Today is all about Sprints (or WordWars, depending on how you look at it). Our little writing group has found that sprints (our generic term) work… for lots of things, especially writing. If you want to get technical, a sprint is when you set a specific time to write… say GO, then, after the time is up, everyone posts what they wrote. (Now at this time, there’s usually a ‘winner’… the one who wrote the most. But, in our fantastically wonderful group, if you wrote just ONE word… you’re a winner. And we really love to pat each other on the back because we understand how difficult it is to get words out.)
There is also something called a Word War. This is when you set aside an amount of words to write… then the first person to reach that goal is the winner.
Both options are available if you have nothing but a chat room. If your group is tight-knit like ours, you’ll come to realize that the only person you are competing against is yourself… and the people (or person) you’re writing against… is there to help you out… to push you to your writing goal.
There are things online (and off) that can provide a structured environment to sprint in, and I’ll list them below. Some are free… some aren’t. I haven’t had a chance to try all of them, but I hope to in the future. So, if you’re ready… the starting gun is about to go off!
http://wordwar.io – competitive writing game (by the same guy that made writeordie)
http://oldandbusted.writeordie.com – old version of writeordie with web app for free (need to scroll down about halfway for Web App)
http://writeordie.com – Write or Die 2 (I think this costs money)
http://www.writedeck.com/ – simple, need to sign up (specifically for word wars)
http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/222601-nanowrimo-writing-game# – offline game to help you get your wordcount up
http://writtenkitten.net/ – start writing, get a new kitten pic every certain number of words (you can put in your own search term and get everything from dinosaurs to hunky studs of your choosing instead of kittens)
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