I got off to a rocky start yesterday, but I did hit my daily wordcount goal of 1800 words.
That’s because I know a technique that really helps build momentum in any situation. You may have heard of it:
Pomodoro Technique
Invented in the 1980s by a university student called Francesco Cirillo who was overwhelmed with his studies, the Pomodoro Technique is super simple.
- Set a timer for 25 minutes (I do 20)
- Write until the timer bell rings
- Take a five minute break
- Repeat.
This is how I write my first drafts. Twenty minute writing sprints. And yes I do stop mid-sentence when the timer goes off. In fact, I love to stop mid-sentence. Makes starting the next sprint even easier because there’s a thought already in progress.
I add one more step: After each sprint of writing, I record the wordcount for the session. I’m currently using a spreadsheet for this, but I’ve filled up little notebooks with hand-written tallies as well.
Why does the Pomodoro Technique work?
It gives my brain assurance that it doesn’t have to stay in creative mode indefinitely. Creative work can sometimes be very exhausting. Especially if I’m thinking too much.
When the timer is counting down, there’s a very light pressure to make the sprint count. I just have to write something or my wordcount will be super low. It may sound silly, but it workds. And the less thinking you allow, the better. I’ll talk about that more tomorrow, because for some that statement will be confusing.
Doing Pomodoros tells you what your pace is. This helps budget how much time is needed to hit the daily goal. Over the past few weeks I’m average 640 words per 20 minute session. That means I need to do about three of them to hit my 1800 word goal.
Some days that average is much less, especially at the start of a new project.
So give it a try.
It will teach you to write forward. It will keep you from wasting time trying to perfect each paragraph before you move to the next. You don’t need to perfect each scene before you write the next. You need to write the next scene and the next.
Get momentum going.
Writing is mindset. The timer is a constraint that will focus you on the getting words down. Sometimes you need to blow out some gunk before the good stuff comes. Twenty minutes on, five minutes rest. Twenty minutes on, five minutes rest.
Don’t write nonsense. This isn’t freewriting or free association. If you need to pause for a few seconds that’s fine. But if it’s much longer than that, just write the next sentence. Doesn’t matter if you don’t know where it’s going. Doesn’t matter if you like it. Just stop thinking so much and write what happens next.
Trust your subconcious. It knows story.
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