The Secret to Writing Faster

[Karen Dionne]

I recently found myself jammed up against a deadline most novelists would have thought impossible to meet. My normal writing pace produced roughly one polished chapter per week. Now, in order to meet my deadline, I had to write a polished chapter every day. 

Here's what I discovered: The Secret to Writing Faster

[Martin Roy Hill]

I don't think that would work for me. I'm so used to a keyboard these days that I get writer's cramp if I longhand anything longer than my signature.

[I. J. Parker]

It wouldn'd work for me either.  I would have to transfer the handwritten draft to my computer, and with that come typos and the urge to make changes.  I cannot write without making changes.

 

I must say, though, that reading about the dilemma of the deadline (a cruelly short deadline involving the writing of 6 new chapters, I think), makes me so happy I don't work with a publisher any longer.  I never had an unreasonable deadline, but the pressure was there and happened 3 times, with revisions, with copy-editing, and with the first print run.  I'm happily free of these.

 

And I'm glad again I just turned down a reputable publisher's offer to pick up my Akitada series.

[Dan L. Coleman]

I think it would be great to have something like a deadline, self-imposed or by a publisher. It would mean something was happening. It's hard to meet a deadline if nothing happens when you get there.

[Karen Dionne]

Thanks for everyone's comments! Writing by hand isn't for everyone, of course -  it was just so interesting and intriguing to discover that for me, writing on the computer was not quicker, as I would have thought. 

I ended up writing a chapter, then typing it into the computer, writing the next, typing it in, and so on. I did make a few small changes during the typing, and occasionally added a few more sentences, so the act of typing it in was almost like a second draft.

I guess I'm fortunate to have good hands - no carpal tunnel and no writer's cramp! 

[Albert Tucher]

Interesting. I find, though, that I make typos all the time when I write by hand. My mind gets too far ahead of my hand.

[Anthony David Mitchell]

I have the same problem.  I think it's different for everybody.  What works for one does not work for another.  Long hand drags out for me since I am so used to the keyboard.

[Jed Power]

I sometimes put myself on a beer fast until a project is complete. That makes someone like me write damn fast!

[Anthony David Mitchell]

That sounds like a really good idea!  I might try that.  The beer will be way better then too!

[Stephen Seitz]

I just write fast. Missing deadlines is abhorrent to me.

[Leye Adenle]

Years ago, when I first  made the switch to writing on a word processor, I knew I was losing something but I never stopped to think what it was. I still plan my chapters in longhand, and often, lines from the 'chapter plan' end up in the word-processed stuff. I did an entire book longhand in my first few years in university. I really like the story. It was my first complete manuscript. After proudly inserting The End at the bottom of the last chapter, I sat on it for months until my mum asked what ever happened with that story I was always writing. I found the manuscript and sent it to her to be typed into MS word by a professional typist. Said typist never returned the manuscript and never finished the typing job. No one knws where they are now, or what happened to my first 'book'. The story is probably shite, but I miss that bulky manuscript that represented four years of toil. I don't think I'll every go longhand again.

[Alex Sweeney]

My laptop is old and bulky and doesn't work without its power supply so I write longhand on the bus and anywhere else I can't be bothered to get the machine out.

I also find it operates as a first draft and when I type up what I've written, I edit it into shape a bit more.

It works for me to write longhand if I'm stuck, seems that holding a pen gives me ideas. Whereas sometimes, staring at an empty screen has the opposite effect.

I wouldn't say it's faster, though. I timed it (yes, sad geek) and found all things being equal, I wrote twice as many words on the laptop as I do longhand.

[I. J. Parker]

If it works for you, that's the way to do it.  We all have our different ways. I bet you have less work with revisions that way.