I Wrote an Entire First Draft of a Novelette During Live YouTube Writing Sprints
Recently, I wrote the entire rough draft of the epistolary story Upstream live by hosting a series of YouTube writing sprints using the Live channel feature to share the process in real time. Each live stream lasted about an hour to an hour and a half and included at least two twenty-five minute sprints where we wrote as many words as possible on our works in progress. Over eleven streams and twenty-three sprints, I finished the 12,387 word first draft.
What Is A Writing Sprint?
A writing sprint is a set period of time where a writer focuses entirely on writing. It gets the name ‘sprint’ because the goal is usually to get as many words written as possible within the designated time limit. Writing sprints can also be done solo, or as part of a group.
The purpose of doing these live YouTube writing sprints was to encourage others to join in. I can do a writing sprint by myself to get words out or break through writer’s block, but writing can also be a lonely process. A well run sprint with a small group can turn that solitary work into a fun shared exercise.
How Did Live YouTube Writing Sprints Work?
The Upstream sprints usually worked the same way. I would go live on YouTube and host at least two twenty-five minute sprints. Usually, anyway. One night I was feeling really good and productive and we went for three sprints. I would set a timer on an old cell phone positioned in front of the webcam so anyone watching could see the countdown. When the alarm went off, that sprint would be over.
I called these “late-night writing sprints” because usually they started around 11 p.m. or later Eastern time. I am a bit of a night owl, and with three kids at home, that was usually the best time to find a dedicated quiet period of time for streaming. When I knew far enough in advance, I would post a heads up announcement on Bluesky or Substack.
The actual process started when I went live. I would take a minute to get the timer and my screen set up, partly to give anyone who wanted to join in a chance to come in before the first sprint started. I did all of the writing in Notepad. After introducing the story and explaining the sprint format, I would start the twenty-five minute countdown and get to writing myself.
The point of a writing sprint is to write, not edit. A bad rough draft can always be polished later, but during the sprint the goal is simply to get words out. That means the results can be rather ugly. I know I made lots of typos, grammar mistakes, awkward sentences and all kinds of other errors that got onto the page with little or no correction at the time.
Once the alarm sounded, the sprint was over. I would copy what I had written from Notepad and paste it into a Google Doc so I could get a word count. Then we would have a short check-in to compare the word counts, talk about what went right or wrong, and decide what we wanted to focus on next. After that, another twenty-five minutes went onto the clock and it would be time to sprint again.
We repeated the check-in after the second sprint. Because I was treating these YouTube writing sprints as an experiment, I also tracked a few additional metrics, including the total draft word count, the number of words written during each session and what consecutive sprint we were on.
Why Did I Do This?
To make a long story short, the experiment started during a period when a lot of accusations about AI writing were in the news. Daggermouth was a prominent one at the time. I also kept seeing books and authors questioned on YouTube and, especially, on Reddit, even when there was no clear proof that AI had been used.
That made me wonder what radical transparency would even look like? My answer was to write the story live. If someone really wanted to, they could go back through the streams and watch basically every single keystroke of the rough draft being written.
This approach probably would not work for every writer, especially someone working under a traditional publishing contract. I, on the other hand, don’t have those constraints, so I don’t have anything to lose by experimenting. If King or Sanderson did the same thing, it would probably be a sensational event. I have no idea what that would do to the eventual release once TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit already dissected every subplot before the book was published.
I had already decided that Upstream would be released directly into the Retinue Library rather than being submitted to magazines or anthologies. That matters because the entire rough draft would effectively exist in public across hours of livestream footage. I don’t know exactly how every publisher would interpret that when considering first publication rights, so I deliberately chose a story where I controlled the publication path.
Not gonna lie, I was also hoping the YouTube writing sprints might attract a few other writers or readers to hang out with. Maybe, if I got lucky, they might build some interest in downloading the finished version once it was released.
What Went Right?
I wrote. As far as writing sprints go, they did their job. I did in fact finish the first draft and these sprints kept me going until it was done.
I eventually got into a groove where I genuinely looked forward to the next late-night sprint because I wanted to keep writing. Writer’s block wasn’t the problem. If anything, it was the opposite and I wanted to keep going after the timer stopped. Limiting myself to writing only during the livestreams became kind of a pain.
I also got to collect a whole bunch of metrics. Across eleven streams and twenty-three sprints, I wrote a total of 12,387 words. Then after several rounds of editing and revisions it got sent to test readers at 13,133 words.
The experiment also forced me to develop the YouTube channel further. Before I could livestream, I had to request access to the feature and wait through YouTube’s 24-hour activation period. Neither step was especially difficult, but both were pieces of administrative minutiae I had been putting off and would have needed to handle eventually anyway.
Notepad was another tool that I had barely explored before this experiment. I normally do all of my writing in Word or Google Docs, so using it pushed me a little outside of my usual workflow to test a new tool.
Why Notepad? Mostly because I wanted something as plain as possible that would not accidentally display a username, login information, or a URL in the address bar while I was streaming. I have no idea whether any of that would have created an actual cybersecurity problem, but using Notepad let me avoid that question entirely.
What Went Wrong?
Mostly, I should have done a little more research before diving in. I could not find an easy way to get a word count directly from Notepad, so after each sprint I ended up copying the text into Google Docs to check it there.
I did find some suggested workarounds online, but none seemed easier than simply pasting the text into the Google Doc where I was already planning on keeping the drafts and future revisions.
I also noticed some interesting differences between the spelling and grammar checkers in each word processor. Notepad was the most reserved, followed by Google Docs, and then Word, which apparently just hates my writing style.
When I pasted a draft into Word so that I could print a paper copy, it went crazy with squiggles. Notepad also seemed a little bit delayed when flagging mistakes, so I may never know whether it actually thought ‘servicable’ was spelled right, or just hadn’t caught up yet.
Unfortunately, live drafting on video puts every mistake on display. I make a huge number of errors in a rough draft, and it can take hours of editing before the prose becomes anything I would consider readable. Despite doing relatively well in school, it seems that by livestreaming, I magically forgot nearly every spelling and grammar rule that I was ever taught.
For example:
Some written numbers need a hyphen, like twenty-one, or forty-four.
OMG, I cannot get dialogue tags right to save my life.
“I should have turned back yesterday,” Joseph said. (Good, comma)
“I should have turned back yesterday.” Joseph said. (Bad, period, and how I write it most of the time)
I always tend to use or incorporate too many words when I am writing a draft.
I write sentences the way that I imagine speaking them as I am drafting. That means I have way, too, many, commas, in, weird, places.
I never actually learned how to use an en dash or an em dash, and at this point I am honestly too afraid to learn.
It is cringe to watch yourself type spelling ‘mitsakes’ in real time.
Because you are sprinting and not stopping to edit or research, you end up with weird unanswered questions like “Is the plural of ‘trout’, trout or trouts?”... as it turns out, both are acceptable.
Most Importantly, Would I Do It Again?
Yes, of course. The streams weren’t entirely empty. I was hoping for more views and more active participation, but I don’t regret any part of it. I would absolutely host YouTube writing sprints again. They helped me finish the first draft and gave me a process that I can reuse in the future.
If you want to join a future writing sprint, subscribe to the Retinue of House Walker on YouTube so you do not miss the next livestream adventure.
Want to read more from the Retinue of House Walker? Browse our current stories in the Retinue Library.
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