Do You Want To Speed Up Your Writing?
Do You Want To Speed Up Your Writing?
Do you find that you are so slow at writing anything? It takes such a long time to get a piece written.
You struggle with writing, and you find that the writing process is hard. You keep reading and re-reading, then editing what you write – and keep going over it, trying to find the right words.
The good news is your writing doesn’t have to be like this. You can change and learn to speed up your writing but it will take focus and discipline.
Writing is a skill and practice will make it better.
The easier it gets, the more you like it. The more you like it, the less you’ll procrastinate.
Exercise the writing muscle
Writing is just like a muscle. It’s got to be exercised otherwise, you will not have the ability to do it.
Writing requires practice.
Practising your writing is just like doing a physical workout at the gym. The repetition of exercises helps you to improve and get stronger.
The muscles get stronger. You start at a certain level, let’s say, for example,10 repetitions.
Then over time, you increase these repetitions.
If you started out with 2-kilogram dumbbells, you then over time increase the weight of the dumbells. You monitor your increasing strength.
The exercise of writing is just the same. Practise makes you better. Practise makes you stronger.
You become more experienced at writing and you master your craft.
Write every day
Every day! If you suffer writer’s block and you have nothing to write about? Don’t worry.
Describe what you see in front of you. Don’t wait for creativity to come to you. Don’t wait for the muse to magically appear. Just write, write, and write.
Creativity will come when it comes.
I want to tell you a way to practise your writing. It may be new to some but not to others.
It’s the concept of the writing sprint that has been explored in depth by Chris Fox. He says that he can consistently write 4,000 words an hour and sometimes spike up to 5,000 words an hour.
Incredible, hey?
The writing sprint concept
The idea is to allocate a set amount of time, and then within that time, you write as fast as you can.
For example, set your alarm for 10 minutes. Within that time you will write.
As soon as the alarm goes off you stop. The length of your sprint is up to you.
In the first week practise writing for 10 minutes each day just as you might do some physical exercise.
You start off gently, but as you get more strength and get better at doing it your ability improves.
- Just pour out the words.
- The faster you write, the more you write.
- The more you write, the better you write.
- The faster you write, the sooner you’ll edit.
At the end of your first week of doing these short, daily writing sprints review your progress.
Keep monitoring your progress.
You are exercising your writing ability and your mind.
In the second week increase your writing time to 20 minutes. As the weeks go by keep increasing the length of writing time.
As you write you will need to be focused, determined and exercise the discipline to perform the task. Let the words come out. Make sure you refrain from editing and don’t even think about the words you write. Just write!
Your outpouring may be rough but that doesn’t matter. It’s just a very rough draft.
Down the track, your writing can be refined.
Once you develop the writing habit and practise it on a daily basis you will surprise yourself at how well you are improving over time.
Not only are you exercising your writing skill you are exercising your mind.
Keep documenting your progress – when you started, the end time. How many words did you write during your sprint? Keep a track of this. It is vital to measure your progress.
The more you pour out the words the more you’ll get experienced and the more you learn about the craft of writing.
Give it a go!
SOURCE
Fox, Chris 5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter. 2015. Kindle eBook.
Marji Hill
Author & Coach