Julie Broad (founder of a self-publishing services firm) presents a how-to on running writing sprints to increase output and finish a nonfiction book. She compares sprint training to running, shares an anecdote where authors produced large amounts of copy during 15-minute sprints, and gives concrete rules: disconnect from the Internet, prepare a strong outline, write non-sequentially on low-cognition sections, keep a timer and write continuously without editing, take short breaks, and repeat. Her mega tip is to eliminate the word "try"—commit to action. The video closes with CTAs to related videos and a plug for her book Self-Publish and Succeed.
Questions this video answers
Up to 600 words.
October 1, 2021.
Chapters
Do you want to know a way that you can write 1500 words in an hour easy, almost every single time? If you're looking for tips for speed writing, then this video on how to do a writing sprint is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the book Broad, founder of a fabulous professional self publishing services firm. We help professionals and subject matter experts write, publish and promote a nonfiction book that grows their brand and business. But none of that works. It's if you don't finish writing. So we have found ways to get more words out of author's head and onto the page. And one of the best ways to do that is to incorporate writing sprints. If you've ever trained for a running race, you probably followed a training program that mixed long runs and shorter, faster runs and sprints altogether. There were probably sprints mixed with hill training too. Just for a little spice. Doing this for your writing makes you fitter and faster too. In a writing retreat where we did this in a controlled environment, one of our authors, Leslie Keensay, author of Legacy, said, wrote more in two days than I have in months. A big chunk of that success was due to writing sprints in 15 minutes. Many of the authors reported writing up to 600 words. These sprints added up to big progress, so here's how to do them for yourself. Number one Hard and fast rule. You cannot be connected to the Internet. No phones, no WI fi. You're not researching anything. You're not writing or sorry, you are writing. That's all you're doing. You're not researching anything, you're writing. You you can come up with a note taking system in case you want to go back and add a quote or do some research. I use the highlighting function in Microsoft Word so these places stand out when I scan my document later. Step two. You got to know what you're going to write about. A great outline is essential for this to work. And a little pro tip, when you sit down to do a sprint, you don't have to write your book in order. Some sections of your book will take intense thought, so that's probably not a good fit for a sprint. Write a story that you know well, or cover an acronym or steps that to accomplish something that you don't have to think hard about stuff that you talk about all the time. Think about examples or tips that you repeat over and over again. Write that during the sprint and you're likely to have 500 to 600 words. No problem. Turn on the timer and once that timer starts, do nothing but writing. No reading no rewriting, no pausing. You have to keep writing no matter what. I like to tell people to imagine Pac man is coming for your words if you stop. So you got to keep going. 4. When the timer stops, stop. Take a 5 minute break, stand up from your computer, and then if you can, do it for another 12 to 15 minutes. When you do this, you might find you actually have all the time you need to write that book. I guarantee that if you do them often enough, you'll also become an overall more efficient writer. The key to this is to not edit yourself while writing. Don't worry about little repeats or poorly written sentences. Just go. Revision can and really should. Wait. If you like this tip, you'll love, self publish and succeed because this was published in that book along with other things like how to write a book selling title. Now, before we part today, I have one mega tip to help these writing sprints and to help you ultimately finish that book you're working on. No matter what challenges you have. It all comes down to eliminating one three letter word from your vocabulary. What's that word? Jackson? Try. You aren't trying to write a book. You are writing a book. You aren't trying to build your business. You are building your business. Make your word your bond. Commit to it. Now, if you allow yourself wiggle room, wiggle, wiggle for excuses in your language, your mind feels it and you open yourself up to the possibility of massive failure. So don't try to hit that like button. Smash it. Okay, help me smash it. Go like this. Smash it, smash it. And then head over to this fabulous video right here on 5 tips for writing Great Stories in Nonfiction. Or this incredible video right on 5 tips for book Marketing. Because the moment you start writing your book, you should be thinking book marketing. Either way, we'll see you there.
