Thursday, August 11, 2011

#1K1HR

I've recently become more active on Twitter (shameless plug - if you'd like to follow me you can find me here http://twitter.com/#!/KiraSinclair). Sure, I love keeping up with my friends, my favorite authors and industry professionals. But there's something else I've discovered on Twitter that I absolutely love - the hash tag 1K1HR.

For those of you unfamiliar with it, this is where writers post when they're going to start a writing sprint - hoping for 1K words in 1HR. It's a great place to meet new people, encourage fellow writers and find a group who'll hold you accountable for the work you need to do.

I discovered this group when I was having trouble getting back into a book that I'd set aside for a little while. I needed something to help me push through the mental block so that the words would start flowing again. And this totally worked! I joined several sessions and within a couple days had more than twenty pages. This is amazing considering I'd spent the previous week staring at the blank computer screen and being excited when I got two pages.

I think this works for me because I'm pretty competitive. I know, y'all are surprised. Having another writer nipping at my heels pushes me to keep going when quitting would be easier. I haven't been active for the last several days because I'm in the middle of line edits, but I know that when I'm finished and I need help getting back into the story my first stop is going to be Twitter and #1K1HR.

Are there any other hash tags on Twitter that I need to check out? I feel like there's an entire world out there that I haven't discovered. If you're a writer, do you have an accountability system? Have you tried 1K1HR?

Instigator

4 comments:

Problem Child said...

Um, no. I'm not what you'd call speedy and that would just put a lot of pressure on me that I wouldn't be able to produce. I'm a slow and steady kind of girl.

Anonymous said...

My best day EVER was 4000 words. I think that challenge would just freeze my brains. But if it works for you then do it!

PM

Angel said...

That sounds cool! Might give me a reason to join Twitter, which I've avoided up until now.

The hashtags confuse me, probably because I'm not on Twitter, so I haven't figured out how it all works. But that sounds like a great way to stay accountable.

I've enjoyed doing sprints like that for a while now, if I can find someone to do them with.

Angel

Kira Sinclair - AKA Instigator said...

Hash tags are just a way to...categorize your post. They put all posts about a certain subject in one place so you can read them all easily. For instance, #TrueBlood would be a discussion about the latest show.

Instigator