For this series of six swaps, we’ll read two essays related to writing and/or reading from The Electric Typewriter website. Sometimes the essays will be about the same topic, at other times the advice and styles may conflict. The idea is to get us reading more about the craft of writing in order to grow as writers.

You’ll read the two essays, write your takeaways and thoughts in a notebook and mail it to your partner. Aim for at least a paragraph (mine have been two or more pages!) For the next rounds, you’ll write in the notebook you received in the last swap and send it along. The idea would be to get some consistency going and your original notebook returned to you before the end of the year.

Get a notebook, softbound preferred for mailing, that’s approximately 8.5x5.5 inches with 80-100 pages in it. (The size is a sheet of paper folded in half.) These notebooks are generally sold in 2-, 3- or 5-packs at places like Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart and Amazon and will fit inside a 6x9 manila envelope to mail.

This will be a six-part swap. This swap is the fifth pairing.Feel free to read the essays from the previous rounds and any of the others on The Electric Typewriter. Each swap will have a pairing of two essays. I provide direct links to the essays as well as a one-sentence bio on the authors with a link if you want more information.

You can write longhand (legibly, please!) or type and adhere your responses to the page(s) in the notebook. Please be sure to date your entry and include the authors and titles of the essays in your response.

Fifth Pairing: Joy Williams and Joan Didion

“Uncanny the Singing that Comes from Certain Husks” by Joy Williams and “On Keeping a Notebook” by Joan Didion

Williams is an essayist and novelist known for “The Quick and the Dead,” numerous short stories and environmental writing.

Didion writes essays, novels, screenplays, and literary criticism and was awarded a National Medal of Arts and Humanities by President Barack Obama.

The series:

First pairing: J.K. Rowling and Stephen King.

Second pairing: Annie Dillard and George Orwell.

Third pairing: David Foster Wallace and Cheryl Strayed

Fourth pairing: Elizabeth Gilbert and Neil Gaiman

Snail mail. USA. Group membership.