Why Writing in Spurts is Important

Hey there!

Have you ever heard – or thought – about writing in spurts? (Well, you’ve obviously heard about it just now, so yes, you have.😜)

Do you write in between your work? 3 minutes here, 10 minutes there…?

Or do you sit down at your computer, and write for 1 hour straight?

Which one of these is the best way to go about writing?

Besides typing on your computer, what else do you like to do on it?

Scroll through social media…

Read other blogs…

Delete emails…

There are lots of things we can now do, courtesy of modern technology. And they’re all great!

But when you’re writing, you want to write, not scroll through Pinterest. But those distractions on your computer can be hard to ignore.

Even if you’re writing on paper, there are distractions that can be hard to ignore! Not everything is tech.

When you’re going to write for an hour

When you sit down, planning to write for an hour, you get off to a great start. But after a while, you want to check out your social media, and see what that new email is. Or you need to get up and grab something to drink.

It could be any number of things.

So what should we do?

An hour is a long amount of time to give all your attention to one thing. So instead, you’re going to break it up into bite-size chunks.

We’re going to hold on to that rush that you get at the start of writing. When you sit down to write for that hour, set a timer for twenty minutes. For twenty minutes, you’re going to write. No social media. No emails. No drinks. Just you, and words.

When that timer goes off, you need to reset it – this time, for five minutes. For those five minutes, you can get up, and walk around. Grab that drink. Scroll through social media. Check your email. But you cannot work on your writing.

When the five minutes are up, set your timer again for twenty minutes, and do more writing. You’re writing in spurts, and you won’t get distracted so easily.

It’s not set in stone that you need to write for twenty minutes, and take a break for five. You can write for ten minutes, and take a break for eight. Do whatever works best for you.

When you have one huge chunk of writing time looming over your head, your writing can slow down. Its quality level can also go down.

When you write in those short spurts, the quality and quantity go up.

And guess what? You won’t spend a bunch of that time wondering what you’re going to write because we’ve already outlined it! You know exactly what you need to write. And this is the point of time where you get to pick what part of your book you want to write today and write it! You’ll enjoy it, have good quality, and lots of it! Yay! 😄

When you write in between work

When you can only fit in a few minutes of writing here and there, it may seem like you’re never going to get anywhere with your book. Believe me, I’ve been there. (I may only be a kid without a paying job, but I still have school. And sometimes, it can get verybusy, without much time for writing.)

But you know what? You are making progress, and you are slowly but surely walking toward success. If you can only write on the train to and from work, and it’s a five-minute train, that’s ten minutes. But if you manage to scribble down some stuff during lunch for ten minutes, that’s twenty. The little things add up! Always remember that.

And you know what? By doing this, you are already doing your writing in spurts! With your handy-dandy outline in mind, you’re getting your quality stuff done. You don’t need the outline memorized; maybe take a look at it in the morning before getting going with your day. See what you’re going to write.

I try and write in spurts. It works, I promise. I get a bunch of writing done, and then I don’t have to force myself to stay away from the internet. I take a break, follow that other writer on Pinterest, check out that bloggers new post, whatever. I get that want to do something else out of my system, and then write my story better!

I think this is probably the most valuable tip I’ve shared with you so far.

My Book

As for my book this week, it’s coming along way better than the last week. (Yippie!) I am done Chapter Two and Three and am excited to get more into the story.

Also, this past week I went on a trip to BC! I love to travel because as a writer, I can get ideas from new places and new people. Airports are great places for this, I discovered.

And, my birthday was last Friday! I’m 14 now!

Writing a book right now? How’s it going? Tell me in the comments below!

Do you have any specific subjects in writing that you’d want me to see posts about? I would love it if you’d shoot me an email and tell me; I’ll pull together a post on it and help you as best as I can! 😃 (And you’ll remain anonymous, no worries)

-Julia

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