Writers Exercise: Word Crawl

Word Crawl

A blank page that needs to be filled. A project that needs to be finished. A novel that needs to be written. A writer who needs to hone their craft. Sometimes creative juices flow like ice melting into water. Sometimes the words take a bit of work to get them flowing. In these cases sometimes an exercise is needed to help out and encourage.

It seems that every writer out there has their own definition of a Word Crawl. My understanding in its basically a timed writing exercise where the writer writes for a specified amount of time. These bursts can range from a couple of minutes upwards of a half-hour or longer.

The idea is to focus the mind down on the current project. Once the time has been completed the writer takes a deep breath relaxes for a short break and then hits the project again. Word Sprints seem to be different in the sense that these are longer fifteen minutes to an hour.

A good friend of mine and an author Matthew E Nordin has shown me several different types of word crawls. On his Scenery Changes Facebook page, he has been going live regularly sharing some regular word crawls and other writing exercises.

Matthew E Nordin is a published author from the midwest. According to his Amazon Author page he “is a speculative fiction writer and a midwestern traveler.” His published works include Musings of the Northern Poet where Matthew shares his poetry inspired by love and his travels. The Pycroft Particle and Hollows of the Nox are a couple of fiction pieces that Matthew has been released. He works with his lovely wife Story with Scenery Changes at renaissance faires and events around the midwest. Sharing improv adventures and educational experiences with folks of all ages. I’ve known Matthew since High School. It’s been an honor seeing his progress as a writer and as a gentleman.

Find out more information on Matthew E Nordin on https://www.facebook.com/scenerychanges/ and find his books here https://www.amazon.com/Matthew-Nordin/e/B071HZYY59%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

During his Word Crawl #1 live video, Matthew made up a word crawl adventure. Inspired by some NaNoWriMo exercises he found a few years back. This was recalled from memory and made into his own. It may be similar to some of the NaNoWriMo Exercises that can be found. I have added some of my own twists to this word crawl as well to aid in the exercise.

As mentioned above the goal of a word crawl is to write as much as you can in a short amount of time. This could be on a new project or an existing project. Sometimes you can find inspiration in the subject of the word craw itself.

Each character must start their journey as everyone does. One step out the door into the unknown. Every character begins their journey with 5 health. If any character’s health drops below their starting health value the adventure may be over for them. But your story doesn’t end there.

The first 5 minutes is a Class Test to determine your character. Warrior is under 175 words. Ranger is 176 to 300 words. Sorcerer is over 300 words. Once you have completed the word crawl and determined your character make a note of it. Each class comes with a bit of bonus with it.

A warrior is strong and stoic. If your class is a warrior you begin the adventure with +3 life.

A Ranger is swift and cunning. Begin the adventure with +1 life. When a goal is set half the value.

A sorcerer is wise and insightful. A sorcerer gains the ability to change the dice of fate into their favor. Whenever a challenge gives you a dice roll you may reroll twice.

The second-word crawl is a 3-minute crawl to determine ability. Rolling a D4 determines the goal word count. For a warrior, you are trying to reach D4 x50. A ranger goal is a D4 x80. A sorcerer’s goal is D4 x100. Not hitting those goals results in a 1 point health drop. This will come into play later.

Next is a 4-minute word crawl is a weapons test to see what weapons are available for the characters to use. Thanks to the video chat the options of weapons were a Stone (Of villager Bane) with a word goal of less than 150. Your character can have a bow with a word count of 151 - 250. Staff is available for a word count over 250.

Every character with a weapon needs the training to know how to use it. The next word crawl is a 5-minute challenge. Roll a D6 to determine the goal. For the stone, your goal is D6 x 60. For a bow, your goal is D6 x 100. The staff is D6 x 150. While these are great goals modification to this could go back to the D4 instead. Successfully accomplishing these goals gives your character's weapon a +1 damage.

During your training exercise an animal charges through your training camp. A pack of cougars can be seen attacking horses and livestock outside the fenced area of the training camp. These cougars have 2 health. This challenge is an Even / Odd challenge. Roll a dice. On an even number, your goal is to write as much as you can for 3 minutes. Your goal is to get over 100 words. If the last number in your word count for this sprint matches the number you rolled you you subdue one of the cougars in the training camp. If it doesn’t match your character takes 1 damage.

Repeat the previous sprint twice. For each cougar defeated gain +1 experience. Once characters have gained 5 XP they can level up their character.

The town guard shows up and helps drive back the rest of the cougar pack.

This was where Matthew concluded his video. Being only an hour-long video didn’t lend itself to a long word crawl session. But your adventure doesn’t have to stop there. This is just an example of the fun a word crawl could be.

There are a lot more exercises for writers to hone their skills and inspire their writing.

Who am I?
Joe DeMarco, single father, aspiring writer and game designer, software tester. I am a writer on Elfwood a seafaring campaign setting from Harsh realities. I enjoy all aspects of writing and storytelling. I get my inspiration at renaissance faires, conventions, playing games with friends, and even from the adventures of watching my son play and craft his own stories through his imagination.