August 20, 2024 • 13 mins
What is a writing sprint and how can they enhance your writing productivity? In this episode, Lori explains how you can overcome writer’s block and generate a lot of words for your project. She covers the essentials of planning a writing sprint and practical tips to help set you up for success. Writing sprints are highly adaptable and allow writers to experiment with different ways of engaging with their craft and making progress on their big projects.
Visit thepoetrylab.com to find the Show Notes for this episode. The Poetry Lab Podcast is produced by Lori Walker and Danielle Mitchell. Hosted by Danielle Mitchell, Lori Walker, and bridgette bianca.
Theme song: "Simply Upbeat" by Christian Telford, Kenneth Edward Belcher, and Saki Furuya.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
(00:00):
a writing sprint is a set period where you
focus solely on
your writing often with the goal of
producing as many words as possible
whether you're a seasoned writer or just
starting out writing sprunts can be a game
changer for your productivity in this
episode of the poetry lab podcast we'll
discuss what writing sprunts are how to
(00:21):
plan them and tips for participating
effectively are you ready poet let's go
welcome to the poetry lab podcast
the poetry lab started 11 years ago to help
dedicated self taught and formally trained
(00:42):
writers find a place in their community to
write read
learn
and collaborate
we help riders tap into their craft with
radical self compassion unlike anything
you've ever seen in a creative writing
classroom before if you're a creative
person trying to establish a writing
practice in the real world
(01:04):
this podcast is designed to help you carve
out the time the courage
and the inspiration to keep writing your
new shit
are you ready poet
let's get into it
welcome to your listeners to another
(01:25):
episode of the poetry lab podcast
lori here again and today we are talking
about planning a writing sprunt so this is
a wonderful way to push past writer's block
silence your inner critic and get those
words on the page
not too long ago i planned for myself what
turned out to be a very successful writing sprunt
(01:48):
it was a saturday late morning early
afternoon so i'd already had
my coffee and breakfast i chose about two
and a half hours where i was going to just
focus on my manuscript
and i
set it up to where for two and a half hours
i was going to get as much writing done as
(02:09):
possible and then i made plans for
afterwards and i'll tell you why all of
those elements are important in a minute
planning your writing sprout
first off you need to choose your day and
time i picked a saturday because i don't
work on saturdays and that particular
(02:31):
saturday my husband had to work so the
house was going to be empty for a few hours
so you want to pick a day and a block of
time where you can focus on your writing
for an extended period without
interruptions this might mean coordinating
around an empty house or other people's
sleeping schedules or perhaps even
relocating
(02:52):
and speaking of the time of your sprint
think about how you want to organize it
do you want to focus for long blocks of
time or set a timer for shorter bursts of
creativity over the course of a couple of
hours personally if i'm on a roll i'd
rather stay on that roll i don't want to do
the pomodoro method
(03:12):
where i stop after 25 minutes and take a
five minute break and then start writing
again because then i have to keep refining
my groove but you know what some people
work better that way and for some people
all they have is 25 minutes so
doing a writing sprint for just 25 minutes
where you're like alright i'm shutting out
the world and i'm just gonna focus on my
(03:32):
writing for these 25 minutes that works for
them the important thing is
for you to do you there is no wrong way to
do the sprunt and you can always do more
than one writing sprunt and you can try
if you think you work better in shorter
blocks and then take more breaks you can
try okay well what happens if i work for a
(03:53):
longer period of time and take a break or
if you tend to work in those long
blocks you can try
well what happens if i only work for 25
minutes at a time think about the different
tasks that you're working on and see if one
way of doing it might work better
or a different task
speaking of tasks you need to think about
(04:13):
the goals for your sprint what do you want
to accomplish
for my writing sprint i wanted to write as
much as i could during the period of time
that i set aside for the sprint because i'm
in the generative stage of an essay
collection
but depending on where you are in your
project or what you're working on you might
decide to focus on editing or outlining or
(04:35):
finishing a chapter or a poem that's half
written
bottom line having a clear goal will give
you direction and motivation so that you're
not just like okay i'm sitting down to work
on my writing
that's kind of a big amorphous
topic right that could be a lot of things
i'm a firm believer that even thinking
