Do everything in your power to remove luck as a factor in your success.
Part XIII
Increase Your Speed
Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
129
Write Faster
There are a couple of really simple tweaks that will help you to write a lot faster very quickly. These small tweaks will increase your results with your writing sprints. There are some limitations and distractions that nearly every writer has to deal with at some point in their career.
The first hurdle is your hands. The faster you type, the faster you write. Unfortunately, we are a generation that didn't take typing classes. Many of us never studied typing in school, either because we are too old or too young. Most of us picked up our typing skills through playing around on the computer.
130
Learn to Type
Start with a touch typing program. Touch typing is when you type without looking at the keys. If you ever have to take a peek down to find where a key is, then you need to start with one of these programs. No matter where you are in your writing career, you should take a typing speed assessment today. There is a link on the 20K page to my favorite assessment tool.
The first time I tested myself I wrote seventy words per minute with eleven mistakes. I am writing this book WAY faster than that. The test made me nervous, so take that into account as you begin to hone this skill. Most of us underperform when we are nervous.
How fast you can type is controlled by how fast your hands can operate. Your hand speed will affect how fast everything else in this process works. If you're inefficient getting a message from your head into the keyboard, that will always slow you down. Typing technique could be your first bottleneck, and it’s very common. It’s worth trying some of the free programs out there or grabbing a paid piece of software from Amazon. They all cost under twenty bucks and will be well worth the investment. I have some recommendations on my site if you need help deciding.
The faster you type, the faster everything else will work. Completing writing projects faster will dramatically affect your life. Typing is the foundation skill upon which the skill of writing is built. If you are going purely down the dictation path, you should work on speaking efficiency in the same way. Even if you plan on dictating everything you write, improving your typing speed will massively help you.
Eventually, you have to sit down at the computer to edit and rewrite your book, and you want to do this using a keyboard. It's amazing to me how many writers are very slow using a keyboard; they use an ancient typewriter and take two seconds to press each key. Don’t limit yourself with inferior technology. Make use of writing techniques and the technology available to you.
131
Control your Computer
Second, remove distractions from inside your word processor. We’ve already looked at some external distractions, but now it’s time to look inside your actual tool.
Word processors like to be helpful and notify you every time you make a mistake. They like to draw your attention to every error while you're writing. This is an invention that only came out about ten years ago. When I was young and writing in school, you had to push the spellcheck button manually before you were alerted to any errors.
Back then computers didn’t have the processing power to scan for errors while you were writing. This supposed improvement has slowed down most writers. It makes life more inefficient for professional writers. Your computer can process on the fly and will gladly highlight every mistake you make and underline it in red. This is incredibly distracting. Ignoring red ink on the page is hard.
A lot of the mistakes I make are due to artistry. Almost every time I make a bullet point list the computer thinks something is wrong. For some reason, spellcheck can't understand my bullet points and always thinks that there is a problem. Spellcheck is not correct one hundred percent of the time. At least twenty percent of the errors are false positives or intentional. That’s a lot of wasted distraction.
As you're writing, you see all these red mistakes and are tempted to go back and fix them. This will slow you down. Editing and correcting on the fly, unfortunately, mingles the creative process with the analytical process of editing. Turn your spellcheck off. Most people don’t even know that you can do this. Just uncheck that one little box and so much stress disappears. Turn off your grammar check and any other alerts as well. You can turn them back on when you are editing, but during the creative process deactivate them.
If you are using Scrivener like I do, you should disable spellcheck because it is straight garbage. As far as I know, it's the worst spellcheck on the face of the Earth. It's completely worthless. When it comes time to edit, we will use an excellent dedicated tool anyways.
The only thing more annoying than when you get a little red underline under a word you just wrote is when your spellcheck is so dumb that it can't figure out the mistake.
Ninety percent of my spelling errors are two letters getting transposed. I type the T before the A instead of after, and Scrivener can’t figure it out. Little mistakes like that are so simple, and any spellcheck worth its salt should be able to correct them while you are writing. But they can’t so don’t even bother. I can’t tell you how often I misspell “technique,” and the computer has NO IDEA what I’m trying to say. It’s the word I mistype the most frequently.
When this happens, you have a red line on the page that you right-click to fix. But the software doesn't know what you were trying to say, and in fact, if you click the wrong option it will say “learn this word” and now not only do you have a misspelled word, but you also trained your computer to accept that spelling. This is so frustrating.
