How To Write In Sprints and Why
When I first started writing, I would sit at the computer and work on whatever chapter I was on. After about an hour, I’d get tired and need to stop for a while and do something else. Out of curiosity, I started checking how many words I typed during that hour.
It averaged about 600 words.
I started getting discouraged. How long was it going to take me to get through an entire novel at that rate? Something had to change. I had to find a different way to go about my writing that would help speed up the process.
On one of the writing forums I’m on, there was a thread where people sprinted together. I spent an hour reading through it, talked to a writing buddy of mine and we decided to give it a shot.
I was in charge of timing us, and I set an alarm to ring after 15 minutes. Once the timer started, I was off.
There is something about racing against a ticking clock that motivates you to get moving faster. When the alarm went off, I stopped and checked my word count. I had typed over 400 words.
I was hooked.
Fifteen minutes flies by, and it is easy to fit into a daily schedule. I learned by doing little writing sprints like this, I could accomplish almost three times more than I could by sitting at the computer for an hour straight.
Find Someone To Compete With
Once we tried the first sprint, we then tried another one and attempted to beat our first count. It was just a little bit more motivation to block out all other thoughts and focus solely on the story developing on the screen.
That worked great, and our numbers improved.
Another thing my writing buddy and I did was to compete with each other. Who was going to have the best word count after 15 minutes? Who would have the best word count after 4 sprints?
Writing can be very lonely at times, and it helps to have someone in your corner to motivate you.
There were times in the morning that I would be tired and not want to write, but then my buddy would send me a message saying that she had a free 15 minute window and would I sprint with her. In most cases, one sprint would lead to another and before I…
