Back in November 2009, me and some of my friends decided to sign up for NaNo. And because we live in the same city, we also decided to meet every week to support each other and motivate each other to finish the Nano project.
We actually did just that for several weeks. And even though I didn't manage to write those 50K of words in one month, those weekly meetings helped me get the story further.
The best thing in it all is that we kept meeting once a week. True, right now we don't discuss writing all that much, but it happens from time to time. But during our last meeting, one thing led to another and it somehow ended with me and one of my friends deciding to do a major collaboration project.
Imagine my amusement when I got home and found an article on how to work with other writers. Honestly John, great timing on that one.
This story we started to outline (for the time being let's call it The Epic Collaboration Project) is something I'm really excited about right now.
I haven't been excited about a fiction project since... the bigbang I finished at the beginning of May.
It might sound weird, but those non-profit works I'm doing are really helping me become a better writer. Two years ago, I would laugh if someone told me I can actually write (and finish!) a 20K story. I did that last year. This year, I already finished one 20K story, I have another one to write with a September deadline, I have the ECP in the works (hopefully to be finished by the end of the year).
Not to mention my thesis, which also needs to be written by the end of the year, first bigbang story needs to be edited by July... My writing calendar looks more and more busy.
I love the feeling!