It helps you Write Better, Easier & Faster
When I’m feeling whiny about how hard writing is, I turn to my file of quotes from the pros. It seems that no successful writer could resist kvetching about the craft:
“When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth.”
— Kurt Vonnegut, author of Slaughterhouse-Five
“I love being a writer. What I can’t stand is the paperwork.”
— Peter DeVries, American editor, novelist and wit
“Writing is easy. All you have to do is sit down at a typewriter and wait for drops of blood to form on your forehead.”
— Gene Fowler, American journalist, author and dramatist
Writing is tough. Always has been. Always will be.
Now that we’ve got that out of our systems, what can we do to make it better?
While we talk a lot about what to write — More stories! Fewer words! Shorter sentences! — we don’t focus so much on how.
But if you’ll break your writing time up into steps, you’ll write better, easier and faster. Here’s how …
Develop a good writing process.
Process is important: The way you write affects how well you write. As a writing trainer and coach, I can always tell when a writer has:
- Written a story before organizing it
- Edited a story before writing it
- Failed to edit the story at all
I can tell when a writer writes by typing up her notes and moving them around in Microsoft Word — or when he sits with his nose in his notebook for too long.
The writing process makes a huge difference in the quality of our copy. Problem is, most of us were taught a lousy writing process.
How we were taught to write
Writing is hard because we weren’t taught to write, says Richard Andersen, author of Writing That Works. Instead, we were taught how to edit — how to spell, punctuate and use the right grammar.
As a result, when we write, we try to do three things at once:
- Think of what to write
- Write it down
- Get it right
How to write instead
Instead of trying to do all of this work at the same time, we need to take writing step by step. (Or Bird by Bird, for Anne Lamott aficionados.)
The best writing process breaks writing up into discrete steps:
- Prewriting. Here’s where you get ready to write. In this step, you conduct your research, find your story angle and organize your ideas.
- Freewriting. Write it down. Don’t worry about grammar and spelling. Just get words on paper so you can revise them in the next step.
- Rewriting. Here’s where you polish your final product. Only now do you let the grammar police in.
Put your effort at the top.
Most writers invest little time in the prewriting phase, focusing instead on fixing a lame draft in rewriting.
Turn that investment upside down: Spend the bulk of your time getting ready to write, less time writing and the least time fixing what you wrote.
The result: You’ll soon be writing better, easier and faster.
Work with — not against — your brain
While we talk a lot about what to write — More stories! Fewer words! Shorter sentences! — we don’t focus so much on how.
Writing is hard because we weren’t taught how to write. Instead, we were taught how to edit: how to spell, punctuate and use the right grammar.
But there is a how to writing. Learn a few simple steps that will make your writing time more effective and efficient at How to write Better, Easier & Faster — our writing-process workshop starting Sept. 18.
You’ll learn to invest your time where it’ll do you the most good … stop committing creative incest … even save time by editing before writing.
Save up to $100 with our group discounts.
