Who doesn’t want to write more words, faster? That’s the whole point of NaNoWriMo, Summer Camp and WorldEmber! Writing more will not only help you reach your writing goals faster, but it will also give you a sense of progress that will make you more motivated too. So let’s look at some things you can do to write more words with less time!

How to write more words per day? Skip the delete button

The first step to writing more words is to stop deleting them! That’s right —forget about that delete button, take it off your keyboard if you have to. I know, sometimes you write something and immediately realize it’s not that good, or it has a typo, or it’s just outright terrible. We all do that —I’ve been doing that non-stop while writing this post! But when you have a word count goal, such as 50k for NaNoWriMo or 10k for WorldEmber, quantity is more important than quality. Don’t worry if what you’re writing isn’t perfect, it doesn’t need to be – at least, not yet!

Now, you might be asking yourself: what’s the point of having lots of words if they’re not good words? The thing is, many of these words that you delete could end up being useful in the future. Sometimes you delete whole paragraphs, thinking that they’re the worst thing you’ve ever written, only to find that they were actually perfect for a different part of the text. Or that, with a little bit of editing later on, you can take something a bit messy and turn it into something wonderful! So give second-draft you something to work with – and stop deleting your words!

How to increase your word count for a writing sprint? Know what you’re writing in advance!

There’s nothing worse that kicking off a writing sprint, only to stare at a blank page. Few people can complete a writing sprint without knowing what they’ll write about. So make sure you prepare for it! The method of preparation will depend on your workflow and the kind of text you’re writing. But, in general, the most important part is to know what you’ll be writing. If you’re worldbuilding, pick an area of your world you want to expand upon and do a quick brainstorming session. For writing a novel or short story, find the scene you want to write next and decide what will happen, including locations and characters. In both cases, make sure to reference your preparation (your pledge document or your NaNoWriMo prep) so that what you write is consistent with the rest!

Want to write more words every day? Learn to write in flow

Flow is a state of mind that lets you write in a continuous creative stream. And writing in flow is great for getting more words onto the page, and getting your ideas our faster! There are a few things you can do to achieve this state of inspiration:

  • Set up your writing space and time: clean up the clutter on your desk, but also in your mind. Establishing writing rituals or habits can help you get a clearer mind for writing too. Try to set a regular daily writing schedule if you can, and try different times until you find the right one for you.
  • Silence and music: try setting up music playlists for your writing. The kind of music you choose will depend on your tastes (and what you’re writing too!) —for example, I can’t write if the music has lyrics I can understand! If you need silence to focus, try to find a quiet place or time, and consider getting noise-cancelling headphones.
  • Review your previous writing: and no, this doesn’t mean to edit it. But reading what you wrote the day before will help you get into the mood you were in when you last finished writing. This is critical to picking up the flow again.
  • Read: stuck in your writing? Get a book and read a random page! Sometimes you get stuck because you’re too focused on whatever you’re writing. Reading a short segment of another book will inspire you and open your mind to other options and solutions.
  • Stop short: write cliff-hangers for yourself! If you end your writing session without resolving the conflict, you’ll feel much more motivated to get writing the next day.

Of course, these tips will depend on your own writing process and your personality. The best advice you can get is to experiment with many different ways so you can find what works best for you!

To get your goal word count quicker, prep your images in advance!

Images can be a huge help for your inspiration, just like music! This week, your task is to find reference images or inspiration pictures for the prompts or stubs you want to work on next. Remember that if you make these images public in your world, you must credit their authors (and make sure you have permission)! Check out our list of free-use character portrait resources and landscape image resources if you don’t know where to start!

  1. For each stub or prompt, select one aspect
  2. Find/source/develop an image for it and add it to the stub
  3. Submit your articles in the comments to show off your work! <3