Frustrated by how long it's taking you to get that story done?

Writing anything significant is a marathon - particularly if there's no hard deadline - but here are 5 surefire ways to speed up your Writing Process (and AI doesn’t even get a mention.)
There's no hack, silver bullet or magic pill to avoid this marathon I speak of BUT there are a couple of practical actions you can implement today.

Plan and commit to a weekly writing appointment.

It is horrifying how quickly one week slips into another and then suddenly a month has rolled by.  There’s only one way to stop the slippage and that’s to put a stake in the ground.  Let me introduce the writing appointment! It’s like any other appointment – fixed - barring some kind of emergency. Decide at the beginning of the week when it can feasibly work and diarise it.
There may be times when you will be sorely tempted to let other stuff get in the way of that writing appointment but if you want to fast track your project, you’re going to have to commit to a regular writing session even if it’s only an hour a week.

Which segues rather neatly into…

Replace one non-writing activity with writing.

This action will also rather niftily give you a regular writing spot.  
PS: If you want a regular, structured writing appointment in your life – do check out my Writing Room.

Before you start writing, consciously remove distractions

Every time you stop writing to focus on some non-urgent task – like emails or checking social media - it takes time to get back into your groove.  Once you’ve decided on your allotted writing session - try employing the following technique – put your phone on flight mode and preferably in another room for that amount of time.  And just focus on one task – getting your words, pages, scenes done – during that time. 
If other people are your main distraction – go write somewhere where family and friends won’t bother you. 

Join a writing group that has a structured share and feedback component.

This automatically gives you a deadline – and you know how I feel about those. There is nothing like knowing someone is waiting for you to deliver your work to get you cracking.

Write Like Nobody is Watching

Because, in truth, nobody actually is.  It’s just you and that screen or notebook.  If you find yourself starting to fret about quality or what people will think – stop – and remind yourself that the only person who can see your story is you.  Unless you’re on a final edit and about to send it out into the world there’s no need to suddenly start rewriting and editing – AKA fiddling.  Focus on completion rather than perfection – there is going to be time for future you to be critical and analytical. The fiddling and editing (which let’s face it we could do forever) will slow you down when what you want to do is keep moving your project forward.



FUN FACT: While both writing and editing engage the brain's prefrontal cortex, writing is more creative and generative, hello right hemisphere! And editing is more analytical, relying more on the left hemisphere and critical thinking functions. I know some people find it tricky not to edit as they go but if you want to speed up your process it’s more beneficial to you to do one thing at a time - get into the flow with your right brain first.

Go well!

Author: Kathryn Burnett 

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©Kathryn Burnett 2024

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