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The Daring Author
The Daring Author
Part 1: Prepping for Writing Sprints to Boost your Author Creativity
Set your writing intentions with purpose and clarity.
This episode explores the fine art of creating flexible, motivating writing goals, alongside establishing your ideal writing environment, whether it be a peaceful home setup or a bustling café. I'll share the essentials you need, from headphones to snacks, and how setting the right mood can impact your creative flow. Through meditation and intention-setting, learn to evoke the desired emotions in your readers.
Let's make writing sprints your new secret weapon for success.
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Website: https://thedaringpress.com/
hello and welcome back to another chapter of the daring author podcast. Now today I am doing a writing sprint from 9 till 3 pm and I wanted to record before I get into it I'm not meant to start for another 50 minutes, so I've got time to record this because I wanted to share, in preparation for the writing sprint, what I've done and, yeah, just share the process with you. So, if you are interested in coming along to one of our writing sprint days this is a new thing, this is a first one and, yeah, I want to share this with you because I think it's really cool when writers whether you're writing fiction, whether you're writing nonfiction, whether you're writing your first book, your 10th, your 20th, 30th or whatever it might be I think having a dedicated day and time and coming together on Zoom and doing your writing sprints is really productive. For some people and some people it might not be. So, you know, you might prefer being by yourself riding and if you're with other people it might be a bit of a distraction and it might be for me, I don't know. I have done riding sprints with others in the past and, yeah, I'm interested to see how today goes. So I'll do another episode after and do a bit of a wrap up on how I felt it went and all those bits and pieces. But today I just want to share what I have done in preparation for this writing sprint day. Now my first thing was getting prepared for the day, because I wanted to come into this writing session and be really prepared with the day. Because I wanted to come into this writing session and be really prepared with the book that I am currently writing. I am writing book two in the Daring Brotherhood series. My first book of this new series and new world come out a couple of weeks ago. So I am on to writing book two, which is called little hearts. Now I had a call with my writing coach, beautiful lauren. She's been on the podcast before. Um, we had a call on thursday yesterday and we mapped out because I was at a part.
Speaker 1:Basically with the way that I plot out, the way that I outline, I very much have the three act structure and then I go even deeper and go into save the cat sort of in a way, like I think with book two I definitely I probably more fit into like an eight point structure. So I sometimes like to go detailed. But then things happen and change as I write and everyone's different with how they plot, how they outline and all those things, and it's cool to see different ways and then seeing what works best for you definitely, so for me. I always have like a three-act structure of like okay, this is what's got to happen in act one, these key points. This is what's got to happen in act two the key points. And here's what's got to happen. And wrap up in act two, the key points. And here's what's got to happen and wrap up in act three and what's going to happen and roll into sort of the next story or the next book within this world. So I've got that.
Speaker 1:But then basically what I do with Lauren on our writing coaching calls is part of our session. We go over and plot out the next chapters with where we look at where we're at, and then we look at, okay, what's got to happen in the next few chapters, and so basically that's what we did yesterday. I was pretty much up to where, where we had planned out last time and we needed to map out the next few chapters. So basically we had a discussion about, okay, where's the story at, here's the things that need to happen. Whose chapter are we doing next? Because I'm writing in multiple POV um with the main characters. So basically it was like okay, whose chapter's next? Um, this, this is where we're at. These are the basically I do it in dot bullet point be like, okay, this has got to happen in this chapter, this has got to happen in this chapter, this has got to happen in the next chapter, this is what's got to happen in the next, and we mapped out probably, I think, like the next five or so chapters, so just so that I know where we're moving to.
Speaker 1:So, coming into this sprint day, I'm not sitting there in planning mode and being like, oh, you know, wasting time in a way, because today is for writing sprints. I want to be writing. I don't want to be plotting, planning, getting stuck in that, because then I won't get enough time to actually write. Because that's the point of the writing sprints to come prepared and to be able to sprint and be able to write because you know what's happening next in the next few scenes. So everything will come naturally and you won't get stuck, because you know the key points that have got to come next and you planned and you prepared for the writing sprint. So we mapped out those.
