Writing with Others

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Do you find yourself having trouble staying on task when you are supposed to be writing? Do you write better in a group where everyone is focused on getting words down during a writing sprint?

Sometimes during NaNoWriMo or Camp NaNoWriMo, I am able to go to in-person writing events with some of our local writers. These are so helpful and tons of fun. At other times, I find myself unable to attend a local event for one reason or another and missing the chance to do writing sprints with other writers. My solution for that is to go to YouTube and find a Virtual Write-In to watch. I found out about Virtual Write-Ins through NaNoWriMo, so I wanted to share some of their events that are on YouTube and available anytime you want to feel less alone in your writing. Here is the National Novel Writing Month YouTube Channel. They have a playlist of 86 different write-ins that you can watch and write along with. Most of these are about an hour-long, but they have several word sprints in each one so you can always jump ahead to find a longer one. Another perk to using these is that many of them include prompts that might help you get your creative juices flowing.

One of my favorite channels on YouTube to watch year-round is the YA Word Nerds. They do live shows every Sunday evening and have done many write-ins especially during the months of April, July, and November when there are NaNo events going on. You can find their live show playlist below and can scroll through looking for their Virtual Write-Ins. Sometimes they have guests with them like the video shown below with guest Kyra and past WordNerd Calyn.

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Another of my favorite YouTubers is Tamara Woods, she hosts live write-ins, writing tips, quarterly goal updates, and so many other writing-related videos. Look for her videos below.

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I really enjoy Tamara’s energy and enthusiasm. She is also living the dream in Hawaii! She talks about all things writing, so you will want to subscribe to her channel to stay up to date. Oh, also one of the best things about Tamara’s live writing events is that they run a lot longer than an hour and you can get SO much writing done with her.

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I’m sure there are many other places on YouTube where you can find virtual or even live-streamed write-ins to write along with. You can do writing sprints or revising sprints when you need to stay focused by simply setting a timer for a specific amount of time and staying focused on your task until the timer goes off. You don’t have to follow along with one of the videos, but they are fun and I find them helpful. I have also participated in writing sprints hosted on Twitter, Chatzy, and Discord, so there are lots of options for you to explore. The timer method works with almost any sort of task that you need to focus on for a specific amount of time.

If you have never tried writing as a group sport, I highly recommend it. If you don’t have a local group of writers to meet with in person, please give the virtual write-ins a try. They can be watched as often as needed and can be paused when you need to grab something to drink or make a pit stop. You don’t have to worry about timing because they do that for you.

Do you know of other YouTubers that have virtual write-ins available? Please share them in the comments below. Maybe you want to get a group of writers together on Google Hangouts to do your own write-in. You don’t have to make the videos available to the public on YouTube. Have you ever considered doing a Facebook live video feed of you doing writing sprints? Be sure to let me know if you do and I will write along with you.

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