It’s all about speed
Are you a competitive person? Do you thrive in your writing when you know you are conquering goals or besting others in writing progress? Sprints may be something you enjoy doing! No, I don’t mean lacing on your sneakers and heading to the track. I mean stretching out those finger muscles and preparing to type at the speed of light.
While some authors prefer to sit back and relax, taking their time to construct every sentence with masterful detail, others prefer to smash out the words as fast as they can, damn the grammar errors! Which ever way you prefer to do it, there is no right or wrong, only words on the page.
Grab a partner!
Here’s the sitch. To have a proper sprint it makes sense to have at least one partner to sprint with, thus increasing the feeling of competitiveness. If you don’t have a partner, no worries. You can race against yourself and your fastest writing speed (words per minute) or word count during a set time. Make your writing space comfortable for you to write, no matter what that looks like, from a busy cafe to a cozy nook in the library, or curled up in bed dictating. Then set a timer annnnnd go!
Type as fast as you can!
The object is to log as many words in a given time frame as humanly possible. Forget the grammar errors or whether what you wrote makes sense. Leave that for after the timer goes off, and focus on telling your story. When you’re finished, count your words easily by highlighting within MS Word the amount you typed and let it tell you how many words you got.
Another excellent way to keep track of sprint word counts and writing speed is to use a sprint bot. Softwares like Discord and Slack, traditionally thought to be only for gamers, now have branched out into the professional world and have all sorts of apps to install to help you with your writing. My favorite is Sprinto, a lovable pirate with a squid for a hat. If you have a Discord server, invite him to join, or ask to be invited to MK’s discord server!
Build relationships
Sprinting with other writers is a terrific way to build relationships within the writing community and may end up giving you the advantage of having a critique partner or future beta reader. Set regular times to meet and chat about your writing and race each other! It’s also an amazing way to improve your typing speed and accuracy. Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it does help you improve!
There are definitely other ways to keep tabs on your sprints, so whatever you choose to use, keep sprinting! Get those words out!
~Martha Reineke
MK Editing Services LLC