Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Word Wars

So, writing is hard. Not like back-breaking, sweat-inducing, chain-gang, sweat-shop kind of hard, just the type that makes you bleed out of your finger tips kind of hard. Sounds fun doesn't it? But that's the thing, it is fun...after you get started. Facing that blank page might just be the toughest thing.

That's where Word Wars come into play. I've been having them with my writing group. What the hey diddle diddle is a Word War? Well! I heard about Word Wars from Brodi Ashton, author of EVERNEATH, and Bree Despain, author of the DARK DIVINE series. They have them all the time. These two writers are geniuses, and they're pretty smart, too. They challenge each other to write for an hour straight, and then they post their word totals on Twitter. The highest word count wins. Viola, Word War.

And it works!

Sitting down to write a novel is daunting. Sitting down to write one scene for a mere hour is WAY easier, and knowing your friend is doing the same thing helps a ton. It also doesn't hurt knowing they are trying to kick your can all over the place, and you better produce words as ammo if you don't want to lose the war.

What do you do to jump start your writing, or whatever you non-writers do to torture yourselves? I'd really love to know how you do it.

5 comments:

Cherie said...

Well, I played tennis this morning, and it turned out to be fun rather than torture.

Jonene Ficklin said...

You know, an hour is do-able. They had a great idea, combining a realistic goal with friendly competition. Thanks for sharing!

Carolyn V said...

I talk to my writing buddies. It always seems to get me going again. Or running on the treadmill, it gives me tons of time to think. =)

Sandy L. Rowland said...

I write like a crazy woman, unfortunately, some of my musings read like I'm insane.I suffer from too many ideas and dense writing.
I'm working on cutting the excess and making something work.

Great post!

Hermana Maw said...

Cherie, I've always wanted to try tennis, and I want to even more now that I know it's not torture. :)

Jonene, an hour is do-able. Especially when friends urge you on. ;)

Carolyn, writing buddies are the very best. I'm so blessed to have some great ones...and I have a treadmill, but I am not on speaking terms with it right now. He he.

Sandy, at least you are writing! That's the first battle. Editing is a whole other war. Hugs!

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