writing 101: how to improve your writing speed

GUYS, IT’S STILL WEDNESDAY, OKAY??? I KNOW IT’S NOT EARLY, BUT IT’S STILL WEDNESDAY… (hehe)

Week one, in my opinion, was a success. I don’t know about you, but it taught me a whole lot about writing. Honestly, looking back over the schedule, this post could’ve come closer to the end, but it’s probably better that you learn how to improve your writing speed early on (that way you can get more practice in, haha)

ANNOUNCEMENT

Writing 101: crash course on improving your writing! This will be updated weekly, so come back soon 🙂

• WEEK 1: How To Write Dialogue That Sounds Authentic
• WEEK 2: How To Improve Your Writing Speed
• WEEK 3: How To Overcome Writer’s Block 
• WEEK 4: How To Overcome Writer’s Block (pt 2)
• WEEK 5: How To Write Effective Character Descriptions
• WEEK 6: How To Self-Edit Your Writing Effectively
• WEEK 7: How To Write Engaging Opening Lines and Hooks
• WEEK 8: How To Develop and Maintain a Writing Voice
• WEEK 9: How To Create Believable and Compelling Story Arcs
• WEEK 10: How To Research for Your Writing Projects

I guess the first thing you would be wondering is WHY it’s important to improve your writing speed. After all, it doesn’t really matter all that much…right? You’re still putting word on the page, and that all that matters. But it does matter. Especially when you’re on a roll while writing a scene in your book, or when writing a post that you should have up by the next day (like I’m doing right now, lol). Having your fingers keep up with the thoughts/ideas going through your head is an important skill to have. You’re essentially preserving ideas before they fade, or you don’t know quite how to write that scene anymore.

Especially if you’re publishing a book, it’ll help you meet tight deadlines. Say your goal is to have your first draft finished by the next week, but you only have an hour to write every day. You’re going to use that time to the fullest, right? Not spend it all writing one page. By improving your typing speed, it’ll help you get all your ideas down much fasting and way more efficiently.

At this point, you may be thinking, “Okay, Yasmine. I know why I should improve my writing. But how?”

– practice freewriting –

Essentially, freewriting is a ‘stream-of-consciousness’ exercise. You’re writing without thinking about your grammar, spelling…anything, really. You’re just getting your ideas on the page. This of it like brainstorming, just in sentence or paragraph form. Don’t look at the page, just write whatever crosses your mind. Usually, people do the following steps:

• set a timer for, say, ten minutes
• grab your laptop, and choose a writing prompt
• start the timer and just WRITE. Don’t think too hard about it.

Over time, writing your ideas will just feel like second nature. You won’t be so hyper focused on the perfectness of it; it’s just something you want to do because it’s FUN.

He pointed out that when writing in regular basics one is extremely focused on the mistakes and avoids certain words or ideas for fear. Instead, freewriting promotes writers to produce ideas more quickly because they forget to edit as they write.

Peter Elbow (through Wikipedia)

To get into it more regularly, write every day. It doesn’t take long; five or ten minutes will do it. I like to write a little bit every night, but you can do it on your lunch break, when you first wake up, or after eating dinner. Whenever works for you – just make sure you’re relaxed while doing it!

– use writing prompts –

It seems so simple, but it makes a huge difference. Writing prompts can help spark an idea quickly, especially when you’re stick. If you don’t want to do that, write in the perspective of an object (a book, maybe) or a story centering around it. Whatever works. Instead of agonizing over if the story is ‘good enough’, stop overthinking and just write!

I have a bunch of writing prompts here on the blog, and there are various other websites you can use. My personal favourite is Reedsy. It’s updated frequently and there’s so many on there!

– use a writing schedule –

I know, I know – it’s such a basic tip! But people somehow still forget it. Whatever you do, do it consistently to improve. After all, practice makes perfect! The more you write, the more you’ll improve. You won’t see the difference overnight, but it’s still there. Even though I still wrote a little bit every night (when I stopped blogging for a little bit), my writing speed still got a LOT worse. I’ve started writing a little more recently, so my skills have already improved a ton.

Like I said earlier, just find a time that works for you and stick to it. If you skip one day, you’ll probably skip the next…and the next thing you know, it’s been two weeks and you haven’t written anything.

– writer’s block –

Ah, yes, writer’s block. Every writer’s worst enemy. There are a couple of ways to defeat it, one of which is, you guessed it, writing! Just push through it if you can. If not, don’t be afraid to take a small break. Or try writing something new. Read a lot, to get yourself inspired. Even if you don’t write a whole story, you can just create characters for a novel you’ll probably never write, or create lore for a fantasy world. Whatever works; just make sure you keep that creativity running! Taking a break for too long can make your writing speed slow down, so whatever you do, keep. writing.

– write now, edit later –

I personally like to get all my ideas down on paper, then come back to them later to edit and organize my thoughts. Who knows if these ideas will ever come back again? It’s super important to get everything down. You can cut things out later, but if you have an idea but don’t write it down, who knows if you’ll remember it later? What if it becomes relevant?

But your writing still has to have quality. If I write super fast but my writing is trash, you won’t want to read it. Who cares if I wrote it fast (other than me, of course)? If you have to write slower to better develop your ideas, that’s fine. Quality over speed, but speed is also important.

Now go! Shoo! Go write the story of your dreams – and fast, before the ideas fade away!

LET’S CHAT! HOW DO YOU WRITE FAST? TELL ME ABOUT A TIME THAT YOU WROTE A BLOG POST/STORY REALLY FAST AND WENT BACK AND IT WAS TERRIBLE. HOW DO YOU OVERCOME WRITER’S BLOCK?