We’re in the second week of 30 Days to 60k!

This week’s challenge is meant to help you get faster at writing, but that comes with a caveat: this unfortunately means those of us who are writing with standard pen and paper probably want to skip this week’s challenge. Because of that, I have some bonus exercises at the bottom for you.

Word Counter Count Up

You’ll need a timer for this, but for this to work best, I recommend a customizable pomodoro timer. There are dozens of these out there, so find one that suits you. You’ll need to be able to set your pomos for about ten minutes, and your short breaks for three to five minutes (you can leave the long breaks at the default fifteen minutes). These will be your personal sprints.

Once you’ve got your timers set, you’ll also need either a sheet of paper, or some way to record your word count for each sprint. Then get your story documents lined up and open so you’re ready to write.

For at minimum of one hour a day (roughly four pomos) for the next week you will:

1. Write for ten minutes.
2. Record your word count and get ready for the next ten minute sprint.
3. Repeat.

At the end of your hour long writing session, add up how many words you wrote down. Your goal: Add a minimum of 100 words more each day. This means if you get 2,000 words in your first day of personal sprints you’re aiming to 2,100 words on the second day; 2,200 on the third day and so on and so forth.

Tips

Use the short break timers to think about the next paragraph you want to write. This often helps get your words flowing because you’ve already got something to write in mind.

Do not start editing during these sprints. This is not the time for your inner editor.

Exercises

If you’re not interested in this week’s challenge, I have bonus exercises for you this week.

Bonus challenge of the week: Complete all three of these bonus exercises every day for the week.

My Last, Your First

Grab any chapter book you have on hand, genre does not matter. Each day you’ll go to the end of a new chapter and copy the last line of that chapter down. Use this as the first line of the day’s writing session.

Word of the Day

Each day you’ll choose one word at random from the dictionary. Your goal is to use it in your 2,000 words for the day.

Tip Both Dictionary.com and the New York Times have a Word of the Day featured. If you don’t have access to either, use a physical dictionary and flip to a random page to select your word.

Rewriter Reviser

For this exercise, you’ll need some of your old writing such as a short story or a flash piece you’ve already written. Once you’ve selected the old piece in question, rewrite it as a scene or scenes in your story.

Tip Depending on how long your old writing is, you may need multiple pieces.

Story Progressing Questions

Finally, we have our Story Progressing Questions for the week!

1. Which character’s greatest fear could come to life in this scene?
2. What body language is your character using to express themselves currently?
3. What season is it and what details in your scene reflect this?
4. What is one falsehood your characters believe about each other?
5. What three things do your characters regret doing?
6. Who in your current scene stands to gain the most if your MC fails?
7. How is your character’s major flaw preventing them from reaching their goal in the current scene?

Surprise challenge Use this week’s Story Progressing Questions and write one new scene for each.

And as a reminder, if you’re over on Bluesky, I’ll be hosting live sprints June 9th from 10am to 3pm Central Time (GMT -5:00). Join me if you can!