Now every time you make the same spelling mistake, it will assume it was what you wanted to do. And it will even convert other spellings into this little mistake. Problems with spellcheck can turn into a real rabbit hole. A total nightmare. This has all happened to me. It’s why I turn off my spellcheck when I’m writing, and you should do the same.
Your goal is to create as many words as you can, as fast as you can. Don't use your backspace key and don't do any destructive editing. It's very tempting. I'm the king of telling you not to do this even though it is hard for me. I have to fight the urge to go back and edit on the fly. I know it’s a time suck, but there is a part of me that is a perfectionist and hates knowing that there are mistakes on the page.
I am dictating this book to push myself. I can’t fix mistakes now. I have to keep talking and deal with them during the editing process, but it’s a struggle for me.
I notice right away that I want to change how I say certain phrases, but I can't do it. I don't have the ability to do any alterations until I get to the editing phase. After I record a chapter, I upload the files from my phone to my computer. I run them through Dragon Dictate to get my word counts for the day, but I don't look at the documents themselves. I only know my word counts. I won't see any mistakes until after I dictate the entire book.
132
Go off the Grid
I don't want to get inside my own head, and I don't want to mingle the editing process with the writing process. These different processes need to be very separate. When writing, you're in a creative state of mind, and there's no reason to let that get broken. I have said this before, but it is critical to say it again, so you fully understand. The more you research at the beginning of your process the faster you will be able to write.
If you're working on a chapter and you suddenly need to look something up, you will lose a lot of time. Just looking up a medical study or finding the correct reference for your book can take a long time. It can easily take twenty minutes to hop online and search around to find that perfect link.
Because I write a lot of non-fiction and especially medical projects, I need to reference sometimes hundreds of different medical journals. I'm a big user of Google Scholar. It's very important to me that I always go to the or
iginal study, so I don't just read some blog or secondary news source.
When you are writing, you should be able to turn the Internet off completely. It’s a sign that you aren’t fully prepared if you have to keep looking up material online while you are writing. Get all the research handled during the outlining phase.
Deactivate the Internet when you are writing to stop all those distracting alerts and popups. You are trying to enter a state of zen-like focus, and you need to block these distractions. If you can’t write without constantly going online, then you have a core problem in your writing process.
We have to correct your preparation phase before we can accelerate your writing. Writing is ninety percent science. When the preparation phase is over, you want to activate the creative part of your mind. Complete your research before you activate your creative process.
Your goal is to get to a point where you unplug your router when you are writing. This is a tough one, but it will make a difference.
133
Unhelpful Friends
Another dangerous distraction is the “helpful” friend. If you have someone who wants to read each chapter as soon as it is finished, that will affect your entire writing process.
I once worked with a client before who asked to see my first draft. I knew it was filled with spelling errors and grammatical mistakes galore. It wasn’t ready at all. For me, the first draft is really about blocking out my ideas. But this client asked to see it even after I said it wasn’t close to ready; then they gave me bad feedback. Once bitten twice shy. Nobody gets to see my incomplete work anymore.
If you have people that want to read something as soon as you write it, you need to shut them down. When I launch a book and wait for that first round of feedback, I’m always on pins and needles. There is nothing worse than getting brutal feedback. You have created something, and you want people to like it. Letting someone read your book while you are writing will leave you in this state perpetually.
I have written over one hundred books, and I still get terrified each time I release a book into the wild. I’m nervous or even scared every single time. Why would you want to lock yourself into this state during the creative process? There is no way you’ll feel comfortable showing someone a draft that you know is loaded up with spelling mistakes. So you’ll turn that spellcheck on, and now that helpful friend has slowed you down in two different ways.
If you have to show people your pages every few days while you're writing, it will distract you in a negative way. You don’t want to have any of that affecting you. Anything that slows down your writing flow or messes with your focus needs to be eliminated. If you have friends and family members who take this personally, you may need to travel to write. You might just have to get away from them so that you can write to the best of your ability.
I have written some of my best works in different countries. I wrote an amazing book when I went to Prague for a month. Getting away from everyone was beautiful. Going to a location to write is very, very effective. Why do you think so many writers own cabins? They aren’t there for the fishing.
Some writers like to write in cabins in the woods, while I prefer to go to a different location for each book that I write. Writing each book in a different location will give each book a special meaning in your heart. Each book will be associated with a different city, and that will infect your writing positively. You will develop amazing memories and get the space you need to write to the best of your ability.
