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Even though writing is a pretty solitary profession, most writing manuals never mention out the importance of having a writing buddy. 

Today, journalist Kate Torgovnick explains how her writing buddy--and her writing group--helped her write her non-fiction book about the world of championship cheerleading, Cheer!

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
When I first met you, you told me that you had a writing pact with a fellow writer, supporting each other as you wrote your books. How did you find your writing support group? Can you describe that relationship, and explain how having a dedicated writing buddy can help you pull off the enormous task of writing a book?

Kate Torgovnick:
I have a writing group that, corny as it sounds, has changed my life. We’re a motley crew of four journalists, three memoirists, two playwrights, a screenwriter and a crime-fiction novelist. Continue reading...

You can check out our group blog at Crucialminutiae.com. Our basic purpose is to support each other, give constructive criticism on each other’s work, and pass on knowledge about how to get it out there, since we’re all kind of new to the publishing world. Having a crazy mix of disciplines is our biggest strength.

For example, it helped me tremendously on CHEER! to have a screenwriter who could say, “What’s this narrative arc?” and a thriller writer to suggest, “You should milk the suspense more here.” 

I give Crucial Minutiae props for shaping CHEER! on the most basic level. My original idea was to investigate the cheerleading world by topic—one chapter on injuries, one on body issues, one on sexuality. Thankfully, they suggested following three teams and bring up “the issues” more organically. 

One person in the group, Joie Jager-Hyman, really became my writing partner. We were working on similar books and our manuscripts were due a month apart. (Her book is Fat Envelope Frenzy and it follows five high schoolers applying to Harvard.) When we were freaking out about deadlines, we’d drive upstate, lock ourselves indoors, and do nothing but write—taking breaks to watch her Beverly Hills, 90210 box set, of course.

The coolest part is that our books actually came out on the exact same day—March 11. We’re working on an anthology together next.

If you happen to be in New York, you should come out for Crucial Minutiae Cocktails the first Thursday of every month. We meet at Mama’s Bar (34 Avenue B) at 7pm-ish to drink beers, and eat mac ‘n’ cheese with all of our various writer and editor friends. Come join us.