(04:57):
about your project
is working on your writing reading
something comparable to your book to get
ideas that's working on your writing but if
you're wanting to get words on the page
that's what you need to say your goal is
for that period of time so that way you can
kind of check yourself am i doing what i
said i was going to do
next you need to set the scene
(05:20):
where are you going to write
you want to pick somewhere where you won't
be disturbed and you want to be comfortable
because
you know depending on how you set this up
you might be there for a couple of hours
and you might decide to go with your tried
and true writing desk or maybe you want to
get outside your comfort zone a bit and
work at a coffee shop or a bar
(05:42):
along with choosing your location you also
need to gather your props you'll want to
grab your computer your charger a notebook
and pen a spare pen your earbuds a drink a
snack a candle a talisman whatever helps
you get and stay focused
and then you also want to make sure you
have these things handy
(06:03):
because you don't want to have to go
searching for your laptop charger in the
middle of writing
because you might get distracted by the
pile of laundry that's sitting
outside the room where
your laptop charger is
so set yourself up for success
and then also one other thing i highly
recommend having both a computer to type on
(06:25):
or whatever digital thing you use to write
on and a pen and paper
because sometimes switching up your
modality can help spur creativity
and then final thing for the planning stage
make a plan for something fun to do after
the sprint
this is a reward to keep you going on the
(06:46):
sprunt that i talked about earlier i made a
plan to pick up the mixings for apparel
spritzes and lunch from my favorite taco
shop after my writing session was over this
gave me something to look forward to
maybe you do your sprint for a saturday
afternoon and you have plans to meet your
friends for drinks that evening
or you can just say you know i bought this
(07:08):
new book i'm not gonna read it until i
write for two hours or whatever your reward
is whatever works for you
so now that you've planned your sprint
you're ready to go
i know it's not easy to set aside a large
ish block of time for your writing but kind
of feels good to do doesn't it
here are some tips for how to make the most
(07:30):
of your writing sprint take what works for
you and leave the rest and also i want to
point out that these are not necessarily
things that i do before or during a writing
sprunt but just some advice that i found on
the internet while i was putting together
this episode
so one of the things that a lot of people
(07:50):
recommend doing is to start with a warm up
this could be free writing or a pre
selected writing prompt that eases you into
writing as opposed to jumping in
in the middle of something
and if you're doing a generative sprint
don't worry about your spelling or grammar
or structure just get the words on the page
(08:13):
and deal with editing
later and i know this is hard
i can't remember where it was but i saw
somewhere that recommended changing
the font color
to match whatever your background is so
like in google docs i've got it set to have
a white background so instead of having the
(08:35):
standard black type i could have it
be white type and then i can't read it i
can't read what i'm writing
as i'm going this is a way to force me to
focus on just writing the next word rather
than looking at what i've already written
something else to try i think it would be
really hard for me to do that i'm giving
that advice
knowing full well it's not something that
(08:55):
would work for me
another thing don't focus so much on the result
i know i said to have a goal for your
sprunt but if you're not hitting the word
count goal you set for yourself that's okay
because every word that you do write is
progress
and i think that that's why for my writing
(09:16):
sprint i focused on a time goal i'm gonna
write for
two and a half hours as opposed to i'm
going to write 2000 words in two and a half hours
that way even if i only write five words as
long as i kept my butt in the chair for two
and a half hours and didn't just wind up
screwing around on the internet i met my goal
(09:38):
and if you've set a timer that's great
you've got breaks built into your sp front
but if you're like me and are writing for a
longer block i'd still recommend taking a
break at some point
just get up grab another drink do a little
stretch shake it out stay loose
final idea invite a friend to join if you
(10:01):
live near other writers make a plan to meet
up at a particular location and do the
sprunt together in real time or if you
don't live near other writers you can hop on zoom
and whether you meet in person or
online take a second before you start the
sprint to share your goals this putting it
out in the world makes you accountable
(10:23):
makes you manifest it makes it happen
and then
stay muted or stay silent while you write
and then come together afterwards to talk
