Writing is solitary, so many writers crave community. The Oxford Writers League (OWL) offers such solidarity.
OWL, a writing circle for Halifax writers, meets every Monday from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at West Ender Coffee for writing sprints.
The league applies the Pomodoro technique. During writing exercises, the host sets a 45-minute timer, and participants write until it chimes. After the writing session, participants take a 15-minute break. The host then resets the timer for a second round, repeating the process. Conversations tend to conclude most meetings.
“I think as writers, we’re naturally introverted,” said Jessica Marsh, one of the participants. “We spend a lot of time on our own, so this is a way for us to be together but also be separate at the same time.”
Marsh compared the league’s meetings to “children parallel playing.” In parallel play, each child engages in their own activity while enjoying each other’s company. Marsh learned the value of writing sprints from participating in National Novel Writing Month and Pomodoros activities.
OWL’s origins
The host of the writing group’s meetings is Heather Jessup, creative writing program coordinator and an associate professor in the Department of English at Dalhousie University. Jessup attributes the group’s founding to the writer Shashi Bhat, the author of The Family Took Shape and The Most Precious Substance on Earth, the latter of which was a finalist for the 2022 Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction.
According to Jessup, Bhat visited Dalhousie to give a talk about craft and process. Afterward, the audience asked her how she makes time to write. Bhat described belonging to various writing sprint groups. They’d meet in cafés, write in silence and chat between Pomodoros.
“In this age, where we share a lot of things on social media or digitally, it feels really nice to physically be in a café together once a week and see each other’s faces, and then these minor check-ins end up happening,” Jessup said. “Even though we’re spending most of our time not talking, I honestly think there comes this artistic community and intimacy that wouldn’t happen in the same way just online.”
An inclusive community
Some participants are not students. Tom MacIntyre met Jessup while he was on the job, loading compost into her car. Jessup mentioned she teaches creative writing and invited MacIntyre to attend the group’s meetings.
“I’d not really been inspired for quite a long time,” MacIntyre said. “I thought that being around a bunch of people who are working on creative things, maybe I’d absorb some [creativity].”
According to Ella Ratz, another participant, there’s value in working alongside people who aren’t your immediate family or your best friends.
“Getting to regularly interact with and meet new people is such a stimulating thing for the brain, I think,” Ratz said.
Another appeal of the event is accountability.
“If you’re sitting there and you’re writing at home, you would be tempted to check your email or look at social media,” Marsh said. “But here, surrounded by other writers, you know that everybody is doing the same thing; everybody’s writing, and you’re also on the clock.”
Jessup used the Pomodoro technique to complete her dissertation and her first book. She hosts and attends OWL meetings as a fellow writer, not as a professor.
“I have noticed, as a professor, that a lot of projects come out of simply an hour and a half a week from attending [meetings] regularly,” Jessup said. “I’ve had a number of grad students, for instance, say, ‘I was able to finish my master’s thesis because I had this community of people.’”
Everyone is welcome to attend the group’s meetings. There is no need to RSVP. Participants can bring anything they’d like to work on, even emails and assignments.
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