Have you ever wished that you could write faster? If you’re a fiction author, chances are that you have. Last year, one of my writing students begged me for some productivity tricks.
She said: “I ended the first book in my series with a lot of loose threads—I though it would make writing the next book easier. But it hasn’t. Sales have slowed and I’m scared they’ll stop altogether if I don’t get this book out. This is my livelihood.”
Are you relying on fiction for your income too?
If you’re relying on your fiction for income, you need to write faster
In addition to writing faster, you need to write strategically. That is, you need:
- A story question: once you’ve answered the question, the story is done;
- Engaging characters, who do the unexpected. I’ve been rereading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. When Gilbert attacks Frederick Lawrence, it’s both unexpected, and shocking.
- A list of essential scenes.
Let’s look at additional strategies to help.
1. Create a storyboard: put it where you can see it
Writing in scenes solves a multitude of writing challenges: it will help you to write faster, too.
Create a storyboard of upcoming scenes. (No need to storyboard your entire novel; create four to six scenes at a time, then write.)
Use stick figures in your storyboards if necessary, as I do. Artistry isn’t the point; speed is the point.
When you have a storyboard, you know where your fiction is headed, and the images kickstart your imagination.
2. Avoid stress as much as possible, it kills creativity
Feeling stressed? Go for a walk: use up your excess adrenaline with exercise.
A friend knits to relax; another plays billiards; I read.
Your goal isn’t to avoid stress entirely. That’s impossible; it’s counter-productive too. You need a little stress because it builds your motivation, but not so much stress that it kills your imaginative abilities.
3. Let Amazon help you to write faster: use pre-orders
I’m a big fan of Amazon pre-orders to help you to write faster. A pre-order gives you a deadline.
4. When you’re writing your first draft, anything goes
The ability to write faster on demand develops:
- After you’ve built a writing habit; and
- When you trust yourself.
Both things take time, as well as discipline. Trust is vital, so you can unleash your creativity, especially in your first draft.
Allow your emotions to lead you. In this article on writing first drafts of fiction, I suggested:
Emotions lead to imagination; mental images—you see things in your imagination.
Here’s an example. Let’s say it’s midnight. You’re in a large, unfamiliar house alone… Something woke you… What do you feel? Are you seeing images in your mind?
5. Change tack: write something else to remove the pressure
I suggested to my writing student that she write and publish something else, because she needed time to regain her confidence in the novel, as well as her equilibrium. Something about the novel had built her resistance.
Resistance is real and can even be helpful. My process when encountering resistance is to switch projects.
My student wrote a series of short stories and published them. She said: “One afternoon I thought about the novel, and had an idea for a subplot. I created an Amazon pre-order and finished the novel in three weeks.”
If you want to write faster, ask yourself WHY
Most authors can write faster, especially if they have a tendency to procrastinate. Use the above strategies, they’ll help, whatever your writing goals, but take a moment to ask yourself why you want to write faster.
Knowing your reasons always helps.
Good luck. 🍀
How To Write, Even If You Think You Can’t: 21 Easy Exercises To Bring Out The Writer In You
Is writing a struggle for you?
You CAN write. It doesn’t matter why you think you can’t. You can write, and writing will become easy for you.
Do you find writing a struggle?
I work with writing students every day who believe that they “can’t write.” And yet, they must write, for one reason or another. My students include: * Business people who need to write for their job: their livelihood depends on writing frequently, and well; * A group I call my “at last” writers, who finally have time in their lives to write. They have time to write… and now they find that the words won’t come. It’s a cruel irony; * Hobbyist writers, who’ve enjoyed writing, but are suddenly blocked. They’re disappointed, because their writing brought them joy. They have no idea how they’ll get the joy back; * Professional writers who’re burned out. They need to write; writing is their business. However, writing’s become a stressful chore. They procrastinate. Their clients are angry. One writer signed a book contract, and by the time she got in touch with me, the deadline had long passed.Try these easy exercises. They teach writing processes and strategies which work.
These exercises have helped many writers. They’ll help you, too. You CAN write. It doesn’t matter why you think you can’t. You can write, and writing will become easy for you. Each exercise in this book helps you to write, even though you think you can’t. Some exercises take under five minutes. None will take you longer than an hour. You can build on your exercises later, if you’re inspired to create a complete work. For example, Exercise #4 – Tell Me a Story, often produces seeds of stories. Use your intuition. Pick an exercise a day – any exercise which appeals to you on that day. Alternatively, write your way through them all. You can repeat an exercise as many times as you like. Let’s get started. These exercises will change your writing life.