about how it went
the nice thing about getting another writer
involved is that you know you're not alone
in that moment you know someone else is
muddling through
(10:45):
or at the very least you could just tell
your friend
hey i'm gonna write for two and a half
hours on a saturday and even if they can't
join you they'll be rooting for you and
sending you all the good writing vibes
i want to take a moment and talk
specifically about how poets can use
writing sprints because writing sprints are
often associated with prose writing
(11:07):
and some of these again can be used
regardless of your genre but i think that
pointing out some of the ways that poets
specifically can use writing sprints is a
good idea
first of all you can use writing sprunts
for free writing
let your thoughts flow without worrying
about form or structure or rhyme this can
(11:28):
help you tap into deeper emotions and ideas
that can later be shaped into poetry
concentrate on capturing vivid images and
strong emotions aim to get those raw
powerful moments down on paper
if you're interested in different poetic
forms use writing sprints to experiment
(11:49):
dedicate a sprint to writing haikus or
sonnets or free verse
this can help you explore new styles and
techniques without the pressure of
perfection
it's also important to remember to revise
and reflect
after you're sprint take some time to
review what you've written highlight any
(12:10):
lines or images that stand out these can
become the foundation of more polished
poems in the future
and i think that this one is useful
regardless of what genre you write the goal
of the sprint is typically to just generate
so hopefully by the end of a couple of
hours you've got a whole mass of words
spend some time away from your work you
(12:32):
gotta go get that reward
but after a couple of days come back to
what you wrote during the sprint and see
what you produced and how it can be
incorporated or polished
writing sprints are a fantastic way to
boost your writing productivity
by incorporating some of the planning and
(12:53):
the in the moment tips that i've shared you
can make the most of your writing sprint
it's important to remember that rather than
focusing on the result you should be proud
of yourself for devoting a block of time to
your writing that's not easy
the nice thing about writing sprints is
that they're pretty adaptable and you can
(13:14):
experiment to find what works for you music
or no music writing at home or another
location
short blocks of time with more breaks or
longer blocks with fewer breaks
as long as you got some words on the page
or the screen there's no wrong way to do it
if you liked this episode please give us a
(13:36):
like and a follow and help us spread the
word about our podcast by texting the link
to a few creative friends
you can also find us at the poetrylab com
podcast
that's all for now i hope to see you soon
at the poetry lab
(00:00):
a writing sprint is a set period where you
focus solely on
your writing often with the goal of
producing as many words as possible
whether you're a seasoned writer or just
starting out writing sprunts can be a game
changer for your productivity in this
episode of the poetry lab podcast we'll
discuss what writing sprunts are how to
(00:21):
plan them and tips for participating
effectively are you ready poet let's go
welcome to the poetry lab podcast
the poetry lab started 11 years ago to help
dedicated self taught and formally trained
(00:42):
writers find a place in their community to
write read
learn
and collaborate
we help riders tap into their craft with
radical self compassion unlike anything
you've ever seen in a creative writing
classroom before if you're a creative
person trying to establish a writing
practice in the real world
(01:04):
this podcast is designed to help you carve
out the time the courage
and the inspiration to keep writing your
new shit
are you ready poet
let's get into it
welcome to your listeners to another
(01:25):
episode of the poetry lab podcast
lori here again and today we are talking
about planning a writing sprunt so this is
a wonderful way to push past writer's block
silence your inner critic and get those
words on the page
not too long ago i planned for myself what
turned out to be a very successful writing sprunt
(01:48):
it was a saturday late morning early
afternoon so i'd already had
my coffee and breakfast i chose about two
and a half hours where i was going to just
focus on my manuscript
and i
set it up to where for two and a half hours
i was going to get as much writing done as
(02:09):
possible and then i made plans for
afterwards and i'll tell you why all of
those elements are important in a minute
planning your writing sprout
first off you need to choose your day and
time i picked a saturday because i don't
work on saturdays and that particular
(02:31):
saturday my husband had to work so the
house was going to be empty for a few hours
so you want to pick a day and a block of
time where you can focus on your writing
for an extended period without
interruptions this might mean coordinating
