Hosting a shared reading session in your camp

Most of what happens in a camp happens alone. You write a post at your own table, someone reads it a few days later at theirs, and a reply drifts back some time after that. It is a good way to keep company, but it means people rarely read the same thing at the same time. Ask three friends about a story they have all read and you may well hear about three different stories.

A shared reading session is simple. A host picks one short piece, everyone reads it within the same window, and the group talks about what they found. It asks for less than a monthly writing challenge, because nobody has to produce anything beyond a few honest sentences. That makes it a good thing to try when the camp is tired or has gone a little quiet. Here is how we would host one.

Choose something short enough to finish

Our rule of thumb: pick something a person could read twice in one sitting. A short essay, a single story, a chapter that stands on its own or a handful of poems will all do. A whole novel is a book club, a lovely thing and a much bigger commitment.

Read it yourself first, and choose for conversation rather than prestige. The best pick is often a piece that left you with a question, or one you are not sure you liked. A flawless classic can leave everyone politely agreeing. Good places to look:

• A piece that is free to read online. Everyone can open the same link at no cost, which removes the most common reason for dropping out.
• An older work out of copyright. The rules differ between countries, so check before you share a full copy.
• A post by someone in the camp. Ask the writer first, and read on for how to keep that from turning into a critique.

Whatever you choose, link to it rather than pasting it into your post. The community guidelines ask the same of everyone: quote briefly, credit clearly and link the source.

Pick a slow session or a live one

A slow session runs over about a week. People read when they can and answer in the replies under your post. Every reply here is read by a moderator before it appears, so the thread will move at an unhurried pace and will not behave like a chat. That suits people in different time zones, and quieter readers who like time to work out what they think.

A live session happens at a set time, on a video call or around somebody's kitchen table, arranged among yourselves. Someone can read part of the piece aloud, which is worth trying once, because the ear catches what the eye slides past. Keep it under an hour, go round the circle once so everyone gets a turn, and let anyone pass. Afterwards the host writes it up so the camp can see what happened.

If your group has never met outside the site, start slow. It takes less arranging.

Write an invitation people can say yes to

The session begins with one post on the host's blog, so the host needs a writer account. Everyone else can take part with a name and a comment. Give the post the camp's topic exactly as other writers use it, so it lands on the camp page, and give it a title that says what is going on. Then cover these five things:

1. What you are reading, with a link and a rough idea of how long it takes.
2. The dates the session opens and closes.
3. How to join in, which is usually just reading the piece and replying below.
4. One or two questions to carry into the reading.
5. What will happen at the end.

A short version might read like this:

“This week a few of us are reading one short essay about moving back to a home town. It takes about fifteen minutes. Read it any time before Sunday and leave a reply here: which sentence did you read twice, and why? On Monday I'll gather what people noticed into a short post. Newcomers are very welcome, and you don't need to have anything clever to say.”

Publish a few days before the window opens, so people can find the piece and make room for it. BirchCamp sends no notifications, so mention the session anywhere your group already talks.

Ask about the reading, not the verdict

“Did you like it?” tends to end a conversation at yes or no. Better questions send people back to the page, and they give someone who disliked the piece as much to say as someone who loved it:

• Which sentence did you read twice, and why?
• Where did you stop trusting the writer, if you did?
• What did you expect the ending to do?
• What would you borrow for your own writing?

Two questions are plenty. Ask people to quote a short line when they can, since it gives others something exact to respond to.

Take extra care when the piece comes from someone in the camp. Agree with the writer beforehand whether this is a reading or a request for notes, and say which in the invitation. If notes are wanted, giving feedback a writer can use is a good thing to link. If they are not, keep the talk on what the piece did to its readers.

Host without talking the most

A host's job is to keep the door open and then mostly stay out of the doorway. Leave your own reading out of the invitation, because once you say what you noticed, others will go looking for the same thing. Add your answer once a few replies have come in, and keep it about as long as you would like theirs to be. A long reply from the host quietly tells everyone that short ones are not enough.

Come back to the thread during the week. You can reply to your own post, and your replies carry an Author badge. Connect people where you can: point out that two readers chose the same paragraph, or ask someone a small follow-up about the line they quoted.

Welcome anyone who has only read half. And if only two people take part, it still counts as a session. Please do not apologise for the turnout.

Close the session, and leave the door open

A session needs an ending, even a small one. When the window closes, write a few lines as a new short post or at the foot of the original: what you read, a line or two that people kept returning to, where readers disagreed and a question nobody settled. Credit each person by the name they used. After a live session, ask before you quote anyone, since they were talking to a small group and not writing for the whole site.

Then ask whether people would like to do it again, and invite somebody else to choose the next piece. Handing over the choice keeps this from becoming one person's reading list.

The original post stays up after the session ends, so a latecomer can still read the piece and add a thought months from now. Someone will always have stopped at a line you hurried past, and hearing about it is the reason to read together at all. Pick something short, set a date and see who pulls up a seat.