The Beauty of Writing Sprints

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I love a good writing sprint/word war. It must be the competitive spirit in me or the fact that I thrive on the writing fellowship–whether that’s with one person or a dozen.

I’ve been taking part regularly in the Winter Writing Festival’s writing sprints. Every evening, we enter a chat room where the moderator sets a timer for 20 minutes. Then we write or edit as much as we can in that time frame. It’s amazing because I’m almost always surprised at how fast the time passes. I get so caught up in the scene I’m writing that time doesn’t affect me.

Of course, for me, quantity doesn’t always (or ever in some cases) equal quality. Right now I’m on the first draft of this new project and it’s pretty heinous 😛 There’s going to be A LOT of editing involved…and a great deal more world building as I still haven’t had the chance to develop that too much yet. But I’m focusing on getting the general story out, even if it’s subpar writing. It’ll at least be on paper…er, a Word doc. 😛 The goal is to get this done by June but as I’m already more than 10% done in a week, perhaps I can get it done by the start of spring–or even by the end of the Winter Writing Festival.

I have to admit, I’ll be saddened once this festival is over. I really enjoy this sprints and much of it has to do with I just talking with the other writers. It’s energizing. 🙂

Now, if only I could keep this up on my own…it’s so difficult to start up when it’s all up to you. But that’s what I’m going to have to do as a writer. Unfortunately I can’t rely on other people to get me going. It’s nice to have these sprints though while they last.

So, here’s my question for you: do you enjoy a good writing sprint? Have you ever participated in one? Would it help you or hinder you?

Obligatory NaNo Update and Word Wars

I’m officially past the 20K mark at 21,367. Very, very soon I’ll be hitting the halfway point 🙂

I also have to say that engaging in word wars with a fellow writer during this time is especially great for getting the story out and duct taping that inner editor’s mouth shut–at least for a short period of time. I generally engage in one of these battles once or twice a week with my younger sister who is also taking part in NaNo.

What is a word war? Well, you pretty much see who can write the most in a given period of time. Sis and I generally do half hour increments, though sometimes they are a little longer (we always specify the ending time during our phone call). The moment we hang up, we type as fast as the fingers can carry us.

The first word war I beat my sister with a count of a little more than 1100. Yes, 1100 in 30 minutes IS possible (I triple checked it). This time around, sis won with a total of 1400 (I had a little less than 1000). We battled for about 40 minutes. Getting a high word count in a short amount of time is certainly possible if you’re willing to be a little mean to that inner editor of yours.

NaNo Update for the Last 3 Days

I realize I have temporarily slacked off in my daily word counts.

Anyway, on Monday, I didn’t do any writing, as writing over 4K pretty much zapped any sort of thinking from me, so I took a break.

Yesterday I fully expected to only write my normal 2K…and ended up almost doubling it again 😛 I didn’t realize I was caught up in the scene until my hands started to hurt and I checked the word count.

So I’m taking another break today; I may write a little more later tonight, but it probably won’t be much more than 1K.

Because of my two 4K days, I pulled ahead of my sister in word count, which has irked her 😛 However she’s catching up fairly quickly…

Perhaps I should not take that break…

Official word count: 28,170

(BTW, that word count is only the “second half” or so of the novel; I think total my novel would be right around 75K or so, but that’s a rough guess)

Day 2 of the NaNo Adventure

I crossed the 4K mark today (thanks to a little bit of haiku, which added a few dozen words). I also challenged my little sister to a word war while at my write-in.

Of course, she won. 😛 724 versus 901 in 30 minutes. And of course she is past the 6K mark, but she’s been really working ahead since she’s in college and has classes during the week that she has to focus on. Still, I’m very impressed 🙂

Anyway, official count for today: 4,218. Just shy of 2K by about 18 words. Still, it’s close enough for me.

I must say the write-ins are very beneficial to be a part of–it helps get the creative juices flowing when around other NaNoers.

I’m hoping to go to a few more write-ins this week, but not sure how many. I figure it’s better for me to go to them than to stay home and be tempted by my birthday present–the Wii Fit. I’ve been playing that a lot the past two days…and actually feeling kind of sore from it 😛 Apparently my balance is awful though; it even asked me if I had trouble tripping over my feet when I walk! (Embarrasingly enough, I do…clumsiness is inherent trait in me, passed down from my father).

Well that’s all for today; my wet hair is drying quick and if I don’t use the hair dryer, it will be a mess tomorrow!