around an empty house or other people's
sleeping schedules or perhaps even
relocating
(02:52):
and speaking of the time of your sprint
think about how you want to organize it
do you want to focus for long blocks of
time or set a timer for shorter bursts of
creativity over the course of a couple of
hours personally if i'm on a roll i'd
rather stay on that roll i don't want to do
the pomodoro method
(03:12):
where i stop after 25 minutes and take a
five minute break and then start writing
again because then i have to keep refining
my groove but you know what some people
work better that way and for some people
all they have is 25 minutes so
doing a writing sprint for just 25 minutes
where you're like alright i'm shutting out
the world and i'm just gonna focus on my
(03:32):
writing for these 25 minutes that works for
them the important thing is
for you to do you there is no wrong way to
do the sprunt and you can always do more
than one writing sprunt and you can try
if you think you work better in shorter
blocks and then take more breaks you can
try okay well what happens if i work for a
(03:53):
longer period of time and take a break or
if you tend to work in those long
blocks you can try
well what happens if i only work for 25
minutes at a time think about the different
tasks that you're working on and see if one
way of doing it might work better
or a different task
speaking of tasks you need to think about
(04:13):
the goals for your sprint what do you want
to accomplish
for my writing sprint i wanted to write as
much as i could during the period of time
that i set aside for the sprint because i'm
in the generative stage of an essay
collection
but depending on where you are in your
project or what you're working on you might
decide to focus on editing or outlining or
(04:35):
finishing a chapter or a poem that's half
written
bottom line having a clear goal will give
you direction and motivation so that you're
not just like okay i'm sitting down to work
on my writing
that's kind of a big amorphous
topic right that could be a lot of things
i'm a firm believer that even thinking
(04:57):
about your project
is working on your writing reading
something comparable to your book to get
ideas that's working on your writing but if
you're wanting to get words on the page
that's what you need to say your goal is
for that period of time so that way you can
kind of check yourself am i doing what i
said i was going to do
next you need to set the scene
(05:20):
where are you going to write
you want to pick somewhere where you won't
be disturbed and you want to be comfortable
because
you know depending on how you set this up
you might be there for a couple of hours
and you might decide to go with your tried
and true writing desk or maybe you want to
get outside your comfort zone a bit and
work at a coffee shop or a bar
(05:42):
along with choosing your location you also
need to gather your props you'll want to
grab your computer your charger a notebook
and pen a spare pen your earbuds a drink a
snack a candle a talisman whatever helps
you get and stay focused
and then you also want to make sure you
have these things handy
(06:03):
because you don't want to have to go
searching for your laptop charger in the
middle of writing
because you might get distracted by the
pile of laundry that's sitting
outside the room where
your laptop charger is
so set yourself up for success
and then also one other thing i highly
recommend having both a computer to type on
(06:25):
or whatever digital thing you use to write
on and a pen and paper
because sometimes switching up your
modality can help spur creativity
and then final thing for the planning stage
make a plan for something fun to do after
the sprint
this is a reward to keep you going on the
(06:46):
sprunt that i talked about earlier i made a
plan to pick up the mixings for apparel
spritzes and lunch from my favorite taco
shop after my writing session was over this
gave me something to look forward to
maybe you do your sprint for a saturday
afternoon and you have plans to meet your
friends for drinks that evening
or you can just say you know i bought this
(07:08):
new book i'm not gonna read it until i
write for two hours or whatever your reward
is whatever works for you
so now that you've planned your sprint
you're ready to go
i know it's not easy to set aside a large
ish block of time for your writing but kind
of feels good to do doesn't it
here are some tips for how to make the most
(07:30):
of your writing sprint take what works for
you and leave the rest and also i want to
point out that these are not necessarily
things that i do before or during a writing
sprunt but just some advice that i found on
the internet while i was putting together
this episode
so one of the things that a lot of people
(07:50):
recommend doing is to start with a warm up
this could be free writing or a pre
selected writing prompt that eases you into
writing as opposed to jumping in
in the middle of something
and if you're doing a generative sprint
don't worry about your spelling or grammar
