Finding focus and community at TMU’s Graduate Write-a-Thon

Pack your laptop. Double-check the charger. Toss in a notebook, water bottle, something resembling lunch, and, if experience is any guide, don’t forget headphones.

For many graduate students, the ritual is familiar: claim a corner table in the Library or a sunlit café seat and settle in for the long haul. On a good day, 500 words feels like a triumph. On a harder one, the cursor blinks back in silence. Thesis writing is often solitary, frequently exhausting and shadowed by looming deadlines.

At Toronto Metropolitan University, the Graduate Student Support (GSS) team is working to make that journey easier.

This past fall, 37 graduate students gathered in person and online for the Graduate Write-a-Thon, a full day dedicated to focused, communal writing. Together, they drafted, revised and reviewed more than 100 pages. The premise was simple: structured writing blocks, goal-setting exercises, food and coffee, and one-on-one consultations, all within a room (physical and virtual) filled with peers quietly working through chapters, proposals and revisions.

For GSS facilitator Dr. Erika Chung, who defended her PhD in Communication and Culture in August 2024, the event reflects lessons she learned firsthand. “Writing a dissertation, MRP or thesis is more like a marathon than a race,” she said. “Every small step contributes to the larger project.”

That incremental progress is built into the structure of the day. Participants begin by breaking large tasks into manageable goals, then move through extended focus sessions supported by collective timers and on-demand writing consultations.

“It is remarkably difficult to bring graduate students together,” said organizer Sol Ramon Palomino. “The challenges of balancing research with work and life often result in a lonely academic journey.”

The Write-a-Thon aims to counter that isolation with shared accountability. ComCult PhD student Alissa Novitchkova credits the body-doubling effect. “Seeing others zealously typing on their laptops, I slowly proceed to writing at least something,” she said. “None of my peer writing sessions ever finished without any accomplishment.”

Griffen Horsley, writing consultant and MRP/thesis coach, says the visible transformation during a single day is one of the most powerful outcomes. “Students feel they’ve achieved real, measurable progress from the beginning of the day to the end,” he said. “Writing can be a lonely and tiring process, and we want to make sure that students know that they are not alone.”

Graduate school writing may be an individual effort, but the Write-a-Thon reframes it as a shared experience grounded in accountability, momentum and mutual support. As GSS consultant Taeja McKoy put it, “Sometimes just being in the presence of other students who are working hard can be the encouragement and motivation needed.”

The impact has extended beyond a single day. Interest in ongoing GSS programming, including weekly Coffee and Writing sessions, has grown as students look for ways to sustain steady progress throughout the term.

The next  (google form) Graduate Write-a-Thon will be held in a hybrid format on Thursday, March 19 (external link) . Grad students are invited to bring drafts, readings and research notes and can expect a quiet, distraction-free environment, individual writing support, lunch and coffee, and a community committed to putting words on the page together.