NaNoWriMo 101 Basics Part 2

The Sprint

So yesterday, or rather probably earlier this morning, I wrote about the rules of writing practice to get rid of that pesky internal critic.   Keep the hand moving, Be specific, Go for the jugular, Don't edit or cross out, Lose control, and You are free to write the worse crap in the universe.   This is the way I do writing sprints.  I come at Nano with an idea, and some characters fleshed out.  Basics like where I think the story will go...but the actual writing comes out as one long writing practice.

So you want to participate in sprints...GREAT!  They are very helpful.  Don't worry if you get only 200 words or 800 words, any words are all good.   Having said that, here is what I do when I go into sprinting for the day.    In the Manuscript, I start out with notations..."Day 1" then underneath "Sprint 1," or 2,3.4 etc.   At the end of the sprint, I highlight that sprint, and do a word count.  Once I do that, I add that count underneath the sprint.   And then I start out the next sprint with "Sprint 2." and so on until I quit for the day.  I normally don't wait until the end of the day to do the next step.   Just add to the document as I go.   But I do what I call a "Sprint Log."  Here is what it looks like.

Day      Sprint 1         Sprint 2          Total for day       Total for project    Daily Goal
1
2
3
4
5

Something like that.  You could also add a column for your own daily goal, or the target of 1667 words (going down the entire column.

Then I have a dry erase board, where I put the figures (totals only) at the end of the day.  That way I can see it in front of me as I work.

Make sure when you are adding your totals into your manuscript, you save OFTEN!

Tomorrow (or as soon as I can), I will continue with an in depth part of what I do in a first draft.