Speaker 1:We looked at the three-act structure. So we are into Act 2. The last couple of chapters we just went over into Act 2. So we're looking at the overall act structure. So we are into act two. The last couple of chapters we just went over into act two. So we're looking at the overall picture of act two, being like, okay, here's a big picture, things that have got to happen in act two and these are little, little smaller bits that we've got to weave through to keep the romance arc going to, you know, other little bits and pieces that have just happened in this story. Um, what's, what's the um ongoing effect of that? And I think for um, each chapter, we really look at GMC.
Speaker 1:So the goal, motivation and conflict, um, which is what I go through? My writing coach, lauren, taught me this and that's what I do for each of my characters in each story. I will give them their goal, what's their motivation and what's the conflict in that, in them not being able to achieve that goal. So we've added some conflict in that. It's not just an easy thing of like, oh okay, I've got this goal, I've got my motivation and there it is, because then that's a boring story, right, there's no conflict and there's no things going against them to get to that goal. So we've got that for each character and then we break it into each chapter as well to make sure that that the reader, when they are reading it, they are going into the chapter and they've got like the stakes are high, like it's clear on what the goal is, what their motivation is, and then there's conflict in the chapter too. So it keeps keeps the reader engaged and it keeps them going.
Speaker 1:And then, um, depending on how you like to end your chapter, some people like to end them on a hook leading into the next chapter. I'm very much I like leaving hooks, but then sometimes it'll organically leave on a end scene type thing. So, depending on how you feel about that. So that's what we've done. So I've come prepared, I know what I'm writing today. I'm ready to go. I have been developing, I've got the ideas and I've been developing the imagination and developing it, playing it, replaying, like playing the scenes out in my head, so that when I come into this writing sprint today, I am prepared, I know what I've got to write.
Speaker 1:So the next sort of thing that I like to do is to just read over all of the chat, like all of your plotting, making sure that you're super clear. Is there any research that you want to do coming into this writing sprint? Is there any? You know I use a lot the thesauruses, um, like the emotional thesaurus. There's a positive, negative traits thesaurus, so, um, so I definitely use them and have them up when I'm writing. So, looking into, okay, what, what sort of things do I need to, maybe research before then, is it a scene where I need to research some things and know how I don't know certain guns work or like whatever it might be. You know, doing the research beforehand so that that doesn't slow you down when you come into your writing sprint day.
Speaker 1:The next thing that I like to do is setting goals. So how many words or pages do you want to complete during the time of your writing sprints? Now, today we are writing from 9 to 3 pm. It's going to be outlined in 40-minute sprints, just to have 40 minutes. Then we're going to have a 10-minute break to go, you know, get another cup of tea to like, get up and move your body, have a little dance around toilet breaks, whatever it might be, and then we'll get back into another 40-minute sprint and 10-minute break and we're going to see how that goes on this first riding sprints day and see if that time works or we might want to make it shorter, we might want to make it longer, we'll adjust that, but that is the plan going into today.
Speaker 1:So what I have set is I generally, when I write in the mornings, roughly I have around an hour, sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less, and I will average probably around a thousand words, sometimes a little bit more. So my goal for today is to definitely I want to finish today definitely hitting like minimum 4,000 words and then it would be nice to hit 5,000 words and then anything above that is like extra, extra special. So I've hit my goal at a reasonable goal word count, knowing myself, knowing how much I do right, and I think that's important when we're setting our goals to go under a little bit like allow a little bit of flexibility to hit that minimum point so that it's achievable. And then you hit it and you're just like hell, yeah, I hit that. So you're feeling really good and energetic. Then anything over that you're definitely going to be fired up and you're definitely going to feel so much better than if you were to hit like a map For example, me, if I hit, if I was like I need to write 10,000 words and then I don't even get there, I'm not going to feel good. So let's hit a minimum and then anything above that is like yeah, we're feeling good. Then you get to the end and you're just like hell, yeah, I hit that Now.