Of course, this is highly dependent on your financial situation, but having space where you go to write will help if you have a lot of distractions at home. Even leaving the house for the local coffee shop can be a problem if too many people know you. Most of those writers aren’t going anywhere, so they are looking for a distraction. Avoid getting sucked into conversations that hurt your work and slow you down.
If you have already built up a presence at the local coffee shop, you need to make a change. You've already established a habit there where everyone sees you and wants to talk to you. You’ve already established a friendly and talkative habit, so when you shift and become very taciturn and quiet, they will think that you are rude. You will suffer all of these social consequences. It will be very awkward.
Rather than go through that nightmare, find a new location where no one knows you. Everyone, where I write, thinks I'm very shy, or they think that I'm very standoffish and unpleasant. I have to maintain a space around me when I’m working. When I’m not writing, I’m more than happy to chat to people.
134
Unexpected Surprises
I don't talk to anyone when I’m writing. When I'm not writing, I love to talk, and I like to play. But I use different locations for work and play. If I'm sitting where I’m sitting right now on the dock, and I did just take a few pictures of the sunset for you to see on the 20K page, people know it’s my writing spot. I sit in the same location for all of my recording. The more you repeat behavior, the easier it is for people to memorize it. If you are always sitting in different places or going to different coffee shops, it will take people longer to recognize when you are working and when it’s ok to talk to you.
Once people learn your rhythm, things get a lot easier. You might go through a small period of trial and error or face some unexpected challenges. Just earlier today I had to change locations because the ocean started going crazy. I was sitting on the dock and had to run into the restaurant because a massive wave attacked me. It splashed all over my legs and soaked me. I only own two pairs of pants, because I usually wear shorts in this heat. But of course today was a pants day, so I got super soaked. All the way up to my thighs.
I had no choice but to change from my usual writing location. The ocean was going crazy, so I ran away. I can admit that to you. Yesterday there was a rainstorm that sent me inside while recording as well. Sometimes there are factors outside your control. You will run into your surprises. Just be ready to adapt to them.
I’m in an adapting phase because this is my first time dictating a book. Even though I found the entire experience quite frustrating, I am glad it happened. Now I have a great story to share with you about unexpected challenges.
I'm learning to write in a new way so that we're on this journey together and you can experience this process with me in real time. We're learning something new together, and you don't have to feel like I'm some expert at the top of a mountain looking down at you with disdain. I’m not some perfect writer that has nothing new to learn. That’s just not reality.
I want to keep improving in life just like you are by reading this book.
135
Action Steps
Take the touch typing assessment at ServeNoMaster.com/20K
Improve your typing by investing in typing software and practice.
Turn off distractions (spellcheck/grammar check/etc) from the word processor you are using.
Try different work patterns until you figure out what works for you. Test locations, times of day, and listening to music.
Train the people at each location to recognize when it’s work time.
Consider finding a distant location to get away from the people who want to “help” you.
Part XIV
Exercises
For me, writing is an experience. It's an exercise in which I want to discover myself by taking my characters to the edges of human experience, to the edges of themselves and then, asking certain questions - about love, what does it mean to love? What's beauty? What is true beauty?
- Ted Dekker
136
Time to Sweat
We have covered the big picture, and we have the framework for writing fast in place. Now it’s time to put boots on the ground. In this section, we have a series of exercises that you can use to increase your writing speed. I've already mentioned some of these, but I know many readers skip right to this section, so all of the exercises are organized here for easy access.
There are a few key causes
of slow writing. We need to isolate the cause of your slow writing and attack it directly. The causes of slower writing can be:
Slow typing
Slow writing
Writer’s block
Analysis Paralysis
When your problem is the speed at which you type, no creative writing exercise will make a difference. The problem is mechanical, and we can attack it directly. For most people, this is the first and biggest challenge. We don’t even realize that our hands are limiting our writing speed.
The problem can be that you write slowly. You take time formulating each sentence in your mind and releasing it onto the page. This is a problem of systems; getting the words out of your brain, through your body, and onto the page.
Writer’s block is a common name for a group of different problems. Often it’s caused by a lack of preparation in the outlining and research phase, but sometimes you’re just stuck. You know what you want to happen in the scene, but the words won’t flow. This is a creativity problem.
Finally, we have a group of fear-based problems that as a group cause paralysis by analysis. This manifests itself as going back and fixing every grammatical and spelling mistake before the editing phase. Or perhaps you keep deleting and rewriting scenes or balling up the page and throwing it into the trashcan. You end up rewriting the same scene over and over again.
20K a Day: How to Launch More Books and Make More Money Page 16