How I 'Zoom' through deadlines every week with friends

On Sunday afternoons, I log in to my Zoom account, join a meeting, mute myself and ignore everyone else on the call. I'm not being rude; everyone else does the same. All of our faces are on the screen, and we say a quick hello. But when the clock strikes 4 p.m. everyone mutes and gets to work.

We are all writers and all working on different things. One friend is writing a novel, while another is typing away toward a freelance deadline. I work on my column for the week. Most weeks it's how I get my first draft on paper.

The National Society of Newspaper Columnists hosts these Zooms twice a week for its members. I call it my accountability Zoom.

The pandemic changed how we do a lot in our lives. Everything went virtual. Before COVID-19, if you were to tell me I'd log on to a Zoom call to get some writing done, I would have laughed at you. But there's something to it.

The buddy system works and has been used in everything from keeping kids safe to achieving weight loss goals. One recent study showed that when spouses work together to lose weight, they're three times more likely to succeed. Support groups are another example of how this comes into play. The Mayo Clinic says support groups help people feel less lonely or judged as well as help gain a sense of empowerment or control.

Writing is usually such a solitary act. The pandemic isolated all of us, and for those who had quiet, solitary jobs, all that quiet could be deafening. I'm an extrovert that way, and the weekly camaraderie of my accountability Zoom is welcomed and appreciated.

My weekly column is not my full-time job. I work all week as the opinion editor of a newspaper. My workflow gets interrupted all day long with messages, emails and meetings. Setting aside time to get my thoughts together and write can be a challenge.

But on Sunday afternoon, my husband and my son hang out for a while, and I log on with my writing colleagues and get some work done. At the end of an hour, sometimes we chat about our projects and what we're working on. Other times we just keep writing if we're in a good rhythm. People log off when they're finished. We are a far-flung group from across the country and it's great to see faces I normally wouldn't see until the next writers' conference!

My accountability Zoom is a modern writers' circle of sorts but much more productive. I'm grateful for the interaction and for each and every one of their silent support. I hope we hold on to this practice once the pandemic finally fades. I want to continue to show up and root for their success, each and every week.