Probably not. But can I try? Sure.
Fourteen minutes ago, I clicked on the Zoom link to join the 24-Hour Writing Sprint presented by the London Writers’ Salon. Around the world and at many different times in the day, writers logged in to participate in one hour writing sprint sessions around the clock.
I decided to use my first sprint to tell you about it and also catch you up on how things have been going this week. It’ll be a quick one as I’m wanting to get it completed an posted in the first sprint.
What’s a writing sprint? Why would I sign up to do them for 24 hours? If you haven’t already checked out my last post on body doubling, that’s a good start but here’s the Coles Notes – one way to work with my ADHD brain to get things done is to do them with others, sort of. I join online sessions where everyone is working on something and it makes it easier for me to sit down and work on something too. The writing sprint version is like body doubling on steroids – not only are you doing it with other people, the challenge is to write as much as you can in short chunks of time (generally between 5-20 minutes). These types of sessions have helped me crest over 50,000 words this week and I’d like to get at least 30,000 more before the end of the month.
Speaking of which, I am now an official NaNoWriMo Winner! Having pushed over the 50,000 mark on Wednesday with a couple of effective Shut Up & Write sessions, I have officially succeeded to their standard. That said, I have only written about 1/3 of my novel so I’m very aware that most of the words I have now will not make it through editing. I had also set my personal goal to be 80,000 words so I’m going to just keep on going!
So, as the clock ticks along to our first hour almost complete, I need to put the polishing touches on this blog, get it posted, take a quick break and get on to my next project – the writer’s bio – exercises from another great session from the Federation of BC Writers Writing Intensive this week. It’s been a great (and busy!) week of learning more about going from the writing to publishing your work and have learned about contracts, querying, editing, submitting to contests, social media, you name it – so many great nuggets of learning!
With my first hour almost complete, I’m feeling good about what I’ve accomplished. Let’s see how the rest of the hours go.
Wish me luck! I’m a little too old to be pulling all-nighters and I’m not sure how long I can last but am hoping to do at least 12 of the 1 hour sessions. I have a long list of things I’d like to accomplish including my novel, this blog, reviewing my Act 1 draft and perhaps a short story or two. I wanted to ensure I had a variety of options pre-loaded so I don’t waste the hour trying to find something to do and also know my brain will need some variety as the hours go on.
Do you have ideas to help be ensure I can get the most out of this time? I’m stocked up with food, coffee and lots of plans and ideas. Let’s see how it goes!
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