or structure just get the words on the page
(08:13):
and deal with editing
later and i know this is hard
i can't remember where it was but i saw
somewhere that recommended changing
the font color
to match whatever your background is so
like in google docs i've got it set to have
a white background so instead of having the
(08:35):
standard black type i could have it
be white type and then i can't read it i
can't read what i'm writing
as i'm going this is a way to force me to
focus on just writing the next word rather
than looking at what i've already written
something else to try i think it would be
really hard for me to do that i'm giving
that advice
knowing full well it's not something that
(08:55):
would work for me
another thing don't focus so much on the result
i know i said to have a goal for your
sprunt but if you're not hitting the word
count goal you set for yourself that's okay
because every word that you do write is
progress
and i think that that's why for my writing
(09:16):
sprint i focused on a time goal i'm gonna
write for
two and a half hours as opposed to i'm
going to write 2000 words in two and a half hours
that way even if i only write five words as
long as i kept my butt in the chair for two
and a half hours and didn't just wind up
screwing around on the internet i met my goal
(09:38):
and if you've set a timer that's great
you've got breaks built into your sp front
but if you're like me and are writing for a
longer block i'd still recommend taking a
break at some point
just get up grab another drink do a little
stretch shake it out stay loose
final idea invite a friend to join if you
(10:01):
live near other writers make a plan to meet
up at a particular location and do the
sprunt together in real time or if you
don't live near other writers you can hop on zoom
and whether you meet in person or
online take a second before you start the
sprint to share your goals this putting it
out in the world makes you accountable
(10:23):
makes you manifest it makes it happen
and then
stay muted or stay silent while you write
and then come together afterwards to talk
about how it went
the nice thing about getting another writer
involved is that you know you're not alone
in that moment you know someone else is
muddling through
(10:45):
or at the very least you could just tell
your friend
hey i'm gonna write for two and a half
hours on a saturday and even if they can't
join you they'll be rooting for you and
sending you all the good writing vibes
i want to take a moment and talk
specifically about how poets can use
writing sprints because writing sprints are
often associated with prose writing
(11:07):
and some of these again can be used
regardless of your genre but i think that
pointing out some of the ways that poets
specifically can use writing sprints is a
good idea
first of all you can use writing sprunts
for free writing
let your thoughts flow without worrying
about form or structure or rhyme this can
(11:28):
help you tap into deeper emotions and ideas
that can later be shaped into poetry
concentrate on capturing vivid images and
strong emotions aim to get those raw
powerful moments down on paper
if you're interested in different poetic
forms use writing sprints to experiment
(11:49):
dedicate a sprint to writing haikus or
sonnets or free verse
this can help you explore new styles and
techniques without the pressure of
perfection
it's also important to remember to revise
and reflect
after you're sprint take some time to
review what you've written highlight any
(12:10):
lines or images that stand out these can
become the foundation of more polished
poems in the future
and i think that this one is useful
regardless of what genre you write the goal
of the sprint is typically to just generate
so hopefully by the end of a couple of
hours you've got a whole mass of words
spend some time away from your work you
(12:32):
gotta go get that reward
but after a couple of days come back to
what you wrote during the sprint and see
what you produced and how it can be
incorporated or polished
writing sprints are a fantastic way to
boost your writing productivity
by incorporating some of the planning and
(12:53):
the in the moment tips that i've shared you
can make the most of your writing sprint
it's important to remember that rather than
focusing on the result you should be proud
of yourself for devoting a block of time to
your writing that's not easy
the nice thing about writing sprints is
that they're pretty adaptable and you can
(13:14):
experiment to find what works for you music
or no music writing at home or another
location
short blocks of time with more breaks or
longer blocks with fewer breaks
as long as you got some words on the page
or the screen there's no wrong way to do it
if you liked this episode please give us a
(13:36):
like and a follow and help us spread the
word about our podcast by texting the link
to a few creative friends
you can also find us at the poetrylab com
podcast
that's all for now i hope to see you soon
at the poetry lab
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