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10-Minute Writing Sprint
How to prepare for NaNoWriMo one day at a time.
In 31 days, some readers will begin the writer’s equivalent of a marathon — NaNoWriMo*.
Have you ever run a marathon?
Some of you will answer, ‘Yeah. Sure, no problem.’
Some of you will say, ‘No. I’m not in shape for that.’
And some of you will answer, ‘Why the heck would I?’
NaNoWriMo is a writing marathon. You will challenge yourself with daily writing goals. However, the only way to gauge your chances of success and finish 50,000 words in one month is to know how many words you can write in a single day.
Today, let’s set a timer for 10 minutes. This exercise will help you gauge your writing speed and set a benchmark for your daily writing goals.
The topic doesn’t matter. What matters is that you keep banging out words.
If you don’t know what to write, you can write, ‘I don’t know what to write. I’m hungry. I should have gone to bed earlier last night. Why is Brett mad at me?…’
Just keep writing.
The concept of the free write 10 minute session was created by Peter Elbow, a writing professor at the…