The Little Writer's Group

How to Write Faster

For years family and friends have been telling me to not worry about perfecting my writing on the first draft. I tried to listen but my perfectionist side slowed me down. Then after all that writing a paragraph editing that paragraph the repeating the process I only had one chapter by the end of three months and it still wasn't perfect. Only this year did I finally learn the secret of getting rid of that perfectionist side to write faster and I'm going to share it with you all.

The first step is to think of an idea and turn that idea into a goal. Ask yourself why am I writing this book? Do I want to spread a meaningful message or make readers feel a deep emotion? Make a basic outline of your novel so you don't stray away from your goal and your book becomes a wack like mine did. After trying out different outlines you may find that the seven act or five act outline works best for you or perhaps a basic outline consisting of a simple beginning middle and end works great. Whatever you find, make sure you stay on track with the outline you made, but remember not to make your outline too detailed or your story will be too mechanical.

You could also do outlines for each of your chapters but I feel that isn't necessary when writing the first draft because the point of a first draft is to get all your ideas down on paper and this could make it more complicated than it should be. However, I will share some knowledge about writing chapters because this is very important and useful when writing chapter books. First of all you want to have a goal, conflict, and outcome for each of your chapters. Most importantly, you want each of your chapters to be valuable to the plot whether it holds back the character from getting what they want or shining the light towards the truth. Secondly, if you don't know where you should end the chapter, think of each chapter as a paragraph. A new paragraph begins when a new time, place, view, idea, and event is introduced. It goes the same for chapters but only for extravagant changes. You may end off your chapter with a cliffhanger or important message and begin the next one with another POV or with the main character in different setting.

Now that you have an outline of your story, a goal, and an overview of writing chapters you are almost ready to write. Before we begin, set a reasonable deadline for yourself and try to accomplish it. It could be to finish half the novel by the end of summer or finish the second draft before Christmas. Try to avoid making deadlines to finish a novel by the end of a month because it could only stress you out to the point where you never write and it's unrealistic. However, if you enjoy the stress of short deadlines then go ahead and I won't stop you.

Are we ready to begin writing yet? Nope. First you have to get rid of that horrible perfectionist that leans over your shoulder while you write. Don't be scared of mistakes and terrible sentences! Challenge yourself to leave every red squiggly line alone and to not scroll up to edit your progress. The best way to do this is to set a timer every time you sit down to write for twenty or fourty-five minutes and write furiously until that time runs out. Doing this helps to get your thoughts on paper without wasting time editing. Pro tip: Sometimes the brain moves faster than the pen. If you find yourself skipping ahead and don't know what to write in the scene beforehand, write down 'something happens here,' or 'a heroic fight occurs and character is injured.' This way you don't waste time lingering over one scene when your head is eager to spill all the other thousands of ideas you're holding back.

Timing each of my writing sessions has helped so much and I have found I have gotten so much more writing done even though I'm not able to write 200 words per minute.. My first novel took ages to write and I still haven't finished it because I was editing and perfecting every single sentence I wrote. In the end I had erased my first chapter five times and my story was still terrible. All that editing had only wasted more time than if I had of left it alone until the end of the first draft. Every new writer makes these mistakes and for me it was because I was comparing my stories to famous, well-written, published authors which is the worst thing you can do to yourself. Every has to start out somewhere and yes even your favourite author's first book was most likely not worthy enough for the eyes of the world. So, the lesson of this chapter is that your first draft does not have to be perfect.

I hope this week finds us all writing furiously and remember to come back to this week if you find yourself struggling on your first draft. I will try my best to answer any questions if you have any and don't hesitate to share any knowledge you may have on writing first drafts and chapters. Spreading The Little Writer's Group throughout Wattpad would be much appreciated as it will be so helpful to me and many writers on Wattpad. Writers come on Wattpad to improve their writing skills and that's the goal of this book. Thank you for attending yet another chapter and I will be thinking of some fun activities for next week so if you have any ideas share them in the comments.

Question of the week: What is your favourite music genre/s?