5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter

This book popped up on Kindle as something I might be interested in, and I decided to give it a shot. I've read similar things, and I was skeptical, but I'm glad I read this one.There isn't much here that I didn't already know, but it's put together in a way that clicked in my brain. Seriously, the very night I bought and started reading this book, I wrote words more easily than I have in years. The next day, I wrote over 1,000 words in 30 minutes - when I had previously struggled to write 500 words in 2-3 hours. The day after that, I wrote even faster.Simply put, the advice works, although I've tailored it a little bit to my own process and experience. For instance, the author recommends starting out with 5-minute sprints, and gradually building up to 30 minutes. I may eventually get there, but the idea of focusing for 30 minutes is daunting to my ADHD brain. Considering the progress I'm making just stringing a bunch of 5-minute sprints together, I may keep doing that.I also definitely appreciate that the author got right to the point. No need for fluff when I bought this book because I'm interested in the advice. And because of the short length, I got through it quickly, even while putting the advice into action.I can't recommend this book enough. The little bit the author talks about his experience is very similar to my own - a perfectionist who couldn't get out of his own head and make real progress with his words. But this book shows a better way.

This elegant book changed my writing IMMEDIATELY. I’m so glad I read it!I've been writing for several years and have always struggled a great deal with slow writing, due to allowing the inner editor to hamstring my forward momentum. 1,000 words a day was always my aspiration, but I didn’t often get there. It's a big, ongoing frustration.The very first time I sat down to use the suggestions in this book, I more than tripled my previous word count per hour. Using short, timed writing sprints, I produced over 2,000 words in less than three hours of writing. I did the same thing on day two, and by day three I wrote more than 3500 words. This is a brand new novel manuscript I’m working on, and I fully expect the writing to be first draft caliber, but I can say with great confidence that it is no rougher than the rough draft material I’ve slowly sweated over in the past. In five days I've written over 11,500 words, and I am absolutely confident that I can sustain this level of writing. If this sounds like hyperbole, all I can say is that it’s a push toward a level of productivity that I have wanted for a LONG TIME, so I’m feeling quite enthusiastic.I've read probably a dozen books on motivation/speed/overcoming resistance, and while there are always takeaway ideas, none of those books actually got me writing faster or more efficiently. Suddenly I'm looking at 3,000 words a day of fresh composition as not only do-able, but as a reasonable springboard for eventually writing at least 5k a day.There’s a free iPhone app that can be downloaded in tandem with the 5k method in the book. I don’t have an iPhone, but Fox provides a spreadsheet alternative. I used a simple timer with the spreadsheet, and it worked great. My understanding is that the author (who is also an app developer for Apple) is looking to work with an android app developer to get an app made for non-iPhone users.The reason I describe this book as elegant is that it’s streamlined information. You won’t have to wade through a long-winded introductory chapter that tells you what to expect in the rest of the book. Fox just dives in and gets you moving. At the end of the book, he shares some very inspirational information about his own development as a successful author, businessperson, and man—I found it moving and am quite impressed with his work. Highly recommend!

