Let’s Write Together: Introducing Weekend Writing

Quick summary: After piloting a new way of writing for well over a year (writing once a week vs. once a day), I decided to create Weekend Writing, a virtual writing group for people who want to write a book while working full-time. To help cover admin costs—primarily Zoom Pro so we can have longer meetings and a landing page for the resource library—there is a monthly fee ($16) but I'm happy to work something out if that isn't feasible. I'm excited to join as a participant and hope it inspires you to bring the book you've been thinking about to life, too. Looking forward to writing together!

Almost exactly two years ago, on December 17, 2022, I wrote a note in my phone that said “Every day is the same for Amara.”? ?

I kept coming back to that note time and time again over the next few months, hoping to put pen to digital paper and turn one sentence into a short story that I couldn't stop thinking about. The first month, I made some progress, but it slowly waned as work and life picked up after the holidays. In total, I only wrote about 1,000 words.

It wasn’t until August 2023 when things changed. Instead of pushing myself to write every day (which usually ended with me staring at a blank screen) or “whenever I felt like it” (very sporadically), I gave myself permission to write once a week—only on Saturday mornings.

If I wanted to write on top of that, great, but if I didn't, that was fine too. (This was a total change from my typical all-or-nothing mindset).

In a plea of desperation, I sent an email to a handful of writing friends and acquaintances with the subject line “Weekend writing group,” asking if anyone wanted to write together to keep each other accountable. I suggested we log in to Zoom from wherever we were in the world (in my case, either from a local coffee shop or at home in PJs), say hi, and go on mute for two hours while we made progress on the books we hoped to publish one day. The proposed time worked for a friend of a friend who was publishing a young adult memoir.

We met one weekend morning in November—me in Oregon and her in South Carolina, then later Texas and other parts of the U.S.—and showed up every Saturday thereafter to make progress on our projects. Most sessions, I wrote or edited 1,000 words. Sometimes, I stared at a blank screen and made absolutely no progress. Even so, I finished the short story within a couple of months, simply because I gave myself permission to show up once a week (vs. once a day) and looked forward to seeing my friend.

On March 15, 2024, after just four months of consistent weekend writing sessions, I published that short story.? During Weekend Writing, I not only wrote the manuscript, I revised it (three times); researched and communicated with editors, proofreaders, cover designers, and audiobook engineers; formatted the ebook and print book; and pressed the big scary button to upload to Amazon’s publishing service. Honestly, I barely worked on it during the work week—the only time I truly made progress was in Weekend Writing sessions on Saturday mornings between 9 and 11 a.m. PT.

In fact, in my first email to my editor, I wrote, “I completed a short story that I've been working on for about 9 months (and, frankly, wasn't sure would ever see the light of day).” It was because of Weekend Writing that it did.?

After seeing how powerful this practice was, I looked high and low both in person and online to see if anything similar existed. Either I wasn’t using the right keywords (likely) or another one doesn’t exist (unlikely but possible), but I couldn’t find any virtual writing groups geared toward people who wanted to write a book while working full-time.?

So after a lot of thought, I decided to make Weekend Writing official. Instead of writing every Saturday, I spent that time dreaming up a brand, website, and resource library that I’m so incredibly proud of (shoutout to designer extraordinaire, Chelsea Callas , for helping bring the vision to life!).

The setup is almost exactly what I explained above: writing sessions every Saturday from 9-11 a.m. PT plus a group chat on the second Saturday of the month (for added accountability) and access to an exclusive resource library.?It's a take-what-you-need group, so you can show up to all, some, or none of these in a given month, and there's never a requirement to be on video or come off mute.

To help cover admin costs—primarily Zoom Pro so we can have longer meetings and a landing page for the resource library—there is a monthly fee ($16) but I'm happy to work something out if that isn't feasible.

If you have a book idea and would like to join, I’d love to see you there (I’ll be joining as a participant!). Learn more and join the membership—or just look at the stunning logo and design—at www.weekendwriting.com.

Between the dedicated sessions and subtle accountability, Weekend Writing revolutionized my writing life, and I hope it inspires you to show up and write that book you’ve been writing or dreaming of, too.