Yesterday I tried some 5-minute writing sprints at the
computer on my story. (Yes, I'm still aspiring to be faster on the computer.) I did well
the first time, but at each of the three sprints I did thereafter I got worse
and worse. Clearly I’ll have to practice word-sprinting. After some time, I expect I will try
out 10-minute sprints. But I’ll
practice 5-minute sprints for, oh, maybe a month first.
There are a lot of writers that say writing sprints are a
really great way to get in some writing in small slots of time, and I agree,
but I’m feeling like there are some factors that go into a successful sprint.
If I were to sit down at any time and write for 5 minutes
straight, I could do it, but to write 5 minutes on my story, I need to do some
prep work first. If I’m stuck on a
scene, writing for 5 minutes is going to be kinda lame because, after all, I’m stuck. Stuck-ness isn’t going to change just because I’ve started a
timer going.
I think that in order to do a writing sprint for 5 minutes,
at the very least I need to know about 5 minutes text-worth of what’s going to
happen next in my story. Which
means I need to do some thinking first.
But what if I closed every writing session by jotting down a
little summary of what I think is supposed to happen next? Then, the next time I start I’ll have a
thread to pull on immediately, instead of having to brainstorm first.
Behold, an analogy! If you knit, you don’t want to end the knitting
session by cutting your yard and tucking the yarn end in an inaccessible
place. You leave the yarn attached
to the project so you can get back into it easily. Or, if you are changing colors, you connect up the new color
and then leave it for the next time.
You can do the same for yourself when you’re writing. Keep
connected to your story by leaving a summary of what’s happening next to work
off of when you come back to it.
It’s like a little story thread out dangling so there’s something for
you to pull on.
Some writers leave a thread dangling by leaving a sentence
unfinished because it is natural to want to finish an unfinished sentence. Ta-da, you’re off and running
again.
Personally, I’ve tried this and I think there must be an art
to it because about half the time I have no idea what I intended to say in the
sentence, and I am not sure how to finish it. But I have a bit more luck with jotted notes about what is
supposed to happen next in the story.
How's your sprinting?
