Want to sprint this August?

The countdown for your next 7-Day Writing Sprint is on - and you're invited.

Hello friends,

We’re just one week away from our next 7-Day Writing Sprint which starts on the 5th of August - exciting! 🙌​

If you’re new to this community, our writing sprints are unique and have been honed, sculpted and lovingly crafted over the years to contain the perfect combination of motivation, encouragement, and community accountability. Although they probably don’t contain the perfect number of GIFs as Chris tends to go a bit mad with these. 😂​

How do sprints work?

Sprinting is fast, fun, simple and effective. First you need a project to work on - something you might be stuck on or feel you need to give a bit more welly. Over seven days we send you emails though Substack asking you tell us what you’re planning to write that day (how many words etc, not the content). We suggest keeping your steps small.

You can check in with the sprint group or you can go solo - it’s up to you. We’re on hand over the seven days and you can tap us up for some free coaching advice - we love this.

Here’s a post that explains a bit more and gives you details on how to join our super-supportive sprint club.

Some admin (yawn)

» Our sprints are for paying members only so if you’d like to join us, you’ll need to subscribe before you start. Substack offers a free 7-day trial so you might be able to use this to get a sneak peak of how the sprints work.

» If you can’t afford a subscription, we’ll comp you one - just ask.

» If you’re a paying member but haven’t yet signed up to the sprint club (I know, complicated, huh) why not give sprinting a go this month? All you need to do is join the club - details in this post. ​

6 tips get the most out of August’s sprint

Some of these are practical things you can change, some are mindset things you might want to consider before you get going:

1. Don’t be shy, say hi: You might think of yourself as a lone wolf and that’s fine, but we find that the people who have the most productive (and fun) sprint experiences are those who engage with our lovely community of supportive writers. 🤗​ Engaging keeps you accountable and feeling accountable keeps you going - simple.

2. Find the right space and place: Try to find a physical space where you can work and feel comfortable in. This can be anywhere. It doesn’t need to be ‘perfect’ in any way - it just needs to suit your needs. Also, have the right ‘writing stuff’ around you so you’re ready to sprint on Monday - pens, coffee, laptop, noise cancelling headphones, lucky gonk, more coffee etc.

3. Set a realistic goal for the week: Big ambitions are great but often, people take on too much too soon. It might not feel exciting, but it’s far better to start small and build up rather than go big and burn out.

4. Don’t let word count targets overwhelm you: A super-practical one this. Be careful of setting targets that mount up and become onerous. For example, if you goal is to write 7 x 500 words per day towards a 3,500 weekly word target and you fall short one day then you might struggle to catch up. Don’t make it any harder than it is already!

5. Get ready to surprise yourself: We often have assumptions about what we can and can’t do: I’ll never be able to write with everything else going on in my life, I’ll never be able to write if the kids are off school, I’ll never be able to write in such a short period of time etc. Sprints are good for challenging your assumptions, which is why you need to…

6. Be open: Consider your sprint week an opportunity to throw things up in the air and try new things. Some of those things may fail, others might work and that’s okay. Sprints are about learning not beating yourself up. There’s only one way to find out whether you can produce any writing and that’s to test and experiment.

That’s all for now, let’s get limbering up!

Chris and Bec - your sprint coaches