The 6X20 sprint experiment
So I’ve been writing for a good… (hang on, let me count)… seven years.
Glad I was seated for that — it feels like I only started yesterday.
In those years, I’ve tried so many ways of writing. Plotting, pantsing, something in between, something not quite right, something weird, and something I don’t want to talk about. (The red wine stains are still not out of the floor. Winks.)
I tried it all, and nothing really stuck.
Of course, the changes in life didn’t help either. And the way I wrote my first books is wildly different from how I do it now.
Alright — not everything, but the time I spend on them definitely is.
So one day, I came up with this experiment.
To find my way back to my way of writing.
To stop pressuring myself to sit in front of a screen for 8 hours, only to end up screaming in frustration when nothing works.
I’m not the best at being kind to myself.
So this? This allows me just that.
And still lets me make progress. (Suck it, Achiever me.)
Without pushing too hard.
I’m recovering from burnout, and that’s an up-and-down path.
The rules (or at least the ones I use):
6 sprints of 20 minutes
That’s 2 hours total of writing
Add 5-minute breaks = 2 hours 25 minutes max
That’s it.
That’s all the time I spend (most days) on writing.
And no — I don’t just mean typing.
It can be editing, deleting, moving scenes, crying into my keyboard…
It still counts.
The magic? I follow the spark.
I can start in any manuscript that calls to me.
If I do one sprint in it and it flows — great. I stay with it.
If not? I still have sprints left. So I switch.
In theory, I could do:
6 different sprints in 6 different stories
Or 5 in one, and 1 in another
Or 2×2×2 — whatever works.
That’s the joy in this: I don’t force myself into a rigid plan.
As long as I move forward — in writing or thinking — it counts.
And yes, there are loopholes.
If I have a burn day (you know, the kind where the story just takes over), I’m allowed to ride that wave.
Even if it blows past my sprints.
But — and yes, it’s a big one — I can only have two burn days in a row.
No third. After that, I must rest. (I know myself — I burn out fast.)
If I really need to, I’m allowed to do a 6×20 day after two burn days.
That’s my compromise with the overachiever in me.
Two weeks in?
So far, I’m hitting my weekly goals — and even going over.
Even with a tough day in week two, I still moved forward. Got words down. Adjusted.
Even if I hated one day’s process… it was still progress.
It’s a fun experiment.
And I really hope I can make this my base rhythm — a way to write that fits me.
Finding balance between stories, Your Way In, motherhood, burnout recovery, and… just living well.
Want to see what this experiment looks like on my tracking whiteboard — with all the rules, all the options laid out?
