avatarTim Denning

Summary

An expert writer shares strategies for producing 20,000 words of content in a single day, emphasizing the importance of having something to say, embracing various writing styles, and making writing a habitual part of life.

Abstract

The article titled "How I Write 20,000 Words in a Single Day" outlines the author's personal journey and techniques for achieving a high volume of writing. The author insists that anyone can build up to this level of productivity through practice and commitment. Key points include the necessity of having meaningful messages to convey, the benefits of writing prolifically such as improved communication skills and relationship building, and the importance of diversifying writing styles to maintain interest and creativity. The author also suggests that writing should be an integral part of one's life, akin to breathing, and that by treating life as an experiment, one can find endless inspiration for writing. The use of a distraction-free platform, the extension of social media posts into full articles, and the adoption of healthy writing habits, including regular breaks and physical exercise, are also highlighted as crucial to reaching the goal of 20,000 words a day.

Opinions

  • Writing voluminously leads to clarity and improved writing skills.
  • The act of writing can be a means of spreading positivity and countering negativity on the internet.
  • Writing should be approached with the same dedication and consistency as physical exercise.
  • The author believes that everyone has something valuable to say and should not be deterred by self-doubt.
  • Embracing multiple writing personas can prevent writer's block and keep the writing process engaging.
  • The format and structure of writing can serve as a guide and motivator for producing content.
  • Coffee is seen as a tool to enhance focus and expedite the writing process.
  • The concept of "ecstasis," or a state of euphoria, is presented as a way to enhance writing productivity.
  • Social media can be leveraged as a testing ground for writing ideas and as a source of inspiration for longer pieces.
  • Physical movement, such as standing while writing, is recommended to maintain endurance during long writing sessions.
  • The author posits that writing can be a source of meaning and legacy in one's life.

How I Write 20,000 Words in a Single Day

And you can too

Photo by Karthikeya GS on Unsplash

The word count at the end of yesterday was 20,000 words. People are often amazed by how a writer can publish 10 full-length blog posts a week.

They say, “I can’t do that.” Well, I couldn’t either back in 2014.

You have to build up to 20,000 words.

Volume of writing is a game anyone can play. Volume brings clarity. Because quality writing is subjective, so what’s the point of guessing?

Writing 20,000 words in a single day has many benefits:

  • You have a lot of content for social media.
  • You get better at spelling and grammar.
  • The emails and slide decks you write at work get better.
  • You get addicted to writing.
  • You change lives.
  • You inspire others with your story.

There are endless benefits to writing 20,000 words in a single day that you’ll probably never discover until you do it. Here’s another one: Three of the most important people in my life met me thanks to my writing on LinkedIn.

Writing can build relationships.

This is how to write 20,000 words in a single day.

Have Something to Say

I have a lot to say. My goal is to say something that will inspire people. There are so many lost souls wandering around the internet and spreading negativity, hate, and hopelessness. The world doesn’t need more of that.

Having something to say can be as simple as a message. You can repeat that message over and over. Nobody will probably notice. You can say the same handful of messages again and again in as many different ways as your mind can conjure up.

It’s hard to write 20,000 words if you don’t have something to say. The good news is if you were sitting down with me now and I asked you to have a conversation, you’d find it pretty easy.

You can talk on the phone for hours, so therefore, you can write for hours.

Write down your core messages in a Google Doc. Here’s an example of mine:

  • Never give up.
  • Be kind.
  • Conversations lead to relationships.
  • Use money to buy back time.

Sprinkle your core messages all throughout your writing.

Live and Breathe It

When writing is air for your lungs, you can’t stop. Commit to writing. Don’t half-ass or dabble in writing. Really do it.

Get out a blank page and write. Don’t worry about what you write. Your goal is to write and not judge the outcome.

Live and breathe writing by reading books. Live and breathe writing by reading your favorite bloggers. Live and breathe writing by treating everything you watch on TV as research for your writing.

Treat your life like an experiment and write about it.

Change the Type of Writer You Are Frequently

If you write the same way all the time it will make you bored.

You can pump out 20,000 words when you become more than one writer. Right now I have about 30 writer types. Here are some examples:

The comedy/satirist writer. The current state of the world writer. The investigative journalist writer. The biographer writer. The marketing writer. The blogging advice writer. The finance writer. The “how to make money online” writer. The relationships writer. The career advice writer. The young entrepreneur with a business writer. The vulnerable writer. The life lessons writer. The movie review writer.

