Need structure? Want to find camaraderie? Tired of writing in solitude? Join our virtual office space. At TPR someone is always in the cubicle next to you.

Here's how the practice room works:

First of all, EVERYONE IS WELCOME!

At the given date and time (weekly schedule posted below), meet at post 1. It appears 30 minutes in advance of the hour (barring unusual circumstances), giving us a chance to set our goals in the comments. Declare your goal. Work toward furthering your project; word counting, revision, or whatever it needs - you decide.

Post 2: WE ARE UNPLUGGED! announces our hour. During that time, we write! The rules: no procrastinations. Please feel free to make tea or stand on your head as needed.

When the time is up, Post 3 appears with a chat box and we will get a chance to converse, or you can comment old-style to tell us what you got done! We are dying to know!

Read about a typical first time here. I make the schedule every Sunday. It will remain up in the side bar until I post the next week's schedule (feel free to make requests for particular times in the comments - I take them into serious consideration). All additions will be noted in in the side bar. Come back and check it often. (The schedule times are listed in Eastern Time Zone but the blog posts in Central - Tina's time zone. Our visitors are from all over the map.)

Please email me with questions, comments, or just to introduce yourself! tina dot laurel at gmail dot com

Don't forget to sign the guestbook at the bottom of the page!


Oct 28, 2013

Post 3: Reconvention!

Krystalyn, Maria, and Dianne were present. Krystalyn is pantstering a sequel, Maria is working on a sweet romance, and Dianne is taking a break after turning in a revision. We all chatted about our current concerns.

Post 2: WE ARE UNPLUGGED!

We are unplugged! We'll meet back at 9 pm EST in post 3 for a reconvention chat. If no one is there, the chat will be canceled.

Post 1: Unpluggage Begins 8 pm eastern

What will you be working on? Tell us in the comments!

Oct 27, 2013

Week of October 27th

This week for Th-Th, Maria submits. She says she will have it in by tomorrow pm at mid-night. I admire her strict deadlining.

Diane and crew tomorrow night.

Please email if you have questions about any of the above.

Brainpickings has a great 7 year birthday post with the 7 most important things Maria Popova learned. I think the list is brilliant, especially after my musings during my sleepless night last night. I may post about it over on my blog blog. :) But I haven't got there yet so who's to know. Practice-wise my goal is to do my best to be willing to change my mind and willing to do the work of changing other peoples minds - through fiction and otherwise.

xo Thanks for being here.

Oct 21, 2013

Post 3: Reconvention!

We started out with major Chatroll problems, but eventually Krystalyn, Joanne, Maria, and Dianne got on chat. Marcy valiantly tried, but said, "The heck with this. I'm going to bed." We chatted about our various projects, about giving up or not giving up, and then Chatroll shut down and gave us the UNHAPPY FACE icon. We were done for the night.

Post 2: WE ARE UNPLUGGED!

We are unplugged! We'll meet back at 9 pm EST in post 3 for a reconvention chat. If no one is there, the chat will be canceled.

Post 1: Unpluggage Begins 8 pm eastern

What will you be working on? Tell us in the comments!

Post 1: Unplug at 2 pm est

What will you be working on? Let us know in comments.

Oct 20, 2013

Week of October 20th

I submit to Th-Th by Tuesday. We meet Thursday at 11:00 am est (email me with questions).

Dianne's group tomorrow at 8pm eastern.

 I will try an afternoon hour of unplug this week. How about starting with Monday at 1 pm central, 2 pm eastern? Setting the posts now, hope I see you there.

 There is this TedTalk about fear and storytelling. I want you to watch this and think about how this relates to your writing life.

Can you consider the stories that you tell yourself about your writing life? Both best case scenarios and worse case scenarios. Can you consider those fear stories as the stuff of fiction, the stuff of make-believe, the stuff of story telling? If you were to do that, you would gain the distance of perspective and you could let those stories spin all the way to their hair-raising ends. You might save your own life.

Oct 14, 2013

Post 3: Reconvention!

Krystalyn, Maria, and Dianne were here. We talked mostly about revision, sequencing, and cutting darlings.

Post 2: WE ARE UNPLUGGED!

We are unplugged! We'll meet back at 9 pm EST in post 3 for a reconvention chat. If no one is there, the chat will be canceled.

Post 1: Unpluggage Begins 8 pm eastern

What will you be working on? Tell us in the comments!

Oct 13, 2013

Week of October 13th

Amy submits to th-th, Thursday at 11:00 am est (email me with questions). Diane tomorrow at 8.

So I have a been doing an email round robin with my studio people and in the process of establishing the practice time for them, it has become very important to me. It has become my way of keeping a journal. Last week based on something I read on Brainpickings.org (I think - now I cannot find it), I decided I should be reviewing my entries in a more orderly fashion. That is one of the biggest failings in my writing life, an orderly process of reviewing and discovering the worth of what I wrote - not only the worth of it but the development of it. Recognizing that there is growth over time despite the fact that I have very little traditional product to show for myself.

The process as it stands: I review and collect my disparate entries on Sunday (accomplished today for the 2nd week in a row. Hooray!). Morning drafting of any sort for 1 hour and an afternoon hour of revision.

I'm good at telling myself why all the other things in my life are more important, this week I will practice reminding how this plays into "best case scenario." More of that later.

Anyone want to join for an afternoon hour of productivity? Email me and we can get it on the TPR schedule...

Oct 7, 2013

Post 3: Reconvention!

Maria, Krystaly, Marcy, and Dianne were here. We talked about revisions, word count, and planning stories in a trilogy.

Post 2: WE ARE UNPLUGGED!

We are unplugged! We'll meet back at 9 pm EST in post 3 for a reconvention chat. If no one is there, the chat will be canceled.

Post 1: Unpluggage Begins 8 pm eastern

What will you be working on? Tell us in the comments!

Oct 6, 2013

Week of October 6th

Marisa submits to Th-Th. Dianne unplugs on Monday.

I am committed to examining my writing and reading life this week. Or more accurately examine the part of myself that resists it. I will let you know what I find next week.