Rallying a Community of Writers

Catchup Quick

On January 1, 2026, Ana Valentina Patton, kicked off the new year with her post, Tiny January: A Simple Way to Train for SOL. In this post she invited readers to begin training for March’s Slice of Life Story Challenge by showing up as writers. This was just the motivation and reminder that I needed to get my writing life back on track. Once a faithful Tuesday slicer, I had let my writing life slip. I’m proud to say that Ana’s post has inspired me to train for the marathon that is March!

In 2017, my dear friend Erika asked me if I wanted to join the Slice of Life Story Challenge…on February 28th. That night, not really knowing what the challenge entailed, I signed up, created a blog, and jumped in with two feet. I’ve never looked back. If fact, I was so inspired by the experience, I invited more of my colleagues and friends to join me the next year. Since then, we’ve even been able to get our entire school community writing together in March. Expanding our writing community has helped us to know each other in new ways and has personally brought me so much joy over the years.

So, if January was for training, then I declare February as the time to begin rallying your writing community!

Why It Matters

Community matters. Writing is rewarding on its own, but there is something especially powerful about writing alongside friends and colleagues. Community creates safety and joy. Writing can be vulnerable, but having real-life friends to brainstorm with, talk through tricky moments, or simply empathize deepens relationships. Writing together brings people closer and strengthens the kinds of connections that foster the communities we strive to create for students.

The Details (Some Ways to Get Started)

• Start Small. Invite just one friend who may be interested in writing to join you in the Slice of Life Story Challenge. Use the month of February to read through the details. Start a blog if you don’t already have one and start looking out for story ideas! You can read more details and sign up for the challenge here.

Or

• Go BIG! Think about ways to invite more colleagues to write with you in March. This might include rallying your staff to participate in the challenge or thinking outside the box to find approaches that fit your school’s culture. At our school, we started by posting a giant March calendar and inviting people to sign up for just one day to write. We modified the challenge to see if, together, our community could write every day in March. (The answer was yes, and we’re heading into year four of this now-annual tradition!)

Or

• Dream up something in between. There are no right or wrong ways to rally a community of writers. Even finding one friend to join you will be worth it, I promise!

A Final Thought

Showing up as a writer, especially alongside others, has a way of opening doors we didn’t even know existed. February gives us the space to prepare, to reach out, and to invite community into our writing lives. And when March arrives, we’re not running the marathon alone. We’re writing together, supported by stories, shared moments, and the joy that comes from being part of a community.

Go Deeper

• One Writer At a Time: Fostering an Adult Writing Community
• How to Be a Writing Influencer: Reflective Practice