

Infinity's Blog for Authors and Writers

How to Write More in Less Time : And Keep the Quality

Posted by Arthur Gutch on Tue, Mar 18, 2014 @ 09:18 AM

For some writers that golden number is 1,000. They're happy if they reach 1,000 words a day. Many full time writers boast about a consistent 2,000 words a day. While this is a respectable number, if you're in this group of writers you could be doing much more with your time. We're all busy, and most writers only have a certain number of hours in the day in which they can write. Why not make the most of what time you have? Using these techniques, you can double your word count per hour, or more, without losing any quality in your writing. The secret is to set yourself up for optimum writing power each time you sit down at the computer, increasing your productivity on a regular basis. Call it behavior modification or a self published author under self hypnosis, it can be done!

Write more less time author

Know Where You're Going

How many times have you been writing smoothly at a good pace, and suddenly come to a dead stop, trying to figure out what comes next? This ruins your flow, and it takes time to get back up to speed once you straighten out the plot point. You write best when you know exactly where you're going and you just have to write it down. Why not ensure this happens every time you write?

Take five minutes at the beginning of your writing session; no more and no less. Pull out a pad of paper and write down a detailed outline of what you're going to write today and how to get where you're going. Do a fully-detailed outline you can use as a roadmap when you do the actual writing. You'll be surprised how much you can plot out in five short minutes. Once you begin to write, you'll know exactly where you're going, plot point to plot point, and how you're going to get there. You'll write smoothly without any breaks, significantly increasing your productivity.

Timing is Crucial

You may notice that sometimes your writing flows smoothly and the words just appear magically, almost before you need them. Other times, it's almost like pulling teeth to put together a paragraph. Some of this might have to do with the way your story is going, but a lot of it is influenced by your body and your environment.

Start keeping a log every time you write. Note the time you started and stopped writing and the word count you accomplished. Also write down where you were when you wrote, the mood you were in (hungry? crabby? sleepy?), and the resulting flow of your words that day. After a solid month of keeping notes, look back to see similarities. If you're like almost every other writer in existence, you'll have more productive times and times when your word count plummets. Your goal from here is a simple one: schedule your writing sessions at the time and place where you're most productive. If 2:00 at Starbucks or midnight in the basement produces the most words per hour, that's your ideal writing window. Use it and you can finish your novel in half the time. Oh and by the way there is no free lunch...

Keep the faith and may the force be with you!

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Tags: writer productivity, self publishing, writing tips, time to write, book writing tips

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