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How to Speed Your Writing (video)

By Michael Stelzner

You may be sitting around (like me), wondering how you’ll get all that writing done on your plate.

Perhaps it’s blog posts, white papers or some other project calling your name.

What follows are some of my best tips (and a video) that will help improve your writing performance:

Do a warm up: Why don’t you get those fingers warm by simply writing something non-critical (such as a letter to a friend).  This gets things moving upstairs and prepares you for the important writing that comes next.

Withdraw info from long-term memory: Review your notes, your outline and your reference material just before you sit down to write.  This quickly gets ideas transferred from the long-term vault to the part of the brain you can easily access.  Getting ideas from cold storage is never a good plan.

Make your goal achievable: Actually write down what your goal for the day is.  For example, write 1.5 pages on XYZ topic.  This will help you see the hurdle is not high and encourage you to leap right over it.

Read your writing out loud: The editorial stage often trips up many writers.  One major tip is to simply read your own work (out load) to yourself.  If it sounds odd, then you’ll easily identify it.

This video contains some of my best tips for speeding your writing:

I would LOVE to hear your tips as well…

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 8:42 am and is filed under Freelance Writing, Writing White Papers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • Thanks for the tips, I always get mental blocks!
  • Thanks for the video and the tips. The ones about withdraw info from long-term memory and, of course, making the goal achievable ate the most valuable pointers. As for me I always plant how many pages I should write daily and it really helps, especially for self-discipline in writing.
  • Thanks Jeff!
  • Hello,
    In response to Tom's question. The Video Camera I use is a Canon XL2 with a 16x Manual Focus Lens. In this case Michael wanted a "Spontaneous" feeling so I didn't worry too much about lighting. The audio obviously was the most important element, I used a shotgun mic mounted on the camera. We were close enough this worked well, otherwise I would have used a Sony lav mic. I still did a small amount of sound work in post production, using Soundtrack Pro. I find there always is some room for improvement.

    <abbr>Jeff Wiant's last blog post..wiant: rt@Mike_StelznerNew social media marketing industry survey here: http://tinyurl.com/8yhneh - Take it and get a free copy</abbr>
  • Tom;

    That video was done professionally. I will ask the guy who did it to comment on his equipment.

    Mike
  • Adding a YouTube Channel to your offerings is a great idea. Suddenly, you "humanize" yourself to your readers. After following your blog for a couple of years now, it really felt good to get a fuller sense of you and your personality. In fact, I was so impressed by the naturalness of your video that I'm considering following your lead.

    One suggestion: You may wish to offer a more prominent link, perhaps even a separate tab, to your website to alert your readers.

    QUESTION: what kind of video camera did you use? It was on a tripod, I presume. And the audio was excellent. Did you use a lavalier microphone?

    <abbr>Tom Colvin's last blog post..Reviewing POD</abbr>
  • I'm also a big fan of speech recognition software like Dragon. I find it much easier to go back and edit an article that I already dictated, as opposed to typing one out from scratch. And there's hardly any frictional force involved in speaking, as opposed to the writer's block that can sometimes come with a blank screen and blinking cursor. :O

    <abbr>Erik | Taylor's last blog post..Taylor Vaifanua</abbr>
  • joe
    Sure Mike,
    Yes it does, just follow prompts and set up who you want to leave messages, yourself, your wife, assistant etc... I use it to leave message for my buddy..set up group to see about T-times etc.

    Anyway the catch (you knew there was a catch) they recently made a paid service but you can still leave 15 second messages free..if you pay something like $30/year you can get unlimited time for transcription, send to google calendar etc..
    Check it out and let me know.. take care have a happy/safe 09

    Joe
  • Joe - Tell me more about Jott...

    Does it actually transcribe your recordings for free??

    Mike
  • joe
    Have been using Jott.com you can leave verbal messages to yourself and they will be shipped to your inbox in written form..

    Found using tape recorder (being the lazy man that I am) I would still have to type and get it into the computer flow somehow..with Jott, it's right there ready to work with. Still using "free" service, but you can do more if you want to pay a few bucks a month..might check it out.
  • I hate deadlines! They make me feel like a schoolgirl with the dreaded book report due and I haven't even bothered to check the book out of the library yet...to combat this I often make a list of key questions or ideas that I need to address. Then I write a paragraph or so about each. It is amazing how sometimes this results in so much material that I actually have to go back and cut material out! Sometimes it leaves me with additional material I can use in a sidebar or a blog entry. Then I go to the local coffee shop and treat myself to a triple latte skinny...a girl has to have some rewards in life!
  • JD, Lucy and Ash;

    Thanks for your comments. Happy New Year!
  • Ash
    I must like these ideas because I pretty much do the same thing. I drink coffee to get my mind going. I go somewhere to get out of the office.

    The phone is a good idea. I actually have a Sony digital voice recorder that can keep up to 20 minutes of audio. I use it everywhere and while I am driving. I come home and transcribe it. I am working on getting a auto transcribing (Dragon Naturally Speaking). I will see how that goes.

    By the way, I am half through the book and halfway through my first white paper. Great book! I learned a lot.
  • Lucy
    I know how most of us hate the dreaded outline...but in my case, I swear that once I get that part down on paper, I usually fly with the writing. Maybe it's a psychological thing- just like when you're preparing for a big party; once the planning is done, the rest is pretty much mechanical. Interesting stuff, thanks.
  • I like your point on writing down an achievable goal.

    Rather than pages or words, I tend to scope by a set of questions. I'm done when I've answered the question set.
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