This issue is filled with typos. Here’s why…

I’m typing this newsletter from the air, on a flight cross-country to celebrate Thanksgiving in Miami with Toni’s family. 

But I’m also typing it using a application I recently discovered and fell in love with, called Cold Turkey Writer. It suimultaneously makes it MUSCH easier to write these quickly, and encourages an open-mind while typing.

Why?

Because it completely takes over my computer screen, and will NOT let me quit the application until I’ve met my writing goal – weather that’s a specific word count, specific amount of time writing, or… I think that’s it actually.

So immediately, any chance of a distraction is eliminated. And when I say you can’t quit this thing, I mean you CAN’T quit it. It’s great.

But that’s not the only reason I love it.

It also has a setting (if you’re willing to shell out $9 for the paid version, lifetime purchase BTW, not bad) – where it will not let you delete or use your arrow keys to go backwards and make a change.

This totally hcanges your mindset as you write.

It’s now impossible to strive for perfect writing. You’re forced to do what I would argue you SHOULD be striving to do on any first draft – get the story/idea down on paper as fast as possible.

And maybe more importantly, let your ideas flow freely.

As someone who constantly second guesses every sentence he just wrote, this is very liberating.

It’s also a little sad that I have to put my brain in a self-imposed prison and limit its options like this in order to get anything done in a reasonable amount of time, but at a certain point you just have to accept ywho you are and stop trying to swim upstream from that. This works for me.

For example, just in the first paragraph, there were 3 things I wanted to change immediately after typing them.

“Typing this newsletter from the air”?

I can do better than that! How about “Rattling this off from a very cramped seat 29C”?

Do they know Toni is my girlfriend?

Shouldn’t I try to put something funny in the opening paragraphy?

Oh well! Too late. I already typed it. And there’s no going backwards. I’ve burned the typographical boats already. Typographical? That’s not the eight word. Oh well, figure it out later.

Anyway, the reason I wanted to do this was not because I’m too lazy to give you guys a second draft like I normally would…

I wanted to introduce you to a very helpful practice for any kind of writing – but especially fiction and screenplays – WRITING SPRINGS. Fuck. SPRINTS.

I also can’t fix my typose, sorry everyone.

What’s a writing sprint and why would I care?

Writing as fast as you can without turning back or making any attempt to correct yourself is – according to some writers – a necessary part of the writing process.

It kickstarts your writing flow state, because no matter how long or short the sprint is, you’re forced to take a metaphorical cannonball into the deep end of putting words on a page.

Are the words going to be any good? That’s a total crapshoot. Probably not, honestly.

But a 10 minute sprint will greatly increase the odds that you 1) Actually FEEL like writing “normally” AFTER your sprint ends, and 2) End up writing something BETTER than you would have if you hadn’t forced the matter with a sprint to START.

I set Cold Turkey Writer to get me to 500 word s for this exercise, but have already blown through that with more ease than I thought possible. Seriously, this took about 5-10 minutes! I usually spend 1-2 hours on a newsletter.

Too bad I can’t egt away with this every week lol.

But I will be using this app and these sprints to write future issues, just cleaning them up AFTERWARDS so you won’t be able to tell the difference.

The power of doing one thing at a time

Your brain operate s differently between first draft mode and revision mode, don’t try to do them both at the same time. That’s the main lesson from this newsletter.

Allow yourself the freedom to write something awful.

That’s the way to get a first draft out. You have all the time in the world to try to make it actually good LATTER. LATER**

And maybe give Cold Turkey Writer a shot, this isn’t sponsored or anything, I literally found this app yesterday, but their free version is solid and gives you the main features.

You know what else works though?

A pen and paper.

Classic.

Get writing!

And let’s make some movies.

Kent

(Edit: I DID go back and fix a few typos just so you could understand what the hell I was trying to say, and made the spacing prettier for email. You’re welcome.)

PS – Next week I’m announcing something exciting for anyone who’s been interested in joining WRAPPED in 30 Days. Keep your eyes peeled as spots will be limited. Or join the wait list on the site if you want to be first in line 😉