Lessons Learned from Writing with 4thewords

If you told me in early 2022—just a few months before I learned these 4thewords writing lessons—that I’d one day have an 883-day writing streak, I would have said that was a weirdly specific joke.

If you’d followed that up with the fact that, as a result of that 883-day writing streak, I now write an average of 790 words a day, my jaw would drop.

Though I’ve been dreaming up stories since before I could properly form letters, I was never what you’d call a prolific writer. I didn’t track my words, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I averaged 50 words a day before 2022, even factoring in the 30-day writing challenges I participated in. I never thought I’d be able to write something longer than my first novella.

Then came my first-ever “win” of a 30-day writing challenge, and all because of a wonderful little site called 4thewords.

What is 4thewords?

In case you haven’t heard of it before, 4thewords is an entire game world built to push you to write more words than ever before. You progress in the game by taking on quests and defeating monsters—that is to say, by writing a given number of words within a set time frame.

But that description just scratches the surface of all that 4TW has to offer. It’s also an active and supportive online community. The forums are lively, and the devs are constantly working to improve the site. Their passion shows in every aspect of the game—including everything I’ve personally seen added to the game since my start, like the multiplayer battle mode and the goal-setting features.

After almost two and a half years on the site, this site has taught and re-taught me so many things about writing. Perhaps some of these I’d heard before joining 4TW, but I hadn’t taken them to heart. My hope is that you’ll walk away from this blog post with a few pearls of wisdom in your pocket that you’ll be able to pull out no matter how you write—or what program you use to do it.

Lesson #1: Don’t bite off more than you can chew (or at least do so strategically)!

It will take a while, but it’s smart to get a feel for how long and how many words you’re comfortable writing during a single focused session of writing. Setting lofty goals might be exciting in the moment, but you don’t want to set yourself up for failure and disappointment by expecting too much from yourself.

I greatly admire writers who can churn out thousands upon thousands of words a day. There are members of 4thewords who challenge themselves to write a million words in a year and succeed. I know based on my data that I’m not yet capable of doing that. The most I’ve written in one day ever is 13,000-ish words, and that wasn’t fiction! When it comes to fiction, I max out at 3,500 words, and the most I’ve written in a day this year as of the publication of this post is around 2,500.

But as I mentioned earlier, I average much lower than that. And that’s okay! Instead of aiming to write a million words a year, I know that upping my average to a thousand words a day is a much more achievable aspiration. Crafting a goal informed by what I already do is way, way more motivating for me.

This is part of why 4TW is so great to experiment with (besides the fact that there’s a free plan!). Your words are automatically tracked, as is the exact number of minutes your fingers were hitting the keyboard—no need to input them into a spreadsheet or crunch numbers! Even if you don’t stick with it in the long term, just a month or two of data could give you a better idea of what goals would be realistic for you.

How Else This Lesson Relates to Writing

Let’s be honest: what beginning writer hasn’t dreamed up a twenty-book series on a whim a full decade before they’re ready to take on a project of that magnitude?

I, for one, literally did that. The first projects I published were supposed to be part of an historical romance series divided by decades that spanned a century, with each one taking place at a different World’s Fair. I bit off way more than I could chew with that. I didn’t think through the fact that I’d need to research and adjust the voice and a thousand other details with each new book. It was too long of a project for me to commit to at the stage of life I was in. Even worse, the series was born because I thought they’d be a neat way to tie in other projects I wanted to write into a single “universe”—which never manifested because I lost passion for all of them.

Had I been more strategic in my execution—or been able to watch this Rachael Stephen video sooner—I might be relaying a different version of my publication history. But here we are.

Lesson #2: Walk before you run.

Sometimes a 4TW quest (or a looming deadline, or a formidable writing challenge) necessitates big word count days. If you’re not used to writing thousands of words or in hours-long writing sessions, the notion might seem daunting. How does a writer go about doing that?

How Else This Lesson Relates to Writing

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: short stories are a fantastic way to walk before you run with a story idea. When you’re trying to encapsulate everything into five thousand words, you see what’s really essential to telling the story—and whether it’s a concept that lights you up enough to maintain the long-term glow an idea needs for you to want to see it through.

