Blog Tour & My Writing Sprint Secrets

So, if you are following my book's blog tour, you know I got two great reviews today.

First, Ronda gave me four stars and said "It's exciting, full of twists, and keeps you guessing the whole way." Loved that!  You can read her entire review here.

Second, I think this is the review I will print off and display next to my desk for when I get discouraged about writing.  Shauna said, among other things, "If Julie Bellon wrote the book you KNOW it will be GOOD!"  There were many things I liked about her review, but I think that line made my whole day.  You can read all of her review here.

So, today I saw this little gem. "Do not be afraid of going slowly; be afraid only of standing still." Chinese Proverb

Doesn't that describe the writing process sometimes?  Especially when we're sitting there staring at the cursor hoping that the words will come?  And then we're disappointed if we only get 400 new words or something?

I had one of my sprint friends ask me how I got so many words in just one hour.  Today, I thought I'd share my process/secrets with you.

First of all, I don't edit when I'm sprinting.  I just get the words out and type like a bat out of Hades.  Editing will come later.  I'm getting the skeleton of this draft down and the fleshing out is another step entirely.

Second, before I start editing I write down a loose outline of where the chapters are going.  I usually get about two chapters done per sprint, so I like to have some direction.  It helps my word count, too, because since I know where the scene/chapter is going, it makes the ideas come faster.

Third, I set aside the sprint hour so my kids know not to interrupt and to find the person in charge while I'm sprinting. Sometimes they are so fascinated by my lightning-speed typing they sit and watch.  Haha.

Fourth, I like to do the sprints on the blog so I have other people to sprint with and celebrate with and be accountable to. That's why Wednesdays are so important to me.  It motivates me to get things going whether I feel like it or not.  People are waiting for me and that's very powerful.

And the best part about sprinting is that when that hour is up, no matter how many words you wrote, it was more than you had the hour before.  Reason for celebration in my book!  (See what I did there?)

So, there you have it.  What's your sprinting process?