How To Get A Lot Faster At Writing By Doing These Four Things
You don’t have to learn touch typing to write faster right away. Do that instead:
The four tips I present here are all applied by myself. I don’t master touch typing and always plot only the next scene, but never the whole book. Many believe that someone who can neither type fast nor have a plan of his entire story can’t be a fast writer.
Nevertheless, every two months, I manage to publish a new novel with over three hundred paperback pages. That means I don’t just write an entire book within these two months, but I have a cover designed, organize the advertising, and have it corrected.
All this is only possible with a lot of discipline, but discipline alone is worthless without the right tactics.
You have to do these four things to write at least twice as fast as before.
1. write down in three sentences what should happen in the next scene
Writing and plotting are always two separate things.
Never try to develop your story while writing it. I’m not saying it won’t work, but I guarantee it’ll slow you down.
Take a few minutes at the beginning of your writing session and think about what will happen in your next scene. Who does what, where with whom for what reason? Write that down in three sentences at the most. Now you have a basic structure that will give you the necessary confidence when writing.
If you start writing now, you don’t have to look for the path; first, you can run in the right direction right away.
Of course, this effect increases the more detailed you plan your scene, but I want to give you some tips that you can use immediately so you can quickly see the results.
Once you have noticed how effective this step is, you will probably start planning your scenes in more detail on your own.
2. switch off the correction mode of your word processor
Why would you do that? First, all the red, green, and blue markers that your text processor places everywhere consistently distract you from writing.
Second, they force you to keep stepping on the brakes and take a few steps back.
As soon as a word that you have just written is highlighted in red, this word immediately attracts all your attention and interrupts you in your writing flow.
It will get even worse if you decide to correct this word immediately because then you are entirely out of the write mode and enter the correction mode.
Just as you should separate plotting and writing (see point 1), you should also separate writing from correcting.
3. mobile phone, telephone, doorbell, and Internet off
I realize you’ve probably heard that tip a thousand times before. Still, I must insist that you take it to heart.
In fast writing, anything that interferes with your flow is your enemy. This applies to the error messages of your writing program, as explained in point two, but much more for mobile phone, telephone, doorbell, and Internet.
The mobile phone and your home phone are tools that allow other people to claim your attention. Your phone sends you push messages because the app’s programmers want you to interrupt what you’re doing. Your landline phone rings because other people feel the need to speak to you without asking you if you also have this need.
If other people are so selfish, take the right to be selfish yourself. It’s your time, so protect it.
Turning off the doorbell is a good idea if you are alone at home. Otherwise, you will one day accept parcels for all your neighbors.
I hardly have to say anything about the Internet. It is by far the worst of all the interference factors mentioned because it is always available. If your Internet is active while you are writing, you won’t be able to resist checking your emails in between or checking Instagram and co.
Don’t give these distractions a chance and turn off the Internet while you write. If you notice in the middle of the scene that you need to do some research, make a note in the text and do the research later. Research is like plotting, writing, and correcting a separate work step.
4. set a timer
If you roughly know how long your scene will be, you also know how long it would typically take you. Now halve this time and set a timer.
If you have implemented the first three tips consistently, now it should be no problem for you to write twice as fast as before.
You still need the timer, because according to Parkinson’s law, “work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”
You don’t have to believe in this law. Try it out. You can write once with and once without a timer. You’ll see you’ll always be faster with the timer than without it.
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