Writing Sprint Experiment

I just read Chris Fox's book 5,000 Words an Hour. And I loved it. Since I don't want to spoil it, I won't tell you everything the book said, but I'm going to share my sprint experiments. Mainly, because I'm skeptical. I'm pretty sure I can't write 5000 words an hour. A really good day for me is 6,000--and that will take me six hours, since I typically write about a 1000 words an hour. But Chris suggests starting off small--five minute sprints--slowly building up to 30 minutes--and tracking all of it. He insists that by tracking I'll see noticeable increases in speed. Hmm... not so sure. But I'm game to try, and I'm going to do that here.

He also suggested answering all of these questions before you start a scene/sprint: (I've modified these a tad to suit myself)
Main characters: Bree and Evie
Time:  8 p.m. December
Place:  Uncle Mitch's lab
Crux:  Accidentally let loose a lab animal
Goal:  Get Uncle Mitch's How to Make Anyone Fall in Love With You experiment
Mood:  Dark, tense

I also modified the sprint spreadsheet.

BOOK	SPRINT MINUTES	STARTING COUNT	ENDING COUNT	DAILY COUNT	MONTHLY COUNT	DATE
Witch Winter	5	0	74			6/22
	5		132	2664		6/22
	5		84			6/23
	5		160	2132		6/23

My goal is to begin Witch Winter, Witch Way's sequel, today and finish my first draft by August 15th. This week, in addition to my regular writing, I'll write for a five minute sprint each day (5 days a week), and bump it up in five minute increments each week until I reach 30 minutes. I already have two thirds of the book outlined.

I did the 5 minute sprint twice today. This morning I logged 74 words, which at first was pretty depressing. But after doing the math I realized how closely that met my typical 1000 words an hour output. I did it again this afternoon and wrote 132 words. I'm not sure why I was so much faster. It may have been because I realized how fast five minutes can fly. (Why does it seem like forever when I'm waiting for something?) Doing the math, if I wrote at that same pace for 60 minutes my output would be 1500+ versus my typical 1000. Hmm... and I've only done it twice so far.

Here are the two sprints. (They're not very pretty. Writing fast does that.)
Morning:

The creature stared at me with his unblinking yellow eyes, watching my every move, as if he knew what I had in mind. I turned my back to him, grateful for the bars that separated us.

“I don’t think it has eyelids,” I said.

“Mmm,” Bree muttered, keeping her gaze on the computer monitor. “Any luck?”

“No. You?”

FIRST ATTEMPT. 74 WORDS. PRETTY LAME. Trying again….

Afternoon:

I stood in line, waiting to board the bus, my hands and feet cold, but my heart warm. Mrs. Price’s compliments rang in my head, and despite the Connecticut cold trying to slice through the layers of my sweater, jacket, mittens and scarf, I felt warm and bubbly inside.

“Hey, it’s Evie, right?”

I turned to watch Meredith Olson swinging through the crowd, her long dark hair bouncing around her shoulders. I only knew her by sight, as I was a lowly sophomore and she was not only a senior, but also the editor in chief of the high school newspaper. Or, in other words, the embodiment of everything I wanted to be. Smart, popular, a person of influence…cause, yeah, being an editor of the school newspaper carried a lot of clout.