Body Doubling My Way to 50,000 Words

I just passed the middle of the month and I’m sitting at over 35,000 words. I’m happy with that although I know I need to step it up if I’m going to reach my personal goal of 80,000 (yes, I know the NaNoWriMo goal is 50,000 and I’m on track to a successful month). I haven’t been focused on rewriting or editing, just trying to get the words out. I know that I will lose most of these words in the editing process but it is more than I’ve ever written and I’m starting to feel like a ‘real’ writer!

I think every person who sits down and starts writing wonders when they’ll feel like a writer. I thought it would take me longer to get there. I’m not sure how long I’ll continue to feel the label if things don’t continue to progress but for right now, I’ll call myself a writer. (Admittedly, mostly in my head, but this is a big step for me.) Many people don’t feel like a writing until they start sharing their work, being published, hiring an editor or agent, or writing a query letter. I thought I would be someone who wouldn’t feel like a writer until I had a hard copy of a published book in my hands but this week, just knowing I’ve written 35,000 words in a novel makes me feel like a writer. (Or maybe because it’s all I’ve been doing this month but let’s stick with it being a label of success.)

What changed for me was sitting down and writing, more and more on the same project. I didn’t give up. I had to change course a bit early on and have realized that there will still be more story changes to come but I’ve just kept writing.

I’ve been working on short stories and the act of writing, editing (and editing and editing), finishing and posting stories started to make me feel like I was moving past the dabbling stage. Those stories still felt like projects, homework, one off assignments, not real writing. But when I stepped back as people in my different discussion groups were talking about the murky middle (of the month challenge, of the book), about losing steam or facing challenges including dwindling motivation, I realized I was doing something different than I had done before. I was still writing and more importantly, wanted to keep writing.

Now, there’s a lot of things working in my favour this month. I’m not working right now and have no other projects that have to get done so I can focus all of my energy to writing. The Federation of BC Writers (FBCW) is hosting both a November Writing Challenge and a Writing Intensive – Ready to Publish. There’s also been a social, book club and writing circles during the same time so November has been schedule busy with writing workshops, actual writing, and learning more about getting a piece from your brain to publication. All of this helps to keep me focused on writing and reminded to write every day. (Which I don’t, by the way, generally the very first piece of feedback for NaNoWriMo-ers.)

All of this has helped but the number one thing I’ve learned about myself is that I can’t write by myself. It’s an interesting thing because I can’t (don’t like to) write with others – neither in my personal space or working on the same document. I want to decide when I write, what I write, where I write. If there’s a choice, I want to make it for myself. What I also know of myself is that I don’t adhere to my own deadlines or plans if I’ve just made them for myself. They’re arbitrary to my brain and therefore don’t really work to push the ADHD deadline super-power of hyper-focus.

I first successfully body doubled over Facetime when a friend moved away and we would spend a couple of hours together, each doing our cooking or cleaning. Not only was it an easier ongoing chat – more like hanging out together than a forced conversation to maintain. I got some housework done (which I hated and would always struggle with) and had a better visit with my friend because I’m terrible on the phone.

There are three different ways I’ve been using body doubling over the course of this month. As part of the FBCW Writing Challenge, there are writing sprints held three times each week. A writing sprint is a timed writing period and they are normally stacked over the course of the hour. My favourites are when we ramp up and down – 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, 10 min, 5 min – you write for the period and stop (mid sentence) at the end of the sprint. My ADHD brain loves the gamification of seeing what I can do within the time limit. The other sprints I’ve been doing are with Dabble who has sprints running Monday to Friday at 10:30 (MST). They use this free site of theirs – Word Sprints (you can set up private or public sprints on this site) – to set up 3 x 20 minute sprints and everyone writes in the site (and then copy and paste your words to your own document) so you can see how many words the whole group is doing. I can write 2000-2500 words during either of these sprint sessions.

The other resource that helps is Shut Up & Write. You can go look for a time to join up with others every day. Yesterday, I knew I wanted to write more but obviously wanting wasn’t enough to get me to write so I went to their site and found a session that would be starting in about 20 minutes. I signed up and joined and managed to get in another 2000 words. I have three groups regular groups on my weekly calendar. There are no charges, maximum or minimum number of sessions and you can RSVP, just follow a group or just pop in and out when you want to. Sometimes I sprint during these sessions, sometimes I decide to edit, rewrite or do research.

At the beginning and/or end, we introduce ourselves and say what we’re working on and it can be anything, only about half in my experience are writing. There’s been people do their taxes, completing their mail in voting package, writing academic papers (one woman is working on her thesis) or even organizing paperwork. When we recap, those who are doing something other than writing are feeling successful to have accomplished something they have been putting off. (So don’t think you have to be a writer, or even writing to participate. You can have your camera on or off.)

So, as we wrap up the last couple of weeks I’m going to make sure I have at least one writing (body doubling) session each day and perhaps ramp up to a couple per day. I recently saw a Facebook post about a 24 hour write-in next weekend and I’m considering it although I’m pretty sure I won’t last all 24 hours! I’m feeling good about hitting 50,000 words by next weekend and still have my line of sight to 80,000. With how much I’ve written and how much more I know I need to write, I think my first draft is going to be 100,000+ words because I’m typing memories and I just let myself go with it. Once it’s all out of my brain, I can go back and find the key themes and plot points and tighten things up.

Have you ever used body doubling? Do you think it’s something that could work for you? What are the kinds of things you would find it most helpful for?