If there is one thing NaNoWriMo taught me about my writing it’s that I am capable of achieving more than I could ever dream possible if I just try. And if there’s another it taught me, it’s how AWESOME word wars are. I can be having the worst writing day ever, but turn on that timer, and I’m off. See you later, because the words are flowing out of my hands and onto the page at the speed of greased lightening. Maybe not good words, very probably quite terrible ones if we’re being completely honest, but words are words, and they all have the potential to be amazing once they’ve been through a few rounds of revisions. It’s just the act of actually writing them that I generally tend to get a bit stuck on.
Word wars, for anyone who has never encountered these before, are super simple, and amazing effective. Set a timer for a certain amount of time. I usually go anywhere between 10-25 minutes, depending on how I feel. Start the timer, and see how many words you can write before time runs out. It sounds incredibly simple, and it is. But there’s something about having a ticking clock and a limited amount of time in which to write that gets me anxious to put those words on the page. It gets even better when I have some friends to war with, and we all compare word counts at the end. There’s no ‘winner’. Just words on the page, and people pumped about writing, encouraging each other on.
For me, part of the attraction of word wars is definitely the competitive nature of them. Whether I’m writing alongside other people, or it’s just me, I want to see how high I can pump that word count. I want to beat my previous record, or my best record. Another part of the appeal though, is the fact that when you only have limited time to write in, a) suddenly there’s an urgency to your writing, and b) you only have to concentrate for a finite amount of time. And they’re so more-ish. One word war is never enough. I want another. And another. And before you know it, there are thousands of words on the page, and I don’t feel like I’ve struggled at all.
Word wars are the simplest and best way I’ve ever found to jump start my writing. Whether it’s cramming a short one in between other tasks, or whether it’s kick starting a whole writing session, word wars are the most powerful tool I’ve ever added to my arsenal. It being November at the moment, I’m either using a word war bot on my home region’s Discord server (my region people are awesome and our Discord server is AMAZING) or I’m hopping in and out of the wars on the official @NaNoWordSprints account over on Twitter. They have wars running around the clock during November, which means that there’s always someone around for me to sprint with. And sometimes, I just turn a timer on and go for it solo. Words are words, and word wars are my favourite way to kickstart my writing, and get those words down on the page.
Have you ever participated in a word war before? What’s your most effective way to get yourself to start writing? Do you prefer writing solo, or in the company of friends? Have you ever met up with writing friends in real life?
