Writing fast, writing more, and writing well is a skill you can develop. It's a skill which
pays off in today's Internet world where so much depends on your writing skill, whether
you're writing as a freelance writer, or for your career, or for your business.
In this article we'll discuss five tips to write more.
I'm a reasonably fast and prolific writer; it comes naturally. Over a long writing
career I've also found that when I write more the quality of my writing goes up. My
writing students have also found that when they write more, their writing improves.
Would you like to write a 600 word, well-researched article in half an hour,
including research time? You can with practice.
Here are the tips:
1. Plan your writing a week in advance
You'll write more when you plan your writing at least a week in advance. Not only
does planning your writing in advance help you to discover useful research material via
serendipity, your subconscious mind does a lot of the "writing" for you.
So on Sunday evening, or Monday morning, take a few minutes to create your
writing schedule for the week, and enter all the articles, reports, and other material you
know you need to write in the coming week.
2. Research for a week's writing in one session
"Research", especially online, can be a huge time-sink. As with writing, I plan my
research in advance, and you can too. You can research ten articles, or a 30-page report,
in less than two hours at the library. Online, using newspaper databases and commercial
databases, it should only take you around an hour, maximum.
If you're writing on commission, consider out-sourcing some research: it means you
can write more.
3. Create descriptive working titles
Your working title tells you exactly what the focus is for an article, report, or book.
It stops you wandering off the point while you're writing. I know if I can get the working
title right, writing the material will be easy. Equally, while I may know what the topic and
slant are, if I don't take the time to think about the title, I know that the material will take
longer to write.
Batch-write titles, as you batch-research.
4. Outline each piece
Outlining is essential to help you to write more. My outlining is usually just a list of
items I want to cover in the piece. If the topic is complex, or unfamiliar to me, I create a
mind map.
Again, outline many pieces of writing before you write. I've just checked my In
Progress file, and I can see that I currently have eight articles outlined. I'll outline several
more later today; I like to have somewhere between ten and 20 articles outlined in
advance.
5. Relax while you write
The more you can relax physically as you write, the more you'll write. Some writers
like to listen to music - check to see whether playing music in the background helps you
to get into a state of "flow" so you can focus just on your writing.
Bonus tip: get a speech recognition program. Although learning to dictate your
writing takes a week or two initially, the boosts in your writing speed are worth it.
So there you have five tips which will help you to write more and make more
money. Remember to practice these new skills until they become a natural writing
process for you.
About the Author:
Want to write more and make more money? You can become a productive writer
with Angela Booth's writing class, "Write More And Make More Money From Your
Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process" at
http://www.angelaswritingclasses.com/Class/writemore.html This class is based on
exclusive lessons she developed for her private coaching students to help them to write
more, improve their writing, and to make more money writing.


