So, you want to learn the key to writing faster?
If you’re a freelance writer or blogger, online writing is something you should learn more about and writing faster is part of improving your writing skills.
It’s not going to be productive if you slave away trying to write your client post and the deadline is looming. You’re dragging your feet and unable to move past that second paragraph.
Having to do that for all your client work, won’t help you make a living as a writer.
Being a freelance writer has many responsibilities and as you grow into your groove, you learn what it takes in order to benefit your business.
So, if you want to get more clients, earn more money and make them eager to continue working with you, then it might be a good time to assess your writing skills and see if you can adjust them and learn faster writing.
How to do you write faster?
When I say your writing speed, I don’t mean sacrificing your great content in hopes of getting more clients.
For some reason, I don’t see learning how to write faster and producing poor content as mutually exclusive, but I know you’re probably thinking, if I’m writing faster, will I still be able to produce memorable and awesome content?
The answer is, Yes.
Learning how faster writing will only help you produce quality content that’s better from before. It will make your writing flow better, read better, and relate better.
You will be able to devote more time to researching, reading up on your topic and even have time to read freelance writing tips like this one here!
If you are new to freelance writing and a slow writer, one writing tip I could offer is to create content that shows your awesome writing skills.
Okay, so you know writing faster will get you more clients, but can you earn more? Yup, the faster you write, the more you’re worth per hour. Linda Formichelli wrote on Copyblogger that she earns $250 an hour.
How does she do it? By typing wickedly fast (when I grow up I want to be Linda Formichelli).
Tips for Writing Faster
I know that writing every day will improve my writing skills, but I’ve learned since starting my freelance writing career, that it’s my writing process that was slowing me down.
It would take me days just to think of a topic to write on my blog and then I would spend hours (indirectly, while tending to my children) thinking about subheadings and points I’d want to include.
I would also, once my post was done, scour creative commons photos for just the right photo and edit it to add my own personal touch.
Do you see any problems with my process?
Most of my process was in my head. I thought about my blog post idea all day and never wrote anything down.
When it came time for me to type, I would have to spend time thinking about my blog post topic again, and end up writing it down.
I decided to change my writing process and adopted these 7 key strategies to practice writing faster. And then, I’ll share with you my most productive ways to make sure you continue to write faster as a freelance writer!
Want to learn what clients want from their freelance writers? My complete course, Write Your Way to Your First $1k not only gives you a step-by-step framework to get your biz up and running, it walks you through how to write a proper blog post and how to submit your blog post to your clients. Be sure to check out my course!
You may already have an awesome writing process, but if you don’t, I can guarantee you that these tips will result in faster writing.
You will be able to write more in a day in less time and earn more money and more clients when you use these 11 ways for a faster writing speed.
Let’s find out what they are.
1. Plan it Out – On Paper to Writing Blog Posts Faster
I learned that just thinking about my blog post idea all day, didn’t result in faster writing. I still had to write my blog post idea and supporting points down.
So, for writing blog posts faster I think of a potential topic and I write it down.
Go ahead and use a fancy fountain pen if you want! Or, go with handwriting or use Microsoft Word.
I make an outline and use my Freelance Writing Productive Planner and make sure to include:
- A working headline. It doesn’t have to be your final headline, just an idea. For this topic, I immediately wrote X Key Ways to Write Faster. I knew I wanted to make a list, but didn’t know how many tips I could come with and I also knew my topic was going to be about writing faster online.
- My subheadings. The bulk of your post is your subheadings and supporting paragraphs. Again, my subheadings are all just ideas at this time. I wanted to get a basic skeleton of my post, so I thought of as many tips as I could (at first there were 4) and just wrote them down.
- Basic points I wanted to cover for each subheading. Now I don’t always do this part, only if I have the time. For this article, I only had basic points for a few of my subheadings. You may find, however, that once you start typing, those points may not flow with what you are writing and you never end up using them. That’s okay. You could always use those points on another post.
I found once I wrote a plan, I was able to sit down and type, making my writing much more fluid and easier to do.
There may be times while I’m writing, that I get stuck or can’t think of what else to write. I usually just stop and take a break.
This helps me view my work from a fresh perspective when I return, which allows me to write faster and better.
2. Make a Routine Out of Writing
I don’t know about you, but I find that when I have a routine around my writing, I can focus better, which makes me be able to increase my writing speed.
