Things I’ve Learned from NaNoWriMo: Sprinting

Traveling into the dark abyss called my archives, I found that I’ve written about this subject before. But at the time, I called it spurts. I also actually stopped doing it until NaNoWriMo.

Yay me.

Blog post on writing in sprints, take two.

Recap:

Week 1 – Saving Your Work

Week 2 – Your Writing Time

Week 3 – Go with the Flow

Week 4 – That Perfect Word

Week 5 – Every Word Counts

Week 6 – Habit

Today’s Goal:

• Discuss how to write in sprints
• Try it out for yourself
• Why are all my bullet points for this section only two points long? 😂

I am not letting myself read the old post until I’ve written this one because I want to see how I now view this method of writing without being influenced by my old view. So let’s jump right in.

So, Julia, what even is word sprinting?

I’m so glad that I made you ask in this post for me, my friend. 😜

In word sprints, you compete with other people to see how many words you can write in the designated amount of time. Whoever writes the most wins.

There are helpful websites out there that allow you to compete with other people in sprints, like myWriteClub. (not sponsored) But you can always do it just in a document for a certain amount of time. Easy.

Now, the point of sprints is actually to encourage you to try to write as fast as possible so you can beat your fellow writer. However, I personally hate the competition. Just trying to beat someone else make it harder for me to write. Super distracting. That is, of course, my own personal opinion. Some writers love to write competitively.

I bet you’re wondering why I’m even talking about writing in sprints if I don’t like doing them.

The answer to that: I actually like sprints; I just don’t like writing competitively. Get it?

The reason I love sprints is that it allows me to work against a clock. I’m not against other writers; I’m just a writer trying to get as much done I as I can. But because I’m not actually trying to write as fast as I possibly can, I am not just writing trash.

I personally like sprints because of that clock. Just having one there, ticking down the time, really helps me to stay focused, and off of Pinterest or away from writing blog posts. And that is the biggest reason I love sprints. (am I the only one starting to feel like this post is kind of confusing and rambly? 😂) It’s that fact that it keeps you focused on your writing that makes it so great. Who cares how long you sit in a chair to do writing if you’re not actually writing? No one. Not that anyone actually ever cares ever, but pffffft you know what I mean.

Another great thing about this is that you don’t have to write for as long each day. Rember in the last post how I talked about writing habits? And the one before when I spoke about your prime writing time? Imagine putting these all together. You are writing at the time of day you get the most words out at, and since you write at this time every day, your brain is ready and revving to do it for, while focused for that short amount of time. Suddenly, you’ve got a lot more words in your book.

When you sprint, you write for a short amount of time and then take a shorter break. I like to sprint for 25 minutes and take a 5-minute break. You can do this on your own if you want. For that designated amount of time, you’re not allowed to do anything else except write. (that’s why I like to wait until I’ve done dishes in the morning to start writing; I hate stopping when I’m ‘in the zone’, so to speak, just to do some dishes. *tisk*) During your break, you’re not allowed to do any writing. Once and a while, though, I do get so into my writing that I don’t even stop for a break. If the water is running good and fast, don’t turn off your faucet.

My friend, we have officially reached the end of my series on what I learned from NaNoWriMo. Maybe I’ll do another one after this year’s? 😉 I hope you enjoyed it and learned a lot! 😃

Now it’s your turn!

Try out writing in a sprint. It can be with others, against others, or even just by yourself. Here’s another cool thing: I think that, after a while of writing in sprints for the same amount of time, your mind gets used to writing for that same amount of time, and it gets better at going to the full amount of time. 😉

Do you like to write in sprints?

Have you ever heard of myWriteClub?

Did you like this series?

-Julia

Photo by Alejandro Escamilla on Unsplash