The best writing communities online

Online writing communities are the open secret to developing a daily writing habit. And there’s so many choices now, each with something special.

Here’s 4 of the better ones I found, each with their own unique benefits and traits:

1. Ship 30 for 30

Social writing is the main thing here. You join a 30-day cohort-based based, and write at least 250 words a day, on your own social blog. Share an image of your writing, and write a thread, post it on Twitter, where all the interaction and discussion happens. Along the way you get seminars, office hours, and even mentorship.

What Ship30 does really well is the networking aspect. You really get to meet folks from different fields and professions, who happened to be writers. There’s a sort of amplification effect when a cohort of a few thousand people all start commenting and engaging on one another’s tweets. You start to grow your Twitter following fast, and see your analytics shoot through the roof. It’s data-driven and very encouraging.

Ship30 is great for folks who want to improve their business writing. Copywriting for career progression, networking and more career opportunities are the main benefits.

If tweeting a lot on Twitter isn’t your thing, a worthy alternative is David Perell’s Write of Passage course. Mostly the same value proposition for your career, but wrapped in a self-contained community.

2. Foster

Foster’s collaborative editorial features is intriguing. Think Google Docs but for writers to get editorial support from peers and pros, and along the way, learn from one another. They are really into editing, together. It’s a diverse, curated community of writers, editors, and experts. You get workshops, seminars, and 1-on-1 sessions.

Foster is great if you’re really into getting guidance for your editing and writing skills, from people ahead of you. Getting a mentor is already hard, and Foster offers a whole bunch of mentors at ease.

3. NaNoWriMo

Short for National Novel Writing Month, this is for aspiring novelists. It’s a time-based and timeboxed challenge, with a word limit: Every November 1st, join a community and a festival to write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. That means an average of 1670 words per day - no small feat, but not crazy impossible either.

The internet-famous aspect of NaNoWriMo and the buss is the biggest benefit from this community. If you got the next great American novel dying to be written, this is the community for you.

4. 750words

If you enjoyed the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, you’ll know about this practice called the “morning pages”. The premise is simple: write 3 pages of stream-of-consciousness writing, without editing. Anything that comes to your head. A literal brain dump of thoughts, feelings, frustrations, joys. Anything.

The main benefit is like taking a shower. You cleanse your mind, and helps with the flow of ideas for the rest of the day. Of course, some of those thoughts might be very private, so all your posts on 750words are private. This is great if you want to use writing as a tool for thinking or healing, as some form of self therapy or no-limits creative outlet.

Bonus! 5. Lifelog

I’m probably biased, but we got something good going on here in Lifelog. It’s a self-contained daily writing community for creators. It’s not a course to advance your career. You don’t get to learn editing skills or get awesome editorial support. No one really writes fiction here. All the posts are public, not private.

What we try to develop here is more fundamental: A consistent writing habit. Just a minimum of 100 words a day, so that you can sustain it consistently. Publishing all your posts in public is a daily work-out for your publishing muscle, slowly chipping away at any fear of putting your work out there. Writing out in the open also invites others in the community to riff on the ideas you shared, making it better. Writing alongside others doing the same, provides social accountability as well as mutual support.

With consistent writing, you grow in a few things in parallel: your writing skills, your ability to communicate well, your mental wellbeing, and momentum for your goals.

So which writing community is your favourite? Why?