Speaker 1:So word count goal definitely it now. So word count goal definitely. Um, it might be project goals. You know, um, you might be looking at. I think, even if you are at like not a writing stage, but even editing sprints might be good. If you come into this, um, in a way of like, okay, I want to edit 10 pages in this writing sprint session, I want to edit 20 pages, whatever it might be, that can definitely work too. So if you've got like a more project-based goal, put that down with what you want to achieve. You know whether it's if you want to do a word count or you could go I want to write four chapters, okay, and then you can calculate how many words as well. But if that feels better and more achievable and the way that feels better for you with doing it more chapter than actually words. Do that as well.
Speaker 1:Now the next sort of thing is setting your environment. So, whether you have your own private office to write, whether you have, you know whether you might be going to another space, like a cafe or whatever it might be just setting your environment, bringing everything that you have. You know whether you might be going to another space, like a cafe or whatever it might be just setting your environment, bringing everything that you need your headphones, something to drink, snacks, whatever you know. It might be sensory toys I definitely always have little squishy things and sensory toys around me that make me feel comfortable. Whatever you know, it might be a notebook, notepad, pen, whatever feels right for you. Set your right environment. Try and find, like a quiet place where you won't be interrupted or distraction free. You know whether you might want to listen to some music. Get your soundtracks ready. Just prepare your space that feels really good. Music. Get your soundtracks ready. Just prepare your space that feels really good.
Speaker 1:And before you even get into writing and this is what I'm going to do in our writing session today is go through a little bit of a meditation process that I have been doing with my writing over the last couple of months and setting intentions. Before I even get into writing, I'm closing down my eyes, I'm placing my hand on my heart. I'm setting intentions for my writing session. So how do I want to feel? How do I want to feel when I'm writing? How do I want to feel with my characters? Like, what's that connection? Just really tapping into your intention and the feelings that you want to feel as you write.
Speaker 1:And then also another step of this is to set intentions of what you want your readers to feel when they are reading your books. What do you want them to feel? What do you want them to tap into as they're reading your words? Like, do you want them to feel the anger? Do you want them to feel the suspense? Do you want them to feel like just stressed out about what's happening, whatever it might be? Set that intention and this goes such a long way with energy and energetics and really tapping into when people are reading your book and I found this because I have had multiple voice messages and messages from my latest release, dead Little Games and people like with tears down their eyes and then feeling every emotion. And I know that because I set that intention when I went into writing it and when I went into setting these intentions as I was writing it and that energy that goes into it is felt when the readers read it and there's so much to impact there and there's a lot that I'm working on with that. So I will share everything as I progress through that. But we're going to set those intentions before we write to really bring ourselves into the session and you might want to light a candle, you might want to light I'd always do incense, whatever it might be and just really set that tone for the day. Now, as we're going to get on Zoom, you can either have your video on video off, you can be playing music, whatever it might be.
Speaker 1:Something that I'm going to try today too, is actually going live on TikTok as writing sprints. So I'm going to have my phone up on my ring light over here. I'm going to be on Zoom on my computer and I'm going to bring, yeah, be on TikTok live and just be typing and not responding to people, but really just being like, okay, I'm in a writing sprint, watch me write and see how that goes. Like that's two in two in terms of marketing, in terms of like reach on TikTok, going live by yeah, going live and doing writing sprints. So I'm going to try that today and see how that goes. Yeah, that is sort of my prepare. Like that is everything that I have done to prepare for my writing sprints today. I will do another recording after to let you know sort of how the day went, what sort of progressed throughout the day, what I would change, what went well, what didn't go well.
Speaker 1:And yeah, I'm really excited to actually dedicate this amount of time to writing. I haven't done that in a very long time. I always have like short stints of writing, not like a full day for it. So part of me is like, oh my goodness, so much time a little bit overwhelming, but feeling really good to be able to focus on that for that amount of time. So I hope you will join us for one of these writing sprints. There will be another one next month as well. I'm hoping to do them every. Month might be even more, we'll see how we go. But if you want to join us, month might be even more, we'll see how we go. But if you want to join us, definitely check out our website or probably social media as well, or even just reach out for me via dm for the zoom link to register, and I hope to see you in one of these sprints, and I will be back soon with a little update. So wish me luck and I will speak to you in the next episode. Much love.