The other day Mary Robinette Kowal explained to the social media world how to hold a writers' hangout in Google+. Basically, you use Google+'s ability to hangout with others while also cranking on your latest literary masterpiece. Since I'm aways looking for ways to bring more fun to my writing, I staged my first hangout last night.
The results: Fun as hell and a great way to motivate yourself into being more productive.
As Mary suggested, I scheduled a time for the hookup and mentioned it on both Google+ and Twitter. Once we started the Google+ hangout functionality worked great, with people easily able to see each other and talk. In short order ten other writers--ten people being the most that can use the hangout feature at one time--logged in. We spent about 15 minutes talking and wrote for the rest of the hour, followed by more talking and writing.
Thanks to everyone who showed up, including Mary, Paolo Bacigalupi, Jamie Rubin, Janet Harriett, Patrick Thunstrom, Adam Callaway, Brian Dolton, Bryan Thomas Schmidt, Juliette Wade, Shaun Duke, Scott Roberts, and John DeNardo. I'm also pleased that the hangout helped me write almost 1,500 words last night. Since late night has always been one of my least-productive writing times, the hangout was well worth doing.
I'll be scheduling more writers' hangouts in the near future. If you want to take part, simply keep an eye out on my Google+ feed.
Update: Bryan Thomas Schmidt and Jamie Todd Rubin give their take on our hangout.