Follow @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter

If you're on Twitter, you should be following @NaNoWordSprints, the sprinting account run by NaNo staff.

We run frequent word sprints at odd times to try and keep your word count flowing, and give you challenges and prompts to help move your novel along!

A quick summary of how word sprints work!

One of our word sprints team (made up of OLL staff and MLs) will tweet a start time for a sprint. It will say something like "15 minute sprint starting in 5 minutes at :15! Who's in?" The :15 is the start time for all time zones that are on a full hour offset from UTC. (Sorry, time zones on other offsets like Newfoundland. Blame the Twitter character limit for our exclusionary behaviour!)

We might post a dare "Include a flashback in this next scene!" or a challenge "Beat your best-ever 15 minute word sprint word count!", or we might make a joke about NaGoBaTi. (That's mostly me. It stands for National Go to the Bathroom Time, and it's when we all rush to the bathroom in anticipation of a word sprint starting. It turned into kind of a thing last year.) You can tweet at us to let us know you're writing, or just get ready to write!

When we hit the start time, we'll tweet a "Go!" of some kind, and everyone will scurry off and write as much as they can, as fast as they can, in the pre-determined amount of time. Sometimes we do a series of short sprints, sometimes we'll do as much as an hour at a time. It varies depending on who's tweeting and how long our attention span is!

If it's a longer sprint, we might warn you that it's halfway through (it can be good to have our Twitter feed in the background if you don't have a timer set on your own end), and then we'll tell you when time is up. We'll ask for your word count from the sprint, and ask questions about the scene you just wrote or ask about where you're joining us from. Then, the sprint leader either lets you know when the next sprint is or, if they're signing off, either passes the sprint baton to the next sprint leader or lets you know when the next set of scheduled sprints will be.

Word sprints run somewhat sporadically, although as regularly as we can manage (and with much better time zone coverage this year thanks to our team of international MLs!) It's mostly just a way to force yourself to sit down and WRITE for however long, uninterrupted and with the companionship of OLL staff, MLs, and other virtual sprinting friends.

You don't need to sign up, although you can certainly let us know you're participating with an @ reply. You're welcome to follow/unfollow the account as you wish - we tweet a lot, so if you're not sprinting it can be a bit overwhelming. The only rule is write as much as you can! It's overall pretty informal and it's a lot of fun. Those who have participated before can attest to the surprising power of a word sprint for a word count boost!

I'm planning on leaning on this tool when I start writing too slowly. Thanks so much!

I am following now.

I followed the wordsprints, and I've never had so much fun on twitter, ever. I'm also convinced that the wordsprints were the sole reason for making me reach my goal of 5000 the first day. Suddenly 50,000 doesn't seem so daunting, and the prompts the twitterers are coming up with are so useful in making the plot move forward! I'd recommend it for every NaNo-er that's on twitter.

This will be fun, I've been watching the Sprints, but am yet to participate. :) I'll probably do so soon, once I have a good scene in mind for writing. ;)

@NaNoWordSprints is amazing! I used it for a few hours on Day 1 and I hit 7412 words. Now to see if I can double that today :D Aiming for 15000.

Overachiever? Yep. But mostly I've organised chocolate to be given to me by a third party when I hit 10000, and 20000 and so on. I want that chocolate. :D

Put @NaNoWordSprints and WriteOrDie together, and I think you could finish NaNo in a week. Unless you're sushimustwrite of nanowiki fame, who seems like she's about to finish her first novel of the year sometime today. :D

I have been following but haven't started one on time yet. But I have written down some of the more interesting challenges that I think will help when I get stuck at some point.

Sprints are fantastic. They are a great way to, for want of a better phrase, shove a red-hot poker up the butt of your word count and get it shooting through the roof. :P

I started out today with 5,274 and feeling hopeless. After following @NaNoWordSprints, my word count is up to 10,790 and still going! Thanks, NaNoWriMo team! :D

/end commercial

No, but really. I'm feeling super successful now. :P

I LOVE sprinting. I was stuck at a point in my novel and sprinting helped me so much.

Honestly, I've never finished NaNo before..Always finding my inner critic stopping my progress. NaNo Sprints, especially on Twitter have helped me keep blowing past my own critic and getting the words out!!

Thanks for all your help @NaNoWordSprints!!!!

I tries to follow. But every time that I go I keep missing it by a few minutes or more. I'm never sure what time that they start until its too late.

This is what I would like to know as well.

They are random, but held every fifteen minutes or so. Some run 5, 10 15 minutes apart...but if you wait, another one will come usually very close after the last, especially during the afternoon evening.

[removed]

Almost... There... Must... Use... Word... Sprints... More... Often...

And with the help of @NaNoWordSprints, I was able to win my very first NaNo in seven years!!!!

Thank you so much to all the Sprinting team....I literally would not have been able to do it without you!

I have totally been looking for something to be able to keep my mind sharp and be able to write everyday. I've gone back to the old pen and paper (mostly because of all my notebooks since I have a whole bin full) and I've been having trouble writing recently with getting no stories finished. My therapist wanted me to find something where I would write everyday and this is totally the answer! Thanks!