Writing faster techniques really centers around a daily and consistent routine.
Before I write anything, I usually do the following:
- Make sure my water bottle is full.
- Put my favorite slippers on, since the hardwood floors are chilly this time of year.
- Put my hair in a pony tail. I can type faster when I’m not bothered every few minutes by my hair getting in front of my eyes.
- Clean my glasses. I seem to have smudges on them all time. My children are probably the culprits.
Doing these things helps me with writing drafts faster.
Do you set aside writing time so you can be more productive? Do you have a favorite place you like to write? If you do, let me know in the comments!
3. Clear Out All Distractions So You Can Think Faster When Writing
I know for some freelance writers, having the TV on in the background or your children’s chattering floating by while you write doesn’t stop your flow.
For me, however, any other sound other than the tap, tap, tap of my keyboard, and all focus goes away and I can’t think.
This why I mostly write when my children are sleeping or out of the house.
I can think faster when writing when I have quiet or repetitive music on.
I also make sure that when I write, all my little alerts on my computer like my email and calendar alerts are muted.
Nothing bothers me more than seeing a small window at the corner of my screen prompting me that I have a new message.
While making sure my house and laptop are quiet and free of distractions, I also have to keep my desk and room organized and clean. I am a big believer of a clean house gives you a clear mind.
Maybe you have your desk littered with old receipts, magazines or extra pens.
Having these items on your desk could be stopping you from clearing your mind to focus on your writing process and write faster. So spend a few minutes a day, cleaning up your space and see if you don’t end up writing faster.
4. Find Your Writing Place to Get Faster at Writing
Some writers enjoy writing at a coffee shop or public place. They might get inspired by the people coming in and out for coffee and this fuels them to be good at fast writing.
For me, I need to write at my desk, on my computer to get faster at writing. I can’t write on the couch or at the kitchen table. I find I need the structure of my desk and the environment to inspire me to write.
Anywhere else doesn’t seem like a work environment, and if I want to learn to be a fast writer and learn speed writing, I needed it to be as if I’m going to work.
You might not have a place of your own to write and must resort to the kitchen or living room. As long as it works for you and you are able to write quickly and with ease, then don’t change.
But, if you think that where your writing could be affecting how fast you can write on keyboard, then maybe switch it up. Put a desk in the living room and see if that helps.
Maybe convert a hall closet into your office.
When you do this, note your words per hour. You can take a typing test for your typing speed at each location to figure this out.
5. Just Write
… and don’t edit while you write. I know this is hard for some (like me), but I can promise you that if you just write and not stop for any misspellings or wrong words, you will end up being a faster writer.
In the past, I was always thinking,
- “What’s another word I could use instead of…?”
- “What’s a better way to say…?”
- “Didn’t I just read about this on another blog? Let me check”
- “Let me fix this misspelling”
Do you often have the inner editor? I still do, but now I just don’t always pay attention to my thoughts. They are distractions now.
Sometimes this can turn into writers block even.
I’m getting better at just writing it all out and fixing any mistakes at a different time. This definitely makes me type faster.
So next time you want to check a source, add a link or fix that spelling mistake, don’t.
Don’t even use word count.
Just write and forget about everything else during your writing session. Write and write and then write some more with speed.
The less you edit your work as you go, the better chance you have of completing your thoughts and generating good flow.
6. Fuel Your Writing With Passion
Do you remember the last time you wrote about something you were excited and passionate about? Maybe it was something in your niche or something that was dear to your heart.
Whatever the topic was, your passion was able to fuel you to write incredible content fast.
Yes, the secret on how to write blog posts faster is having that passion fuel for sure!
This is what a professional writers does.
I know it can be hard being passionate about some of your clients’ topics.
For instance, it might be difficult to find some enthusiasm in plumbing equipment or medical information on different heart medications.
But let’s break this down and see if we can try to find some passion to write about plumbing equipment and heart medications.
I’m also going to let you in on a little secret I recently found out (it’s empathy).
Plumbing Equipment
Plumbing usually involves a problem, change or re-model, but if you can empathize with your target audience, then I’m sure you can find some relatable content to make you passionate about it.
Maybe you’ve read some comments on various plumbing blogs and notice a common thread, that there is financial hardship when it comes to unexpected plumbing problems.
You can then get in the mindset of people who are faced with unexpected costs and write how various plumbing equipment could be installed as a DIY project.