When you have so many different writer types you can draw upon, it’s easy to write 20,000 words. Pick a few writer types and write away.

Let the Format Guide Your Writing

Many writers underestimate the power of formatting to guide their work and help them write more.

There are endless ways to format your writing. Play with formatting and watch how it inspires you to write. You end up writing for the fun of formatting without realizing it. Creating neat little paragraphs that don’t feature a final line with one word becomes a goal.

Start With Instant Coffee

Coffee makes you write longer.

It gets the creative juices going and helps you get the thoughts out of your head. For me, I find coffee makes me impatient and sometimes frustrated. I just want to get what’s in my head, out, as quickly as possible. Coffee makes me become worried that I’ll forget all the writing ideas I have stuck in my head.

Coffee helps push the release valve in your head that is loaded with ideas your mind wants to tell you are not good enough. Your ideas are good enough.

Get in the Zone (Ecstasis)

Hat tilt to Plato for this one. Man, he was a serious dude back in his heyday. Plato describes ecstasis as a moment when you’re in intense euphoria

You can cultivate that euphoria with YouTube. You can find moments that bring on euphoria and help you forget your worries and normal life. Once your mind escapes, you can transition into ecstasis. Words pour out of you when you’re in the zone.

Euphoria is a feeling that can guide your writing.

Euphoria can make many hours flow together into one and ensure they are loaded with inspiration, which bleeds into your writing.

Choose a Distraction-Free Platform

No notifications. Just words on a page.

A platform that contains no toolbar or buttons to click is ideal. You want a platform that focuses on the writing, not one that underlines spelling and grammar in red. I choose to write here.

It’s full of white space and there are very few decisions to make while writing. You can always go back later and tinker with how the sentences look.

Take Social Media Posts and Extend Them

I test writing ideas on LinkedIn.

You can take an idea and see if anyone is interested in it. You can take the feedback you get in the form of comments and add it to your writing. I think of short social media posts as a brief outline of a blog post.

The first sentence of a social media post is the headline. The next sentence is the first sentence of your blog post. The sentences that follow are the subheadings of your blog post. The final sentence is your takeaway or final thought. The hashtags you choose are your related topics to add to the piece when you write it.

Don’t underestimate the Instagram copy you put below your photos, or the short tweets you write, or the 1,300-word text posts you put up on LinkedIn. Social media posts are breadcrumbs that lead to long-form blog posts.

Writing Endurance Tips

Roll your back

Halfway through writing, roll your back with a back roller. You’ll write for longer. Your back will give way before your mind will.

Stand up and sit down

That’s why I own a stand-up desk. Stand up and sit down as you write. It will help you go for longer and change the part of yourself you write from.

Take short breaks and stay in the zone

Breaks are key. I was doing them all wrong until recently. I would take a break and fall out of the zone (flow). Every time you go out of flow it takes a long time to get back into flow again. An easy hack is to wear wireless headphones when you write with music or binaural beats playing. When you take breaks, keep the music playing to keep you in the writing zone.

Make Writing a Habit

Schedule writing in your calendar. Don’t let anyone book in time with you over your writing session. When writing is a habit, you automate the process and thus the number of words you eventually write.

My writing habit started out producing about 2,000 words per day.

After a year, I was able to write about 4,000 words a day.

Fast-forward six years, and I can write 20,000 words in a day.

Treat writing like going to the gym. Build your writing muscle by taking yourself to the edge. Write until you think you can’t write anymore. Push yourself to write slightly more than you did last week. Before you know it you’ll be writing your dreams into reality.

Writing is exercise for your mind. Workout your mind with a writing session. Beat your personal best. Up the number of words (weight). Pump out a few more reps. Rest the mind. Pump out more words. Repeat tomorrow. Repeat weekly.

Repeat the habit of writing for long enough and you’ll be writing for big publications, getting paid (one day), and you might even become a full-time writer and give up your day job.

Anything is possible when you work your way to writing 20,000 words in a day.

Make Writing the Meaning of Your Life

If you want to write even more than 20,000 words in a single day then make writing the meaning of your life.

When writing is attached to the meaning of your life, you treat the habit of writing differently. Writing becomes your legacy.

The meaning of my life has been to write for the last few years. This subtle shift helped me transcend the little world of followers, influence, and attention and move to a more empowering reason to write. I write for other people because it’s all I have to give.

If you can find meaning in writing, you’ll write more than you could ever have dreamed of. Don’t underestimate meaning in the work you do.

Writing
Blogging
Creativity
Social Media
Life
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