The Story Is In Your Head: A Guide To Writing Faster
So you’ve done the whole pre-writing work. You’ve performed the research, understood the subject and even took the time to turn it over on its head. You’ve drafted an outline and are ready to begin writing.
As you start, with your grammar checker and composition tools in hand, realize that the story is now in your head. Sure, the outline is probably sitting there in front of you. However, the rope that will tie all those little itemized ideas together into a cohesive tale that speaks its message is residing in your mind. It’s what you’ll bring out once you start typing on the keyboard, fashioning your piece into the shapely readable mass of letters you’ve been angling for it to be.
Those notes on the little index cards? File them away. The list of websites you used as reference? Drop it in a password-protected deep folder and promise not to to open it till you’re done writing. These sources of research, while qualified allies, are hardly your best tools when it comes time to mold your work. Instead, they’re like Twitter – you open it to peek at a couple of 140-character messages and end up spending the next three hours digging through a heck of a lot of them.
When you come across some confusing part of the piece that you think your notes may be able to supply, just tell yourself that it won’t. If you get the urge to clarify something by getting online and searching for it, take a deep breath and just continue writing. Believe that the story is already in your head and act accordingly.
After your draft it done, that’s the only time to peek at your notes or put in additional verification research. See, that part of the job falls right under the editing/proofing process, not during the act of composition.
Try it and see for yourself. The difference in the speed by which you end up writing could amaze you.