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

by Chris Fox

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...