The Block Method Guide
I created this "writer's group" method for members who want to form a structured accountability group to finish big projects. These are tools and not rules. So modify it according to your group's needs!
The Block Method an accountability group structure. It is metaphorically a big-ass Pomodoro timer set for 4 weeks (one month) to complete big projects.
2-hour live meetings 1x week for four weeks (block)
Block resets every four weeks
Come and go as you need (within 4-week cycles)
OVERVIEW
Sometimes, a heavy critique group is not ideal for your schedule or needs and you just want more writing done.
Block Method groups spend most of their time writing and meet once a week for a few hours to air out their problems and connect.
There’s no homework.
You get to read and hear your work read out loud, and share pages, paragraphs, or a sentence. This weekly meeting is the cherry on top of the sundae for each week’s labor.
After each 4-week block, members reassess their workflow, stay, or explore new groups.
There is no commitment.
This format can coincide with a project you’re working on alone, while enrolled in a class, or participating in other critique groups without adding any more work to what you’re doing already.
METHOD
The Block Method is modeled after the productivity psychology of Pomodoro Technique. The "timer" method works best if you reset /delete your group channel at the end of each block.
GUIDELINES:
This is a Tool, Not a Rule. Modify as you wish.
Since this method is about helping writers finish long-form projects:
Writers work on ONE project (for each group they're in) for the entire 4-week block. Avoid submitting different projects each week for feedback, which disrupts the focus of fellow writers. Aim for immersion.
Each week, you digitally deliver materials for the live reading 24 hours in advance. You can workshop from one paragraph up to 10 pages (screenwriting) and up to 7-8 pages (prose).
You can workshop micro content from 1 paragraph up to the max excerpt allowed.
If don't have anything to submit that week, that's fine too to show up to support your group.
Words are visual works of art: The draft is screen-shared during the live reading or writers can scroll through their digital copies.
No pre-reading or written critique notes are required. It is entirely optional.
Your time is focused on productivity.
When you meet with your group, it acts as a reward, accountability, and support system to keep focused and going.
Remember to Celebrate Wins!
Suggested Critique Style
Critique time offers accountability getting clarity, motivation, and group support than structural fixes. Consider the live meetings writer's therapy time to air out problems in the creative process, hear your work read out loud, gain a sense of accomplishment, and get support and feedback as needed.
For the Block Method, its purpose to save time and preserve energy, avoid using the MFA critique style of waiting your turn in silence while writers pile up on myopic points. Run it like a writer's room that involves active listening combined with cooperative overlapping or try the Liz Lerman "Critical Response" method. Feedback is not required. Being forced to say something can be harmful to the writer's work. You can say it later or send the writer notes.
Be mindful of critique style suitable for the medium/format: not all literature uses the same tools. Critiquing screenplays, memoir, and poetry are vastly different. Even within fiction, critiquing kidlit and fiction for adult requires kid gloves (pun intended).
Customize and create your own critique format and groups. Ask your group or allow each writer to state what type of feedback they want.
Live Meeting Structure
The Block Method is about managing time to support creative energy.
To do this, you need structure.
Resetting Group Channels Every 4-Week Block
Deleting/ Archiving the Slack group channel every block serves several purposes:
Acts as a "timer" and creates markers to meet tangible goals every four weeks.
Creates good habits by developing work rituals (discipline) to avoid ignoring the timer and hyper-extending deadlines and goals.
Allows members to reassess their next steps: explore other channels, refine the critique structure, take turns organizing the group and sharing tasks, etc.
Breaks up cliques or unhealthy group dynamics.
Long haul: Members may continue working together for as many blocks as they wish until they finish their projects. Just remember to reset, otherwise, it's no longer a block method to mark progress.
There is no rule that you have to finish together in the same group.
Time Management and Maintaining High Energy
Be mindful of time management when forming a group that is too large.
If your group gets too big, members can also supplement this group or break out into different groups that better suits their schedule.
If a live meeting takes 2 hours for 5 members, having 10 members turn that either into 4 hours, or sacrifices quality for quantity by reducing time for all members to workshop.
Consider the time and energy invested managing 10 members and more mental energy to familiarize yourself with this amount of material.
Find your sweet spot.
Tips and Etiquette
Make sure all drafts are digitally delivered to all members (posted) 24 hours in advance.
Be prepared to read a logline, brief synopsis, or description of the project at the 1st meeting. Avoid spending time figuring out what your story is about. Orient listeners right away.
Start your meeting with brief greetings and get down to business.
Choose the cast and narrator ahead of time.
Be mindful of everyone's time and refrain from preambles and detours with chats unrelated to the workshop (politics, news, world events, etc.)
Set the tone and sacred space for this time to escape into words.
Remind everyone if there will be a 5 or 10 minutes break on the hour.
Briefly provide context for the excerpt before reading.
Each writer jots their notes given live. If back-and-forth cuts into another writer's feedback time, the host should suggest the members connect after the session for further clarity.
Be a good beatnik and snap/clap after each reading.
Knock out the first 2 hours to allow everyone to read and give feedback.
Adjust the Feedback/Workshop time based on your group's size if smaller than 5.
Reserve deep dives for after the meeting for those willing to stay overtime.
Break a pen!