These are my preliminary thoughts before I put it into practice... I am going to come back and update after I have tried this for a month.I'll start off by saying I'm extremely skeptical of the concept of writing in sprints (for myself): Just the word ''sprints'' fills me with all kinds of terror, images of rushed and sloppy prose, not to mention the inevitable deer-in-headlights feeling of staring at a blank page and knowing your time is running out. But I have a problem, which is that I've been working on the same novel for four years, that I get bogged down excessively in re-writes, sometimes drafting a chapter 30 different times. I have a colleague who has written four books and secured agents for two in the same two years that I've been editing my first novel. He started off as a mediocre writer and has blossomed just through the sheer act of repetition, now producing thousands of words a day despite an incredibly busy schedule. So, in theory, I think this can work.The question is, can I do it? Me, the obsessive, perfectionistic, constantly editing-as-I-write mess of an author who is getting really tired of working on this particular novel?Chris Fox is confident that I can do it, and I'm desperate, so I'm going to take his word for it. If his nonfiction is any reflection of his fiction, he might be onto something here. 5kwph is well-organized, to the point, not stuffed with a bunch of pointless filler, and surprisingly compelling. My main concern is that the quality of my writing will diminish significantly during these sprints, and I think in the short term, that is inevitable. But the way the author puts it, focus first on mastering speed, and the rest will follow because your experience will grow by leaps and bounds with every word you write. He also makes the excellent point, which I often forget in the midst of my crusades, that everything you write in a draft may very well be scrapped once you later realize the scene doesn't work, so it's pointless to obsess over any one part of the novel until it's drafted. This is a guy who seems well-grounded in the fundamentals of craft.Per his instructions, I've started the 5-minute writing sprints. As predicted, the process is unnerving and uncomfortable. My hands shake. My brain struggles just to process the fact that I can't edit what I've put down on the page. It's helpful, for now, to think of these sprints as little more than an experiment, separate from my ''real'' writing practice. I can write some crappy, useless stuff with these sprints each day, and then focus on quality work afterward. My 153 words in 5 minutes seemed piddling until the spreadsheet translated them into WPH: 1,836. Hey, now that's not bad, the notion that I could produce 3600 words a day in just two hours at this pace. I've done two 5-minute sprints, and something interesting happened right around the end of each session: I started to find a rhythm. I was just getting into it when the timer went off.So yes, I have hope that something can come of this. I will stick to it for a month and I should have a concrete record of my progress.There are two criticisms I have. First, despite the book being well-organized and to the point, I still had to sit through a chapter about the power of visualization, which I have never found effective personally and which research indicates is not effective. I find the idea of imagining myself a famous author repugnant and unrealistic. Chris Fox suggests we imagine what sort of car we're driving, as he seems to think everyone wants to be rich. It veered perilously close to the Law of Attraction nonsense. Second, I didn't find his spreadsheet on his website as he promised in the book. I found the website difficult to navigate and there was nothing helpful about this system on the site. I eventually found the spreadsheet elsewhere on the internet, on a blog article reviewing his book. The spreadsheet is very basic and you can make it yourself in less time than it takes to hunt down his version.Let's hope I report back in November fired up and ready to blast through NaNoWriMo.(Side note: Just a comment on the power of Gamification. There is a website called 4thewords that literally gamifies writing by structuring it like an RPG. You have bosses to fight, quests to complete, and items to collect, and your only weapon is your words. The boss battles are timed, you might call the timed writing sprints, for example, write 800 words in 50 minutes to defeat this monster. The app automatically tracks your words written and records your writing streaks, best days, etc. If Chris Fox doesn't know about this site, he should, because it's the perfect companion to writing sprints.)

Very helpful. A friend recommended this book to me since i was stuck progress-wise with my writing. Reading this has really motivated me! Short but packed with good info and strategy!

Without even mentioning the massive amount of value on offer here, Chris' book is, simply put, charming.In a sea of "Write Like a Badger With an Opioid Addiction in Just 30 Days," 5KWPH is no filler and all actionable advice. Chris' frameworks for increasing output and optimizing story construction are absolutely spot on.If you're willing to put in a little effort along the way (Chris makes that easy and approachable) and are motivated to become a better writer, this is the book for you.

Court, pratique et impactant. L’auteur va à l’essentiel pour ceux qui veulent percer en ecriture. Je recommande sans aucune hesitation

Non credo che riuscirò a scrivere 5000 parole all'ora, ma i consigli mi hanno aiutato a scrivere più velocemente e organizzare meglio le sessioni. In breve tempo sono riuscita a scrivere 1000 parole all'ora, per 3-4 ore di seguito, poi ero fusa! Diciamo che aiuta a focalizzarsi e non perdere tempo. Molto utile il consiglio sui piccoli sprint di pochi minuti che ora sfrutto nei tempi morti durante la giornata.

In just one day (had 3x 5 minute sprints) my 5 Minute write sprints progressed from 100 words to 140 words.A very simple book which you can finish off in a 1-2 hour reading sprints. Most importantly, since you read it in one shot, it will most likely stick with you than any other self-help book for authors!Thanks Chris for showering your wisdom on us!

Chris Fox teaches from his experience, encouraging writers to give their best through a series of typing sprints. His message: finish your book, and if you have any doubt, just keep writing. Write the next sentence. Plan your scenes, Track your progress and try to improve your WPH (words per hour) and WPD (words per day) This book is a great deal for writers who want to finish their novels. That's your case? Buy this book and you won't regreat it.