I was skeptical about timed writing sprints until I tried one at a local cafe

A buddy in my writing group kept pushing these 20 minute sprint sessions. I thought it was just hype. But last Saturday I sat in a coffeeshop in Portland and set a timer for 20 minutes. Told myself no stopping no editing. Ended up writing 800 words on a scene I'd been stuck on for 3 weeks. Something about the pressure just worked for me. Has anyone else found a method they laughed at initially that actually helped?

3 comments

3 Comments

beth2761mo agoTop Commenter

Tried it once on a whim during a free hour. Ended up cranking out 600 words that I actually kept. Felt like cheating at first. Still does a little. But hey, whatever gets the words on the page.

carter.joseph1mo ago

600 words in an hour and you call it cheating? Man, I wrote 300 words in three hours last night and deleted half of them this morning. Feels more like torture than cheating to me. What you did sounds like flow state, not a shortcut. Isn't that the whole point of writing, getting lost in it for a minute?

the_olivia1mo ago

600 words you actually kept in one hour? That's insane. I can barely commit to a grocery list in that time. You must have been in some kind of trance. Cheating feels like the wrong word for it more like accidentally unlocking a cheat code the developers forgot to patch. I'd be scared to try it again in case it was a fluke.