This can help alleviate their plumbing problems while doing it at a reasonable cost that won’t overburden their finances.
Medical Information on Different Heart Medications
Let’s use empathizing again to turn an uninspiring topic into something full of passion that will register with your client’s audience as a new medical writer.
With heart medications you might realize that once patients take them, their lives improve tremendously.
They can go back to being themselves and not have to worry about any complications their heart may cause them.
When you write about medical information on different heart medications, you might include a Second Chance section where you write about how heart medications can give a person a new outlook on their lives.
If you practice empathy while you write, you can find passion, or at least a new perspective that gives you a bit of enthusiasm, in just about anything.
And when you can find passion in just about anything, clients will be coming to you for your services.
7. Get Into Your Writing Rhythm
I’ve mentioned your writing rhythm in some of my other tips because it’s very important in helping writers learn how to write faster. Once you get into your own writing rhythm, nothing gets in the way of great writing.
It may only happen a few times, but if you can figure out when that happened, then you can tap into that whenever you want.
It might be an environmental situation that helps you get into the rhythm of writing. Maybe you need a clean space or you need the window open to get into the zone.
It might be a good night’s rest that’s given you all the energy, enthusiasm, spark and interest in writing. You find that when you sit down, writing becomes effortless and quick.
Over time, you will learn how to get into your writing zone and use that to help you learn how to write faster and better.
For me, I find that I can get in the writing zone when I have an outline of what I’m writing, have all the information available before I write, and a quiet room to work in.
When I can accomplish all this, I find that a 2000 word blog post only takes me less than an hour and a half. Of course that doesn’t count the next phase of writing, the editing.
Editing can take hours or days, depending on the length of the your writing, amount of mistakes and structure of your article or blog post.
This is where you take your time and not rush into polishing up your work.
Writing faster can open the door to new business opportunities with the possibility of creating financial security.
When you can pump out quality posts in half the time as other freelance writers, you can dedicate additional time to getting more gigs and perfecting your pitch.
4 Productivity Tips On Writing Faster
Those seven tips to write faster will help you streamline your writing process and get words on paper (or screen) faster then if you didn’t use these tips.
But, there are some productivity tips that can help ensure that this is your new way of writing! Let’s look at four productivity tips to help you learn how to write articles faster.
1. Set a Timer
Give yourself a set time to write. You can give yourself 20 minutes to write an outline, an hour for the rough draft, 30 minutes to edit and so on.
If you give yourself a timer for each task, you WILL write faster. You want to beat that timer, don’t you?
2. Create a Template
Over time, you will have style of how you write. Maybe you use bucket brigades when you write, or you enjoy descriptive writing or narrative writing. Whatever it is, you can create a sort of template to each of your writing jobs.
Personally, I usually have a short introduction + several subheadings + Conclusion + Call-to-action
3. Listen to Music
I don’t know about you, but any noise disrupts my flow of writing. To maximize my time writing, I listen to music.
Over the years, my taste of writing music has changed, but I listen to anything that is calming to get me in the writing zone.
4. Write Every Day
Finally, the best tip to continue to write faster, is to write every day.
I own several blogs and I write blog posts or social media posts or email newsletters every single day.
This one thing has helped me increase my wpm and made me a fast typer!
Maybe you’re thinking is typing faster than writing?
Yes, yes it is. I can type 90 wpm and I know I can’t write that fast!
So, try it!
5. Dictation Software
If you often get hand pain or just stuck with ideas, why not try speaking what you write?
Using a dictation software can help you organize your thoughts and get them out quicker, making you a fast writer.
I like using the Google’s Voice Typing when I write in Google Docs. Try this method for 30 minutes to see if you like it.
How to Write Faster – Practice Makes Perfect
I’ve recently adopted all these tips to make my writing faster, and it’s working. It’s helped me become more confident in my ability to produce quality writing quickly.
Want to learn high-paying writing tips? Be sure to check out my course, Write Your Way to Your First $1k, where I spill all my secrets to the best writing tips to snag high-paying clients [note, this material is in the Advanced and Strategy packages only].
Of course, when you practice writing, it will help improve how you write and how long it takes to write it.
If you’re new to freelance writing, all you have to really do is to just write! Write daily and read blog posts!
What have you found to be the most effective in writing faster? How has writing faster improved your career? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
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