Being a fast writer can make a huge difference as an author. If you can write quickly, you may feel more engaged with your story and feel inclined to finish your novel faster, but writing is a difficult skill. Writing quickly isn't a skill you gain overnight, rather it is something you develop over time. Whether you are a new author or an established writer, these 10 tips will ensure that you write quickly:
Envision What to Write Before Writing
To write efficiently and fast, it may be helpful to visualize the scene you are writing before you write it. It is common for writers to think through the scene they are writing while writing it, however, this can hinder your focus. If you think about what to write while attempting to write, you break the flow of your creativity. It is super important to plan the scene or chapter, before sitting down to write. This can mean visualizing the moment in your head or jotting down notes. Only once, the scene is visible in your head, should you begin to write it.
Find a Comfortable Location
It is important to have a comfortable space when you are writing. When writing you should feel at ease, mentally and physically, to feel engaged with your piece. So, create a space without loud noises, poor lighting, uncomfortable seating, or anything else that will take away from your motivation. If you feel comfortable while writing, you will feel more motivated to write and ultimately write faster.
Create an Outline
As mentioned, it can be super helpful to plot what you want to write before writing. Spending time to outline the scenes of a chapter before writing will save you time in the end and lead you to finish faster. As you create an outline, it is important to keep in mind word counts and certain plot points, so you understand what you are writing about. Planning the chapters of your novel will lead you to understand the scenes of your novel and where your story will go.
Turn off Your Phone
Writing quickly is centered on having a constant flow of ideas and limiting distractions. For some writers, this means leaving the house and visiting a café, but for other people, it can be simpler. The first place to start when eliminating distractors is silencing your phone. Our phones are constantly beeping to notify us, which can be a massive distraction. This is why when you are writing, you must turn off your phone and minimize your distractions. If you want to write fast, make sure you close tabs, turn off your email and silence your phone. If this doesn't work, you may want to consider leaving your phone in another room, before writing.
Set Small Goals
To achieve your goal of completing a novel, you need to start with smaller goals. Having a small, reasonable goal will motivate you to finish your novel and will decrease the time it takes. Before you begin to write, decide on a goal for that writing session and reward yourself when you reach it. This will motivate you to continue writing and finish your novel in quick time!
Turn off "Spellcheck"
Pausing to edit grammar and misspelled words in your writing will break your writing flow. Although, using tools like "Spellcheck" are useful when editing, they easily fracture your writing flow. This is especially important for fantasy writers. Most fantasy novels feature unusual and unique names that won't be recognizable by processing programs. Before writing, turn off grammar and spelling tools, so you don't get pulled away from your story.
Write Every Day The best way to keep your stride and write quickly is to write every day. Writing is like a muscle and if you write every day, it will become a habit. In order to write faster, make sure you exercise your writing skill each day in order to write rapidly and effectively.
Use the Speech-to-Text Tool
To ensure you keep up with your thoughts, you may want to use the speech-to-text tool. Almost all online writing programs have a feature that types while you speak. This can be extremely helpful since most people don't write as fast as they think, rather we have to slow down our thinking to match our typing speed. Using this feature will allow you to finish your writing promptly, but it does require a lot of editing. Although, this feature is useful when "writing," it requires a large amount of editing and can be a hassle when editing. However, if you don't have a fast typing speed, you may want to consider speaking your writing.
Don't Stop to Edit While writing it is extremely important to remember to write now and edit later. When you are feeling motivated and inspired, don't stop to worry about grammar or thematic decisions, instead, leave all your editing for later. Pausing to edit midway through your writing, will hamper your process.
Practice Typing Games
If you try all of these tips and still write slowly, you may want to enlist the help of online typing games. Typing is a skill and if not practiced regularly it will fade. If you type slowly, it may be possible that your fingers can't keep up with the ever-changing ideas in your mind. Luckily, there are several online programs dedicated to helping people type fast. Utilizing these programs will help your fingers get used to typing quickly and help you memorize where the keys are.
When writing, you don't need to go quickly, but it may boost your motivation and improve your typing skills. Writing a novel is a large undertaking and often takes a long amount of time, but hopefully, these tips help speed up the process.
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