5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter

by Chris Fox

Your micro sprint will last for exactly five minutes. That’s a nice bite-size chunk of time, and it should let you focus on just one scene. More importantly, it’s manageable for your brain. Writing stamina is built just like muscle. You wouldn’t start off running a marathon, or bench pressing 315 pounds. Nor would you try to sit down for an hour and just write if you’ve never done it before.

Open your word processor of choice to a blank document Turn off wifi and/or internet on your computer. Put on mood music appropriate to the scene you’re about to write. Jot down a quick paragraph describing the scene or topic you’re about to write about. These words do not count towards the micro sprint. DO NOT STOP

Exercise #1- Micro-Sprints This exercise will be ongoing. Create a daily reminder in whatever app you use (a calendar program, the reminder app on your smartphone or any other method will work). This reminder is for a 5 minute writing sprint every day. You’ll record your start time, end time and number of words written every day for the first week. Most importantly, you will record your WPH as explained above. That doesn’t mean you can’t write for longer periods, but we’re starting small. Once you’ve mastered 5 minutes for a week we’ll take it to 10. Eventually you’ll reach 30, which is my optimum sprint length. You may find that yours is longer or shorter, but this exercise is the first step in answering that question.

Your tortoise enclosure is more than just a physical location, though that is part of it. It’s a time and place your mind must associate with writing. When you’re there, you write. It’s that simple. This is why I don’t recommend writing in the same space you do other activities. If you watch Netflix or mindlessly surf the web in the same chair where you write, it will be that much harder to buckle down and work when it’s time to work.

You need a pre-defined start time and end time, and these times do not necessarily need to correspond with just one sprint.

If eating a frog is the toughest thing you have to do every day, then you should start with that or that frog will croak at you all day. Do the hardest thing you need to do first thing, because then you know it got done.

Do your writing first thing, before the pressures of the day begin to mount. Eat that frog, people.

Exercise #2- Set Up Your Tortoise Enclosure Take a good look at your schedule and pick a time block that you’re going to devote to writing. You need to define a start time and end time, and you need to pick a place where you will not be disturbed.

actually write out a contract with yourself. ‘I will write at my computer from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. every day.’ Writing things down has a powerful psychological effect, and makes them real to your subconscious in a way simply thinking them does not.

If you want to write your own spreadsheet I’d suggest using the following fields: Date Words Sprint Type Start Time End time Words Per Hour

Exercise #6- Full Sprints Set a 20 minute timer and write for the entire time. Do not stop for any reason.

I ran across Elizabeth Ann West’s thread about training her Dragon on Kboards.com. It changed my life.

Exercise #9- Measure Your Progress Take a look at your graphs in the spreadsheet. What is your current WPH and WPD for each category? Now set a goal for where you’d like them to be in 30 days and enter that into the tool you’re using to track your progress.

Exercise #10- Reward Yourself Join the herd. Pick at least one forum you aren’t currently going to. Make an account there, and post an introduction thread. If you aren’t a member of the Writer’s Cafe at Kboards I’d recommend that one to start. If you are then you can choose anywhere from Reddit to Absolute Write. Get involved! Bonus: Convince writers in your community to start running writing sprints. If they already are, then join in!

The name of the book that changed my mind? Talent is Overrated.

When you tell your brain that you want to become a best-selling author anything that will make that a reality suddenly becomes significant. You’ll notice opportunities and tools that you never would have seen before, all through the simple act of daydreaming about what you want to achieve.

Lifelong Writing Habit),

Exercise #11- Mindset Get out a pen and paper or fire up a text document. Write down where you see yourself in five years if everything went perfectly. You’ve sold X million books, gotten movie deals…whatever your dream is. What kind of car do you drive? Where do you live? How is your life different? Write several paragraphs about what you want. Bonus: After you’ve completed the above spend 10 minutes thinking about it. You can do this during your commute, or in the shower. It doesn’t matter. SEE where you want to be. The results may shock you.

Exercises Below you’ll find all the exercises listed throughout the book for easy reference. * * * Exercise #1- Micro-Sprints This exercise will be ongoing. Create a daily reminder in whatever app you use (a calendar program, the reminder app on your smartphone or any other method will work). This reminder is for a 5 minute writing sprint every day. You’ll record your start time, end time and number of words written every day for the first week. Most importantly, you will record your WPH as explained above. That doesn’t mean you can’t write for longer periods, but we’re starting small. Once you’ve mastered 5 minutes for a week we’ll take it to 10. Eventually you’ll reach 30, which is my optimum sprint length. You may find that yours is longer or shorter, but this exercise is the first step in answering that question. You can use the spreadsheet I created (chrisfoxwrites.com/5kwph) to track your sprints. * * * Exercise #2- Set Up Your Tortoise Enclosure Take a good look at your schedule and pick a time block that you’re going to devote to writing. You need to define a start time and end time, and you need to pick a place where you will not be disturbed. If there is a chance of being disturbed, inform your friends, family or co-workers that you need privacy. Get some headphones if needed. Once you’ve mentally defined this space, actually write out a contract with yourself. ‘I will write at my computer from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. every day.’ Writing things down has a powerful...

Exercise #6- Full Sprints Set a 20 minute timer and write for the entire time. Do not stop for any reason. If you get stuck, that’s okay. Refer to your scene notes if you need to. Once you are done, record your total words. Well done! Record your sprint in your tracker and note your words per hour. This is day one. In a few weeks that number will be significantly higher! * * * Exercise #7- Increase Your Speed Download a typing program and use it to figure out your current typing speed. Set a goal of where you want that speed to be in a month, then check in weekly to see what your speed is. Bonus: Download Dragon Dictate (or the PC equivalent) and force yourself to use it for one week. It will change your life forever. * * * Exercise #8- Editing Sprint Perform a content edit on the scene you created in the last chapter. Yes, this breaks the ‘write the entire draft before you edit’ rule, but for the sake of this exercise it will work. Plus, here’s the twist. Either add a new character to the scene you wrote, or change something fundamental about a character (gender or age). Record your WPH. Bonus: Do a proofread edit for the same scene. Record your WPH for both edits and note the difference. How does your scene look at the end? How much time did you spend writing and editing the entire thing? * * * Exercise #9- Measure Your Progress Take a look at your graphs in the spreadsheet. What is your current WPH and WPD for each category? Now set a goal for where you’d like them to b...