Write More in a Short Amount of Time
Sometimes the twenty four hours in a day is not enough time to get it all done, especially if you’re trying to write a novel and you do not have the luxury of a big block of time every day to get it done. When Stephen King was asked how he wrote, he replied: “One word at a time.” Bearing this in mind, here are some tips to get your novel written in a short spurts of time.
Six Tips to Write More in a Short Amount of Time
- Identify breaks in your day where you may have a chance to do some writing, even if it is only for fifteen minutes. Lunch break, waiting at the doctor’s office, soccer practice etc.
- During those short periods of time: 10 or 15 minutes, remember writing no matter what, nothing else. Devote yourself 100% to your writing. Turn off the TV, the internet and your cell phone. Bribe your kids with M&M’s or whatever it takes for the freedom to write uninterrupted.
- Break it down — instead of trying to make a goal of 1000 words, shoot for something more doable like 250 words in the fifteen minutes you have. 250 words equals roughly one page.
- Prepare yourself. Know beforehand what those 250 words are going to be about. Jot down some quick notes ahead of time as to what points you want to cover. Are you going to write the dialogue for a certain scene, concentrate on some backstory or describe the setting?
- Stop and start in the middle of the action. It will make it easier to start writing when you sit for your next writing session. Stop writing right in the middle of your scene. You don’t want to waste your next fifteen minutes thinking of how you want to start or end the scene.
- Only write and forget about the editing because you only have fifteen minutes. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar or sentence structure. Polish later, when the initial draft is done.
Daily short breaks of 250 words will yield big-time results over time. Think of each 250 words as a single pearl, over time, you can gather enough up for a multiple-strand necklace and a pair of earrings!
This article first appeared on the Book-in-a-Week website 09/04/2015.