When sprinting on discord using the writer bot, here are some things you should do to maximise the efficiency of a sprint. If you wish to read more about improving your writing speed, check out my blog post last week.
But before we start, could I introduce to you a song parody about writing sprints made by yours truly?
Patreons to credit: Anechke. -This could be you. Join now.-
Yes, that's BlackPink and no, I'm not a professional singer. I don't know how to edit or mix music, so that's as good as it gets.
Now on with the blog!
#1 Kill Distractions
It is what it sounds like. No bathroom runs, no coffee runs, no browsing cat videos and searching for new music playlists.
I know this is hard, especially if you live with family who does not understand that you need alone time to write. However, try to minimise this by finding and creating a good pocket of time. It doesn't have to take very long. An hour of quality sprinting is better than five hours of trying to write with many distractions in between. Some of the best hours without distractions of the day would be late at night or early in the morning when everyone else is still in bed.
And they wonder why we writers are usually night owls -_-
#2 Ready the Plots
For writers who write when the inspiration strike, this might be foreign to you. However, I strongly believe that you should know what you want to write in the next few chapters that you're sprinting for.
Knowing and preparing what you wish to write will reduce the research time required and the thinking spaces in between when the clock ticks. It takes six hours to sharpen an axe and two hours to cut a tree. Preparation is very important, and I cannot stress this enough.
#3 Set a Word Count Target
Benjamin Franklin once said that if you fail to plan, it's basically a plan for failure. The writer bot has a very useful function to set challenges. It gives you XP upon successful completion so abuse this!
I normally aim for at least 21wpm for 15-minute sprints because they give me 100xp although my real challenge is to reach at least 500 words during every sprint. I honestly doubt I could reach 60wpm, but I wish to achieve that someday with more practice.
Conclusion...
Sprints can be fun with friends. Time passes very fast during sprinting marathons, and many things can derail a determined writer in between. Beware of the pitfall of chatting on discord with your pals during a sprint or after them when you have a deadline crawling your way! They are horrible time stealers!
That's all for this week's blog. Feel free to let me know what you'd like me to cover in the following weeks! Don't hesitate to invite yourself to my discord server if you need sprinting buddies!