By: Shanna Hovley
Do you want to improve your writing speed so you can crank out a bunch of words-a-day? Here are 10 tips to improve your writing speed.
Start with a warm up. Set aside a few minutes of your time to do a warm up draft. Think of this like stretching before you play a sport. Your writing brain is like a muscle. Using it daily will make it stronger and doing a practice write before the real deal will help the words flow smoothly.
Eliminate distractions. These distractions can be anything from your phone to a cluttered workstation. When I’m struggling with writer’s block, I find myself tidying around me instead of doing steps to work through the block. Try turning your phone on airplane mode, putting on headphones, and closing the door to keep distractions to a minimum.
Set timers. Writing sprints are timed periods where you try to write as many words as possible within a time limit. The Pomodoro technique (created by Francesco Cirillo) is awesome for setting reachable goals. It’s named after a tomato kitchen timer which can be set to 25 minutes. 25 minutes writing to 5 minutes of resting.
Set individual deadlines for drafts. Set up timers for writing your outline, researching your topic, editing your first draft, rewrites, etc.
Outline first. Outline what you are going to write for the day and detail out your research.
Don’t edit. On your first draft, don’t focus on fixing errors as you go. Write bad on purpose. Some people will even type without looking at their screen or turning off spelling or grammar checkers. Use placeholders so you don’t have to slow down to look up facts or create character names.
Skip your opening. A common place writers get stuck is in their opening paragraph or chapter one. For a first draft, ignoring your opening completely and moving on to the body of the essay (or chapter) will free up your mind to get moving to the essentials.
Use text to speech. Our flow can sometimes be slowed down by how we want to phrase our ideas. Using text to speech software can improve our speed, especially for a first draft.
Take your breaks when the writing is flowing well or mid sentence. Then, when you go back to writing, you’ll pick up with speed immediately.
Typing games and typing tests can help you physically type faster. If your ideas flow well but your hands can’t keep up with your mind, try typing games to improve your typing speed.
Bonus: How to handwrite faster (check out this cool guy) https://writewithyourarm.com/lessons/how-to-write-faster/
I’ll be here to help with editing after you complete those pesky early drafts.
Photo Credit: Vlad Deep