For most of us, writing a novel is more a marathon than a sprint. The problem is that for many people who want to write, the idea of the marathon is just too intimidating. Writing eighty thousand words is unimaginable. This is why you so often hear, ‘Oh, I’ll write a novel someday, probably when I’m retired and have more time’. For most people, that magical ‘time’ never comes and the novel never gets written.
The idea behind a writing sprint is push away all those time-related obstacles and just write. It doesn’t have to be for long, it doesn’t have to be planned, it doesn’t even have to be any good. Words on the page is the only aim. Once you let go of the idea of having to start at Chapter One, you’ll feel a lot freer.
How to get started
1. Set a timer. Ten minutes, half an hour, whatever you think you can manage right now.
2. Write whatever comes to you. Don’t worry about the structure, don’t worry about where it fits in the overall narrative. Just write.
3. Don’t edit as you go. Just leave it.
4. When the timer goes off, step away from your computer. Perhaps take a quick peek at the word count.
5. Take a break, then if you have more time, or you’re in the zone, keep going. If not, shut down and walk away.
Think of writing skills like you do your muscles. If you use them, they will develop and your stamina will increase. You might find that after half a dozen of these sprints, you have something resembling a chapter, a character starting to develop, or the outline of a plot.
If you’re looking for inspiration, there are some great websites offering writing prompts for just this sort of exercise. Some even tailor them to the genre you want to write.
For fiction writing, broadly speaking, the two things you want to practise are descriptive and narrative writing, so look for prompts that will help you develop those skills.
Prompts can start a couple of ways. There’s the sentence starter prompt, which can be a great way to warm up your narration skills. They might look something like this:
‘The gates to the mansion loomed in front of her . . .’
‘I opened the door, expecting to see the boxes piled up neatly against the wall. Instead, . . .’
Or, you can look for prompts asking you to describe something, like:
Write about the view from your kitchen window, or the view from your dream kitchen window.
Write about how you felt on your last day of school, or on the first day of a new job.
If you’re looking for daily writing prompts, check out writersdigest.com.
Happy sprinting!