After reading, 5000 Words Per Hour (The Book), I added a couple of things to my writing strategy. First of all was making writing a daily habit. Done. I did miss the second day, boo…. but I even wrote on a day we were at Six Flags Magic Mountain, and even wrote on Easter. Crushing it!

I am also interested in rewarding myself with short term and long term rewards to motivate me to continue but also to wire my brain with little dopamine burst to keep me going. I haven’t really thought of the reward that I can feasibly do every day but I’ll think of something.

Of all the tips though, I feel the one that had been the best for me, it documenting how many words I write, how quickly I write them and also how many I edit. The author, Chris Fox, discusses how he built his word efficiency through word sprints in which he tries to write as many words as possible in a short amount of time. I began with 10 minutes then up to 20 after a week and yesterday did a sprint of 30  minutes. All throughout I have maintained 3000-3500 word pace. That means that yesterday during my 30 minute sprint I knocked out more than 1500 words. Pretty freaking good. A couple of sprints like that a day means I would complete more than 3000 a day. If (and yes, it’s a big if) I could maintain that for a month then I have an entire manuscript written in a month. Crushing it!

To keep myself accountable, here are my numbers through the first two weeks:

Week 1: Total words written 9,000. Best daily: 3000

Week 2: Total words written 13,690. Best daily 3,000.  Total Words Edited 27,500. Best Daily 10,000

 

Here’s to many more! Cheers!