Sprinting to Write

In the novel writing world, SPRINTING is writing as fast as you can in a set amount of time to see how many words you can write. 

Usually, you are sprinting with another writer. It's a contest, but not really. When we sprint, we always congratulate the other person on their accomplishments. I first learned about sprinting through NaNoWriMo, but I found a group on Facebook that I joined, which I prefer over Twitter. 

Now, of course, you COULD write utter nonsense. 

However, if you think about or brainstorm what you want to write ahead of time, sprinting can be the best way to allow your brain to just take off running with that topic. You'd be surprised what your brain will come up with in such a short amount of time. 


Last Saturday, in 1 1/2 hours or 3 sprints, I wrote 1800 words. If I did this every day, I would write about 10 books a year! 

That's a bit unrealistic, considering I don't write every day.

However, if you sprinted once a week for 1 1/2 hours and averaged 1800 words each time, you'd write a novel a year. That's not bad for an hour and a half of writing every week!

What Strategies Do You Use When You Get Stuck As a Writer?

As a teacher of writing, I get this all the time from my students. It's difficult to get unstuck, but sometimes, especially when you're writing a novel, you have to let your ideas bounce around in your brain and run into other ideas and thoughts until your characters work out their struggles for you. Or you could just go with the flow of your writing, and not resist what the characters want to do.

For instance, one scene I just finished tonight, I had actually envisioned when I first tried to write the chapter, but I edited it from my mind and tried to come up with something different. I wasn't listening to what my character had to do, what he was driven to do. Maybe I just didn't want him to fail. But I knew he had to fail to put everyone in more peril than they were previously. 

There are some strategies that I use to get myself unstuck. Here they are:

1. Read another book. Get completely immersed in another world, the language of the author, the flow of ideas. Now look to see how many other books that author has written. Have they written more than you? Then, start writing again, so people will get immersed in the worlds you create and your language.
2. Brainstorm in a journal. I think about the place, the senses, and what I envision happening in that place with a certain character or characters. Sometimes the act of writing in ink in a book, another medium, can get your mind working differently, less editorially, more creatively.
3. Freewrite. I did this a bunch of times with this chapter. It really helped me because I was so stuck, I didn't even have anything envisioned in some places. So, I typed as fast as I could for five or ten minutes. If you're a NaNoWriMo writer, this would be referred to as a "writing sprint."
4. Go to a movie based on a book you've read. Similar to getting immersed in a book, but seeing someone else's interpretation of the author's words may get your mind thinking more like a director. You see the big picture or you see details brought to life in a different way to convey the same idea, emotion or scene. I recently saw Divergent by Virginia Roth.
   
5. Take a shower. My best ideas come to me in the shower. I actually read an article on the Internet about why taking a shower or driving seems to open up creativity. Both are kind of routine activities, which puts your mind into an Alpha state.(I've read a lot about brain activity because of my main character, Cassie, and her mind-reading abilities.)  Alpha brainwaves are more relaxed and open to think about ideas without censorship. Theta brainwaves lead to drowsiness and possible extrasensory perception. 

NEW COVER FOR DARKNESS DESCENDS

I spent most of today redesigning and uploading Darkness Descends on Create Space for Amazon paperback and in eBook on Kindle Direct. 

I forgot that it takes about a week for the updated book to show up on the Amazon website. Even the eBook is not the updated one yet.  WHOOPS! Well, I guess I'll do another update about that. 

 Anyway, still proud of how the print cover turned out.

NEW BOOK COVER for DREAMING DANGEROUSLY!

I just spent this evening redesigning my book cover for Create Space, so that my eBooks and my paperback books have the same "look." It's so much easier to design an eBook cover because all you have to worry about is the front cover, and you don't have to worry about edges nearly as much. I had to rearrange my name, move over my title, etc. I also came up with a more succinct back cover blurb. 

Whoops, I just remembered that my inner book pictures will have to be changed to reflect the new covers! AAAGH! That will be my next project!