Tools for writing sprints

Plus writing full time, essential newsletters and finding an agent.

Hello there

Forgive the late email this week. But celebrate this unexpected Sunday surprise.

This time last Saturday, I was busy turning 40 on the same day my daughter turned one. It was somewhat calmer and less stressful than my 39th birthday.

You can find a lovely picture of us both below because why the hell not?

Speaking of pictures, the one above is a snap of my new physical, tangible timer. I'm going to use it to try and make myself work in writing sprints. This is something I did before it had a name when I was writing my debut novel.

Actually, I called it chunking. And I wrote a blog post about how I did my chunking. It’s all about short bursts of focused writing followed by five minutes or so rest. Or eating another biscuit, in my case.

Sound like fun? Here are some other tools and resources:

• How To Write In Sprints and Why

• Ohwrite – word sprints with friends

• The Pomodoro Technique – Why It Works & How To Do It

• The 10 best Pomodoro timer apps

• Forest app - Stay focused, be present

• Write/Sprint – time your writing sprints and track your progress

Okay. That's it. Enjoy more links below. Forward this email if you found it useful.

Iain

PS To try and save myself some time in this busy part of the year, I've picked a bunch of links where the title tells the story. Kind of cheating. All brill though.

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Links of the week

Every issue I collect and share the best advice, apps and other shenanigans that I find on my internet travels. Find something useful? Subscribe for free.

1. Becoming a Full-time Writer

2. How to Build a Thriving and Fulfilling Author Platform From Scratch

3. How to market your ebook for guaranteed sales

4. How one author uses Airtable to Plot Fiction

5. Six top tips for writing crime fiction

6. Jessie Burton on the importance of endurance for writers

7. How I found my literary agent

8. The Burner List: My Simple, Paper-Based System for Focused To-dos

9. 21 Essential Newsletters for Makers, Designers, and Creative Entrepreneurs

10. Walling - Visual walls for your ideas, projects and research

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Tweets of the week

Tweets are but the embers of a dying fire that burned the whole world down. But some of them are quite good. You can follow @iainbroome and @unslush on Twitter.

Patrick Bohan ☕️📚 @PKBohan

RESIST TEMPTATION

Anna Happy New Year! Mazzola @Anna_Mazz

‘I write Chapter 1 and then I write on.’ Muriel Spark tells us how to write a book. Iconic.

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First-time reader?

Unslush is an email newsletter written and published by Iain Broome, freelance copywriter and author of the novel, A is for Angelica. The other person in the image above makes all of these things harder.

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