Write It Like It Is: The Power of Group Freewriting

By Deborah Sosin

Fifteen summers ago, I signed up for “Writing from the Heart,” a workshop on Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the Massachusetts coast. Each morning, a group of a dozen strangers gathered outdoors in a circle of garden chairs, surrounded by lavish blue and white hydrangeas. Nancy Aronie, the facilitator, gave prompts, we wrote, then we took turns and shared.

I’d dabbled in the craft of freewriting on my own using Natalie Goldberg’s classic Writing Down the Bones, but the...