7 Tips to Help You Write Faster
Photo by Jake Givens on Unsplash
If you’re nearing the end of NaNoWriMo and you’re not quite where you need to be in terms of word count, don’t despair! These simple tricks will help you write faster (and they’ll work whether you’re doing NaNo or not). Sometimes speed is what you need to power through a draft.
Create a mind map or outline. This may seem counterintuitive, but a little preparation for your writing session allows you to spend more time actually writing. This doesn’t need to take long – and in fact it shouldn’t.
Take 5 minutes before you start writing to sit down and focus. Create a quick mind map or outline of the scene you need to write next. You don’t need to include a lot of detail. An outline in pretty self-explanatory; a mind map is simply a visual representation of your ideas. I start with the main character for the scene in the middle, then put a circle around the name. Then I draw lines to new bubbles indicating what needs to happen in the scene.
I might have different colors for actions vs. interior reactions, or for different characters. I sometimes put conflict or tension in red, so I know it’s there. Do whatever works for you. This can be a fun way to bypass the critical mind and play with ideas before you write.
2. Write in sprints, not marathons. We might think uninterrupted long sessions of writing are the best, but the reality is most of us can only focus for short sprints at a time. Also, the thought of sitting down for 2 or 3 hours at a stretch can be paralyzing. Often we spend the first 2/3 of the time procrastinating, then madly write the rest of the time in hopes of catching up. Then we lament how much we could have gotten done if only we’d been more focused.
Some people like the Pomodoro timer, set for 25-minute intervals with a 5-minute break (or 50 minutes with a 10-minute break). Again, it’s whatever works for you.
3. Plan to take breaks! And not to check your phone. Get up and walk around, do jumping jacks or pushups, or swing your arms around and stretch. Your brain needs oxygen to work at maximum capacity, and the best way to do this is to get the blood pumping a little. Moving also prevents stiffness and helps correct the effects of bad posture (I’m definitely guilty of this one).
4. Get rid of tech distractions. Put your phone in another room. Use a focus app to block access to time-sucking websites. Here is a great list of 7 Best Apps to Help You Focus and Block Distractions . I use Self Control, because I don’t have any. It’s awesome. You put in the website(s) you want to avoid, and the length of time you want to avoid them, and presto – you cannot disable this thing. At all. There’s no way around it, you just have to wait. (Only available for Mac.) Cold Turkey has a Blocker for apps and websites, and a Writer option, that allows you to set a writing goal, and doesn’t allow you to do anything but type into that document until you’ve reached it.
5. Set a timer. Just knowing you’re being timed helps your brain focus on the task at hand. It also helps to listen to music (without lyrics) or ambient noise. Ambient noise can actually be a boon to creativity, and there are plenty of apps to give you all sorts of noise to choose from. A few good ones are Noisli, Coffitivity (a Paris café! A Brazilian bistro! A university dining hall!) and Ambient Mixer .
6. Don’t edit while you write. Writing a draft and editing are two separate brain functions. If you constantly switch back and forth as you write, you will kill the flow. This can be hard to do, but necessary, especially if you have a stretch word count goal. It also allows you more creative freedom since you’re not constantly second-guessing yourself. Some writers go so far as to cover their screen or blindfold themselves while writing so they’re not tempted.
Another trick is to set the font size so small you can’t see what you’re writing. If you can’t see it, you can’t edit it. Then when you are ready to edit, you can Select All and change the font to something readable.
7. Leave off writing while you know what you want to say next. This old Hemingway trick is terrific for keeping momentum. If you leave off in the middle of a sentence or paragraph, or even just make a couple of notes for what’s next, then you don’t have to worry about sitting down to a blank page tomorrow. It is a tremendous psychological boost since half the resistance to writing is worrying about what you’ll actually write. And it does wonders for your writing speed since you use your writing time to write vs. daydreaming about what you might write.
There you have it! 7 tips to get you started and keep you writing, so you can produce more words during your writing session. The more the pages pile up, the more motivated you will be to write. A win-win!
Do you have any tricks to write faster? Let us know in the comments!
