You have a pile of assignments to do. You have short deadlines. You have a friend’s party to attend this weekend. And among your academic assignments, there are several essays. Or you desperately want to apply for freelance writing jobs, but tight deadlines make you scared.
Unless you know how to write faster, something might go wrong. In other words, you might miss some deadlines, and that means losing marks and getting a bad grade.
To have a good writing speed, you need to write often, but how fast you write also depends on other factors, such as the difficulty level of the subject, whether you have the outline, and so forth.
How to Write Faster – Tips That Work
Here are practical tips on how to write really fast.
- Turn off the spelling checker
- Set a timer
- Chop up your writing process
- Idea generation
- Researching
- Outlining
- Creating a crappy first draft
- Proofreading and editing
- Formatting
- Avoid rabbit holes
- Create an outline
- Get into a proper sitting posture
- So, how do you position yourself? Here are some tips:
- Sit up straight, and don’t lean towards the desk.
- Place the elbows at the right angles to your keyboard. Don’t bend your arms downwards or upwards.
- Position the fingers on your keyboard correctly
You may as well invest in a standing desk to help with the posture. A standing desk has been proven to be beneficial to your health. When you stand, you experience better blood flow and higher energy levels. Furthermore, it makes you more productive and efficient while typing.
- Use speech-to-text
- Open the new document on Google Docs
- Head over to tools
- Choose ‘voice typing’
- Ensure the microphone on your computer is functional
- Push the microphone that shows up on the left-hand side of the doc and start talking
- Start wherever you wish
When you write fast, you are likely to make some errors in your text. You may skip some words or type them wrongly. When this happens, the spelling checker will underline your text.
Those underlines are super distractive, especially the red lines. So, you’ll be forced to pause writing and go back to correct the mistakes. Now, if you keep doing that, you’ll waste tons of time.
So, to write fast and neat, turn of the spelling checker first, then write freely without worrying about making errors. After you complete your piece, you can turn the checker back on and do the proofreading.
At first, the idea of setting a time might look crazy, as you probably think it could interrupt the writing flow.
On the contrary, a timer is great because even if you stop, you still know what’s coming next. Besides, a timer helps to beat procrastination. Once you know a timer is ticking away, you will avoid wasting time by checking Facebook or email, for example.
Your timer may follow the Pomodoro Technique, which suggests that you should work for 25 minutes and break for 5 minutes. It’s an amazing way to keep the energy levels high, stay focused, and not sit for longer hours.
Every writing task has parts, and looking at it as a whole may appear intimidating and insurmountable.
But, you don’t need to do everything at a go.
Start by breaking the content into different parts and work on each part at a time. For example, a blog post has a headline, subheadings, introductory section, body, and last paragraph.
A sales copy, on the other hand, may contain a value proposition (heading and subheading), bulleted list, detailed copy, customer testimonials, and finally, several questions with answers.
Once you’ve partitioned the writing into various parts, work on each piece at a time. You may also cut your writing process into several steps, such as:
When every step is small, writing a blog post or sales copy becomes easy.
We’ve all been there. You are writing your essay or research paper and really enjoying the flow.
All of a sudden, you realize you are missing some information. So, you decide to open Evernote for some data you may have saved. You also check your bookmarks for a site you know, for sure, has relevant information.
About 40 minutes later, you’re still searching for information. When you finally get back to your writing, you discover you’ve lost a trail of thought and can’t continue writing.
When working on your next writing, and you miss some information, note down “TK,” which is the editor’s jargon that means “to come.” You can revisit that section later. Don’t go down rabbit holes, as they waste a lot of time.
Achieving any goal requires planning, and this applies to writing too.
Even if you can write quickly and generate 2000 words an hour, it won’t make sense if the content lacks direction and confuses your readers.
Whether you’re writing a book or an essay, outlines are critical.
Other than giving your writing direction, an outline also eliminates writer’s block
Not creating an outline is among the reasons people experience writer’s block. If you have a well-organized and fleshed-out outline, writer’s block won’t be an issue because you know which idea is to come next.
Your body’s posture can determine your writing efficiency and speed. If you slouch in the chair, you’re going to cramp up and be unable to concentrate properly.
Technology makes it possible for you to translate your speech to text without necessarily typing with your hands.
Google Docs makes it possible for you to speak words directly to a page.
Here’s how to use this program on Google Docs:
You’ll be amazed at how you can write surprisingly fast with this approach.
Have you ever gotten stuck at the introduction bit as you try to figure out the best words to make it captivating?
The truth is you can actually write the introduction last. Well, I’m not suggesting you skip the opening paragraph all the time, but what if it’s taking much of your time?
If you would like to write quickly, then you can skip the intro and go straight to the main points. Once you’ve listed the main points in your outline, it shouldn’t be hard to get inspiration and write the main body.
Once you pick the momentum, you can go write the other points. After writing the main section, you can now write an interesting conclusion and introduction while editing.
Make The Writing Process More Efficient With Our Tips
To know how to write faster, you need to choose a few speed writing techniques from this list and go with them. You can change them along the way if you wish. But most importantly, always have an outline to guide your writing process.