“Greetings, friends!” That’s how I’ve started every newsletter I’ve written since 2019. Truthfully, this is an aspirational greeting—launched during a particularly lonely period in my life, Sit & Write quickly became an important part of my social life. In the years that followed, my little drop-in writing group accumulated a diverse crew of regulars, most of whom reported a dramatic increase in productivity thanks to the presence of focused peers. Attendees also told me how much they appreciated the camaraderie and collective wisdom of fellow attendees.
The same was true for me. I am in the final couple of chapters of the novel I started writing in 2016. Without the accountability and community provided by Sit & Write, I never would have made it this far.
Last month, I launched a companion group called Sit & Read, an elaborate way of forcing myself t…