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

by Chris Fox

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...