The Power of Collaboration in the Writing Journey
My family has a lake house. It is part commune, part ancestral home, filled with quirks and nuance.
The current maximum occupancy when all family members are present is 22. These are the members that still continue with the upkeep of the house, the decision making and the grit.
Every weekend brings a new constellation of the 22. The people, the dynamic- invariably changing depending on who is present. I cannot count the number of times we have looked at each other on a Saturday night and said “this is a great group this weekend”.
As the day spins from light to dark and the lake is washed away by the minimal number of showers to person ratio (2.5 showers to 22 bodies), whoever is cooking assumes their position in the small central kitchen that is always bottlenecked. The music begins on the speaker hailing from 2001 and 3 generations of family assemble in various spaces.
My parents and their generation, my siblings and cousins, my children and their cousins all call this place home. A total integration of extended family.
It is lots’ of lives to manage, but also magical and family glue. I feel safe in saying we all cherish this house that my grandfather built, and as a result our connection is deep and powerful.
The incidental gift of this house is time. We all manage to find one on one time with each other throughout the weeks or weekends that we would never have if not for this space. My older brother Josh and I- several times a summer-go for a long run up on the road that is as familiar to us as our faces are to each other.
My brother is a writer/director, who used to primarily direct film and television, and since 2020 has started a company called Written Out Loud.
WOL teaches children the art of storytelling. The concept is to put kids in groups and have them develop ideas and collaboratively write books together. At the end of a “semester” they have a bound published book. Pretty amazing.
So, for the past two summers Josh and I have discussed this book I am writing. The narrative, the audience. What makes it different from the other books out there. Titles of books- and generally both of our goals and dreams.
Last summer he said to me “you need a deadline”. I said what I always say, that I write when I have the time, and it’s so hard to find the time- with work and my kids and my marriage, and our lives. He agreed with all this- but said it again “you need deadlines”.
Then in February he texted me and said he was starting a writing group for adults. Adults that have been working on a book- or want to write a book, or have a book burning inside them wanting to be written. He told me- he was giving me a deadline. Time was up.
And so- I took the bait. I joined his adult program. Me and my three comrades, every Wednesday night at 6pm, Zooming from all over the country, began our book journeys with my brother and his colleague as our fearless leaders.
Invoking Joseph Campbell and the hero’s journey- we all began our very own search for meaning. Each of our books was strikingly different, yet somehow we figured out how to support each other and talk through our various narratives. Our between-group text thread bounced from our books to major life events that were simultaneously co-occurring.
This group proved to me once again- that anything that seems insurmountable alone- can be achieved with teamwork and accountability. And deadlines .
So that is how I finished draft 1 . There is much much work left to do. But I actually wrote it out loud.
Thank you Josh- thank you group. I am filled with gratitude. Who is finishing next?
