Comic Sans Writing Hack

​I was skeptical about the comic sans writing hack, but after adding it to my writing process I had unexpected results!

Have you heard all of the hype about the Comic Sans writing productivity hack, and have no idea what it's about?

Today, I'm going to tell you how the Comic Sans writing hack has made me a more productive writer. This is a start to a brand-new series, which is all about writing hacks. I'm here to share the tools from inside my writer toolbox which has made me a better writer over the last six years that I've been a published author.

Sometime in 2018, Twitter was blowing up about this writing hack. I have to say, I was skeptical. Writing font for an author is sacred (at least for this one). It can honestly either inspire or kill my drive for writing. Up until I learned about this hack, I was happily using the Bookerly font, which is a font from Amazon that they use on the Kindle. I thought it was lovely, and the font made it look like an actual book to me.

Up until this point, I did not think that I needed anything else to help me write faster. Mostly the reason for my hesitation about this hack is that I DESPISE this font. It seems amateur and cartoony when there are thousands of other fonts which are prettier to write with. But if other writers were doing it out in the Twitterverse, I had to try to disprove this hack for myself.

Writers were claiming that their word counts were skyrocketing and that they were focusing and writing more. Now, I was already pushing about 800 words in 25-minute sprints which I think is pretty phenomenal for me that I didn't think anything else could help. But, instead of internally grumbling about this idea, I decided to try it for myself and prove this horrible font wrong.

One morning, I decided to try it for one whole day. Now it one day I can usually complete about four 25-minutes sprints.

Do you want to know what I found?

My average word count did not improve.

And I wasn't surprised!

But the thing that made me almost fall out of my chair was the fact of how numb my bum was sitting in the chair for so long. Somehow, my brain was attracted to this font, and the story flowed through my fingers like mad. This hack really improved my concentration!

There was less of me jumping out of Scrivener and going online. I could not believe this font drew me in as much as it did. Even though I hated it so much, and I still do. In any case, I am now a believer, and I still use this hack every time I sit down to write.
Though, once I finish a sprint, I immediately change it back to Bookerly or whatever font that I'm currently using. I still can’t stand to look at it for more than one writing sprint.

*BONUS TIP* Fonts and formatting
When it comes to progressing from drafting to editing, I always change my font after each step of the process. For me, it helps with locating errors in my manuscript when I'm not in the same font throughout each of my drafts. Now once I change the font away from Comic Sans this works better for me so when I go back it's ready to be reviewed already in that different font.

I also do this with formatting in the later part of my process. When I get the book back from my editor, I usually put it into my Kindle, or I print it out, depending on how many pages it is. Changing fonts and formatting have worked together to see my book in a more critical eye than I had in the past.

Let me know in the comments below if you've tried this method and if it has improved your word count or concentration. Or if you haven't tried it, are you intrigued? 

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