perfect form).  Send it to each other.  The other person reads what you wrote and notes what he or she liked about it.  Then your partner sends it back to you.  It’s that easy.  Writing 500 words a day can quickly add up to a story, book, essay, or whatever.  She suggests that if you hit a snag where you just can’t write, it’s okay to send 500 words from your favorite writers.  Just typing up that passage allows you the chance to see exactly how the writer crafts the story.  Setting up this type of relationships offers you a chance to be more productive and get the support you need to  continue writing.