How to Do Writing Sprints: An Easy Guide for Writers

This post is all about how to do writing sprints.

When you feel like you’re dragging your feet through a writing session, writing sprints can be a HUGE help. Knowing how to do writing sprints means you’ll have a great tool in your back pocket for those moments.

Writing sprints are a great approach to making progress on your novel if you find yourself getting easily distracted or you struggle to get through longer writing sessions.

Do writing sprints work?

Writing sprints prevents you from overthinking or losing focus!

Knowing that you only have a limited time to get words on the page helps you make the most of every second. It also helps you turn off your editor’s mind so that you’re not critical of everything you write and can actually make progress on your first draft.

HOW TO DO WRITING SPRINTS:

Step 1: Set a timer

Choose a short period of time: anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes.

5 minutes if you’re pressed for time or find yourself dreading the idea of a longer writing session. A 5 minute writing sprint will help you build momentum and give you a boost of confidence.

15-20 minutes is the sweet spot if you really want to make some progress without draining yourself or overthinking your writing.

30 minutes is still a great writing sprint if your goal for the day is to get a solid amount of words on the page.

If you’ll be doing multiple writing sprints at a time, keep that in mind when you choose the duration!

Step 2: Press “play” and write nonstop

The goal is to get as many words on the page as possible, which means you don’t have time to stop and edit or delete what you just wrote.

If you’re unsure about something, leave a note in the text or in a comment so you’ll know to come back to it later, and then keep writing!

Ways to force yourself to keep writing nonstop:

1. If you get stuck, instead of stopping writing, pick a word central to your scene or story and just keep typing that word over and over again until you think of what to say next. Even though it will create nonsense (that you’ll obviously remove later), it will trick your brain into thinking you’re still writing which will prevent you from overthinking.
2. Simplify the next step. If you find yourself overthinking what a character would say next or what would happen next in the plot, instead focus on something smaller. What does the character see? What’s happening in the environment? Can you describe something occurring in the setting or the atmosphere to ground yourself (and your reader)?

Step 3: Take a break

When the alarm sounds, take a break!

Once you’re done the sprint, take a short break lasting between 2-15 minutes to recharge.

I recommend choosing your allotted break time before you even start your writing sprints. Otherwise, you’ll be tempted to take a longer break than necessary which will break up your flow.

Remember, the purpose of taking a break is to give your brain a chance to decompress and then feel refreshed for another writing sprint. Writing sprints are more effective overall when you do more than one at a time! 

Ways to make your break more effective:

1. Do something productive. Don’t pick up your phone to scroll; instead, stretch, drink some water, read a page of a book you love, make a coffee/tea, listen to a song on your writing playlist, or even do a little low-pressure brainstorming if you still have some ideas swirling that you don’t want to forget.
2. Remember that you don’t have to do your writing sprints back-to-back for them to be effective. This is all about making it work for YOU. So, if you’ve got a busy day and it works better for you to do a 5 minute sprint now, a 10 minute sprint later, and then another 5 minute sprint before bed, do it that way! You make the rules.

Step 4: Repeat the process

If you’re doing your sprints back-to-back (meaning that you do a sprint, take a break, then repeat), I recommend repeating the process 3-5 times if you really want to make some good progress on your draft.

Whenever you’re done the cycle of writing sprints, you can decide if you want to step away from writing for the day or review and revise what you’ve written!

Tweaks for more effective writing sprints

1. You don’t need to choose the same amount of time for each sprint. One of my favorite methods of sprints is to do a sprint ladder: 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 15 minutes, with breaks of 2, 3, and 5 minutes in between. This helps build up the momentum with less pressure.
2. Make your font white during your writing sprint so you can’t even see what you’ve written. This will prevent you from having the temptation to re-read it and edit as you write. Yes, there will likely be lots of typos and errors, but you can go back and fix those later! Many writers find this to be an effective hack for getting through writer’s block.

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