Lesson #3: Sometimes, you need to begin before you’re ready.

Momentum is great, but if you find it impossible to get the ball rolling, that’s a different problem.

As I’ve mentioned before in my blogs, it’s extremely likely that I have ADHD. I’ve not sought a diagnosis, but all the signs are there, and friends who have been diagnosed tell me they see it in me plain as day. What this means is sometimes I’ll procrastinate and get distracted even if I want to write—even if I’m sitting in front of my laptop with have all the time in the world, and even if I’m staring at a teensy-tiny Cuazu in my battle queue.

When I catch myself falling into the trap of pushing off writing when I shouldn’t, I have a trick: starting a 4TW endurance battle. During an endurance battle, you must maintain a steady typing rhythm for a set number of minutes. It’s like a typing test, only the words I’m writing aren’t determined by a set script or a random generator—they’re all my own. And I force myself click to begin on the endurance battle before I feel completely ready. That’s the key to getting started whether you feel like it or not.

Now, this often means the first half-second is spent in wide-eyed distress, but by necessity, I start writing immediately after the shock wears off. Once the seal is broken, I can have another, “wordier” battle auto-start and not feel like it’s an insurmountable task.

How Else This Lesson Relates to Writing

Admittedly, this is one of the 4thewords writing lessons more applicable to plotters than pantsers, but it’s still an important one. Worldbuilding and character creation and outlining can be oodles of fun. Lord knows I’ve spent umpteen bajillion hours doing it. But you do not need every single detail to be hammered out before you start writing.

In fact, if you do try that approach, you’ll almost certainly find that the story will lose its shine. It’ll have lost the ability to surprise you, and then writing will be purely putting one foot in front of the other. It could very well be that is how you write best, but for the majority of writers, having a little mystery in where things are going to go or how you’ll transition from one scene to another is part of the fun.

Lesson #4: Progress is progress.

Something I absolutely love about 4TW is the encouragement to use the site however it suits you. I don’t just mean that there are some who use 4TW to write emails or churn out essays for school—though there are! I’m talking about using it to write more than a rough draft.

Because planning your novel is writing.

Bullet-point brainstorming your way out of a story problem is writing.

Rewriting the same sentence four times to get it right is writing.

Journaling about why this book is giving you a hard time is writing.

It’s all writing. And it all counts. You can put additional rules on your use of 4TW if you want, but according to the developers themselves, there is no wrong way to use the site, and there’s no “cheating.” In the world of 4TW, progress is progress, and as long as you type (or copy and paste, if you prefer to write off-site) at least 444 words a day, you can maintain your streak. It’s all valid.

How Else This Lesson Relates to Writing

In my opinion, this is one of the toughest things to learn and remember as a writer, but it’s one of the 4thewords writing lessons taught very early in the game!

We don’t inherently know the value of preparing to write or polishing our writing because both feel secondary to what’s seen as the main event: drafting.

That’s a shame. Because if all we ever did was draft, our WIPs would be less coherent, and the stories we long to tell would remain trapped in a perpetual state of unfinished potential. The beauty of writing lies not only in the creation of new sentences, but also in developing worlds and characters and the refinement that transforms raw ideas into engaging narratives.

It all counts. It’s all valid.

Exciting Announcement: I’m a 4thewords Partner!

I’ve only just begun this journey. I intend to stay on the site for as long as it’s up, and I’m excited to see what other 4thewords writing lessons I have to learn (and don’t worry—I’ll report back!).

In a future blog post, once I’ve completed the main quest, would you be interested in hearing my favorite monsters and how I battle each of them? Let me know in the comments!

Does 4thewords sound like something that could take your writing output to the next level? Jump in with me, then hop over to my profile and send me a friend request!

Also, after you’re all signed up, don’t forget to head over to the Store and put in my special code, FUENTESPENS. Once you do, you’ll instantly get access to free goodies:

• +25 Crystals
• 1 Wooden Chest
• 1 Wooden Key
• 444 Coins

This code lasts until June 2026, so don’t wait to check that off your to-do list!

PS. Already using 4thewords? Check out this listing in my Etsy shop!