Initiatives such as the NaNoWriMo, demonstrate the concern of writers to be more and more productive. This desire is completely justifiable, especially for financial reasons, the faster we have our book or our story for Medium finished, the faster we will be able to make money. In addition, it is not only an economic problem but a human need to prove to ourselves that we are agile in the profession that we have chosen for living.

Unfortunately, writing is a job that takes time: you have to investigate, formulate ideas, meditate on how we will gather isolated thoughts, write the first sketch, correct what we have written, in short, a whole long process. The blank page can become one of the writer’s greatest fears, and the word counter can become our hideous “success meter”.

The sad truth is that there are no magic formulas when it comes to writing. This is a task that takes time, period. However, some tips can help us reduce this time and speed up our rate of writing. That is what I want to tell you here.

These tips that I am about to give you, have helped me with the writing of s bunch of works: publicity texts (when I was working as a copywriter), academic essays, stories for Medium, and even the novel that I currently have in process. I hope they are as useful to you as they have been to me.

Tip # 1 Spend time reading

This advice is the most important of all. In several of my stories, I have spoken of the importance of reading for the writer and I will not tire of repeating it over and over again. However, this time I want to talk to you specifically about two aspects in which reading can speed up your writing pace:

• When you have read a lot about the subject you intend to write about, you will know it better and you will be more fluent in developing it. For example, if someone asked me to write a text on Philology in which to explain the most important concepts of this science, I would not have to stop long to think, I would be able to write very quickly about it because it is a subject that I have read a lot about. , because this is my career.

• Reading increases our vocabulary, and our linguistic competence in a general sense, so when writing we will spend less time finding the correct way to say things.

Tip # 2 Organize well what you are going to write

Unless you are struck by an irrepressible burst of inspiration, being a well-planned writer is always the best option. To be successful in this profession, as in all of them, you have to develop the discipline of writing, but also the discipline of planning well what you write.

I really believe little in the outbursts of muses (although I do not rule them out completely). The reason? As a general rule, the greatest literary works in human history have been the fruit of extensive meditation, research, and planning. For example, recently I was reading the wonderful work of Apollonius Rhodium, The Argonautics. In the exquisite structure of this piece, you can see the thoughtful organization of its author to masterfully arrange the elements of his previous research, add all his creativity, and thus create one of the most fascinating pieces that have ever existed.

Think of that novel that you have loved with all your heart or that book that really inspired and challenged you. I am almost sure that if you consider it, you will agree that this story or those fascinating thoughts cannot be the result of an outburst, but rather a thoughtful work of investigation and organization.

You can organize yourself to write in many ways, but my favorite is making a diagram or mind map of what my text will later be. Visualizing my ideas helps me develop them better. On the other hand, when a text is structurally simple, it is enough to make a small list of the points that I am going to touch, as I did to write this story.

It may seem like planning your writing takes time away from you, but let me tell you, it is totally the opposite. Once you have your ideas well organized it is much easier to develop them, therefore, you will do it much faster.

Tip # 3 Have on hand the quotes, data, and other elements that you want to add to your writing.

This advice is closely related to the previous one. When you write you should have everything you need to add to your text (quotes, data, etc.) at your disposal. Otherwise, if you remember at the time of writing that quote or statistic that you saw somewhere and at that moment you start looking for it on the internet, you will lose precious time.

This tip is especially helpful when writing nonfiction texts, especially scientific and academic articles. In any case, it is completely valid for writing any type of text. For example, while preparing a novel you can write down complex ideas that come to mind, quotes from books that you read in the process, historical data that help you in the development of our plot, all of this is very convenient to have on hand when you go to start writing.

Tip # 4 Have the dictionary handy.

The dictionary is not only useful for reading, but also for writing. It can make life easier for us, especially when we have doubts about how to write a word. In addition, you can know different details about its grammar that will help you write better. All of this will not only help you speed up your typing pace but will also save you time on the editing part.

On the other side, nowadays it is not practical to use the conventional dictionary, but it is much more useful to use an electronic one, which will greatly facilitate our search process and, of course, will save us time.

Tip # 5 Have the encyclopedia at hand or, rather, Google.

The encyclopedia, like the dictionary, is an extremely useful resource for saving writers time. Today we have a huge facility that was unimaginable just a few decades ago: the Internet. To navigate in Google is to explore a giant encyclopedia of unlimited information.

When I think about this, I only imagine Umberto Eco writing his famous novel The Name of the Rose without the Internet. So much historical data, so much level of detail, so many Latin citations are impressive considering that this author did not have access to online information, and had to embark on a sea of ​​gigantic encyclopedic volumes and heavy books to write his precious work.

Nowadays it would be much easier, although it is necessary to know how to search well so as not to get lost in all the sea of ​​information that the Internet offers us. A good tip to save time for writers is to have located those websites where they can usually find good and reliable information on a topic that interests you and on which you want to write. This will save you a lot of research and writing time.

Tip # 6 Don’t be too picky about your first draft.

One of the reasons we sometimes go too slow when we write is because we are overly perfectionists. Don’t get me wrong, being meticulous is good, as is striving for excellence in everything we do. However, sometimes our high demands on our own writing are an obstacle that prevents us from moving forward.

I recommend careful organization before starting the writing process. However, once we start writing it is advisable to stop as little as possible. There will be time to review, cut out ideas and mercilessly edit each sentence we have written.

Tip # 7 Practice a lot.

This is the most important tip of all. The more we write the faster we will write. The human being can accelerate the pace of any activity through practice. Some time ago, writing three hundred words was a real challenge for me, which took me at least an hour of work. Now, at the same time, I can easily write a fifteen hundred word article, like this one you are reading.

For a long time in my desire to be a writer, I thought that theorizing about the perfect text would make me better in this profession, now I know that only effort and practice can influence the quality of what I write and, above all, in the time it takes me to do it.

I hope you have enjoyed reading, but above all that you have learned something new. In the comments, I would like you to tell me which of the previous tips you find most useful. If you want to read more stories like these consider subscribe. Tips and sponsorships help a lot to continue my writing journey as well.

(A version of this text was originally published by me in Medium) https://medium.com/@elisabet_calas/how-to-speed-up-your-writing-pace-a776dd39d0fe