Lessons from a Writing Sprint

The writer and community leader Christina Hubbard was leading a bunch of us on a writing sprint,? an exercise to become unstuck, to write an article for our blogs, newsletters, book, or community.

We had 22 minutes to write down our thoughts. The prompt was “Describe a time you experienced delight.” We were told to write without thinking, stopping or editing, and to describe the experience in words, images, sensory details, and how we experienced it.

I was making great progress. About 8-10 paragraphs, 200 wonderful words. I was really on a roll. I felt so empowered.

Disaster

I did make a typo and went to correct it, but evidently I pressed some combination of wrong keys and my whole article disappeared. Instead of two monitors with different documents, all I could see was the windows on monitor 1, twice, repeated on both monitors. I tried a few different keystrokes, but couldn’t figure out how to get back to two screens, or to even see what was on my second screen.

I calmed down enough to go into Windows settings, then to screens. I could go back and forth between the windows that had been on my first screen and the ones that had been on my second, but not see both.

Success?

I asked Windows to detect a second screen. But it was detecting two screens, just diplaying the same thing on both. I saw an option to Extend the displays, and presto, both screens appeared with different windows open.?

Success.

Being grounded and methodically addressing a problem worked.

No, Failure

Except, where was the story I’d just typed? The document was open, but the story was gone.

Ahh. “just press undo” I said to myself. Nope. It just undid some of my previous typing. “Press undo again.” Nope. “Well press redo a few times.” Nope.

“Okay, go to previous versions of the document.” Nope. No previous versions, nothing there.

“Maybe I’d typed on a different document.” Nope, no story on a different document.

I went back to the document and I kept pressing undo until there were no undo’s left. The document just sat there without my essay.

Everything I’d typed was gone. It couldn’t be retrieved. I could retype it, but we only had 45 seconds left in the writing sprint. I was doomed.

While I was wondering what I'd say to the leaders of the writing sprint, Christina came on and said, “Ok, time’s up for that sprint. In two minutes we will have another twenty-two minute sprint.”

The Gift, Inspiration

Hmm, what should I write in the next sprint? Should I rewrite that article?

“Ah, why not write about this experience and how you felt desperate but treated it as a learning experience and got a whole new topic to write about?” I thought.

And so, that gave me the inspiration to write this.

I lost the writing in the first sprint, but I’d gained an experience to write about. I can always rewrite the other one in about 10 or 15 minutes, but this is probably a better lesson.

I could be angry or upset. But I’m not. I never lost my head. I got a new chance to practice Mindshifting. I found the gift despite what seemed an epic setback. I have a new article. I can chalk this up as a win.?

And maybe someone reading this can point me in the direction of whatever key combination I pressed that got rid of my extended screens. Please. If you know what I did and a way to get out of it quickly, please let me know.

Postnotes

Postnote 1: that night I opened a different document to work on it, and lo and behold, my first essay was there. So now I have both!

Postnote 2: Why does a writing sprint unlock our ability to write? A writing sprint sets up a task, writing, and a timeframe, in this case 22 minutes. The task and the deadline are stressors. Stress can be motivational, it can stir us to action. Of course, too much stress is dysfunctional, it can paralyze us in a freeze reaction. For many of us, the Mindshifting aspects of the writing sprint were just enough stress to motivate us (eustress) and not so much as to freeze us (distress).