DO YOU INCLUDE A DAILY FAST WRITE AS PART OF YOUR ROUTINE? IF NOT, YOU MIGHT BE MISSING OUT ON SOME BIG WRITING AND BUSINESS BENEFITS. SEE WHAT THEY ARE...
Is this Missing From Your Daily Routine?
by: Kel Amstutz
Friday, March 13, 2020
WRITE EVERY DAY.
How many times have you heard that very advice?
It's important. The more you write, the quicker you will hone in on your skills and improve what you do. And, the better writer that you are, the easier it is to earn the income you want.
When you are new to the game, to make your daily writing habit stick, it is best to put it on your calendar and treat it like a client meeting.
Once you have clients... and projects... and deadlines... writing every day is not a habit. It's a necessity.
If you want to make your clients happy and delivery good work on time, it takes a daily commitment (or, at least, that's always been my experience). So, the writing-every-day advice.. well, it gets heeded without your even thinking about it.
But, whether you are new to writing or you have been at this for a while and you're earning a solid living, there's a type of writing you can do EVERY DAY that will clarify your thinking, uncover new ideas, provide lots of fluff for your own content and marketing materials, and... and improve your writing skill and speed.
This sounds pretty freaking amazing, right?
It's also super simple. Anyone can do it. It doesn't matter what you skills or experience level is... you will get great things out of the exercise.
I know what you are thinking... enough already. What is this simple, powerful writing technique you are teasing me with?
IT'S FAST WRITING.
WHAT THE HECK IS FAST WRITING?
Well, it's not some ground-breaking thing. You probably ALREADY do it from time to time.
You just sit down at your computer - or, if you want to stay old-school, you can use pen and paper. Then you set a timer for 15-minutes. And... you write nonstop and without censoring yourself until that timer runs out.
Hey, I said it was simple. But, it's not as easy as it sounds.
Writing nonstop is hard. You have to LET GO of any notion of being perfect in what you write/type on that page. And, writing nonstop without censoring is even harder, because we want to fix everything we recognize as not being correct... and, we want to fix it RIGHT NOW. (you know it's true!)
By doing a fast write EVERY DAY, either before you begin your work or at the end of the day before you wrap up, you will train yourself to get out of your own way when you are writing.
That alone is reason enough to set aside 15 minutes a day.
When you learn to write without editing as you go, you'll see a big jump in your productivity.
You will also notice yourself starting to have better ideas. That is because the writing process uses the creative side of your brain, and the editing process uses the analytical side of your brain.
If you keep shifting OUT of writing mode into editing mode every two or three minutes, you never really let your creative juices flow freely. You are denying yourself full access to your amazing creative zone. And that means, even if you do good work, you won't be doing your best work.
But, when you give yourself more time in your creative zone, your writing ideas start to get more interesting, fresher, and more original.
Writing this way has another benefit, too...
It's fun!
As humans, we pretty much live for two things... (okay, there are probably a few more, but there are two for certain.) We live for connections with others and experiencing the creative flow state of mind... or that mental state where time doesn't seem to exist, you are completely unself-conscious, and everything just seems RIGHT.
The Flow State of Mind can happen in ALL sorts of activities... from hosting dinner parties to playing music or taking a walk in nature. And of course, writing...
Allowing yourself to write without editing, as the 15-minute fast write trains you to do, will give you readier access to your creative flow state.
But, the benefits of this exercise do not stop there.
CLARIFY YOUR THOUGHTS, AND EVERYTHING GETS EASIER
You can use your fast write time to gain clarity on anything that's giving you trouble or that you're having a hard time expressing.
You know how sometimes you have an idea, but when you try to share it with other people, you have a hard time conveying the weight or importance or beauty of it. It's a frustrating feeling.
It's so obvious to you that what you're trying to explain can be transformative. But, you just can't make the other people see it. What's worse is you know it's a weakness in your own communication that's making it so hard to share it in the impactful way you mean to.
When you find yourself in that situation, at the beginning of your daily fast write, think about that problem, topic, or idea for a minute or two.
And then, start your fast write.
Because of the fluid nature of the fast write and because you aren't allowed to stop writing and think about what you're trying to say... you'll find that sometimes your thoughts begin to organize themselves in unexpected ways.
By the end of the session, you may just have the answer you have been looking for... the perfect expression of a big and important idea.
SAY GOOD-BYE TO WRITER'S BLOCK
When you fast write like this every day, another fun things starts to happen. Writing just gets easier. You are so versed in the experience of sitting down in front of a blank page and filling it, that when you sit down to work on a project the words just start coming.
Is it going to be ground-breaking work every time? Of course not.
But almost every time, it will be work that moves you forward, which means you will have an easier time staying in front of your deadlines and you might even find that you start completing some work ahead of schedule. How cool will that be!
FILL YOUR EDITORIAL CALENDAR
The fast write is also a great tool for coming up with ideas for your blog, your marketing materials, or your client's blog or email newsletter.
A blog is a big commitment. Your readers expect to hear from you on a regular basis, right guys!
That can be daunting. What if you run out of things to say>
The 15-minute fast write can put an end to all that worry. Make one or two of your sessions each week about generating ideas based on recent experiences, conversations, or things you have read recently.
With that in mind, begin your fast write and just start listing ideas... nonstop, of course.
You will be surprised at how many ideas you are able to list off in a 15 minute period, when you put this kind of pressure and constriction on yourself. And, you will be even more surprised by how many of the ideas are useful and fresh. They won't all be, and that is ok. But, if you come away from each fast write session with even just five workable ideas, things will start to accumulate!
Within a few short weeks, you will have a running list of interesting and useful ideas for your calendar... or perhaps for your client's.
Writing every day is a great habit to get into. But, once you are writing every day for clients, make sure you are still spending time each day writing for YOU.
By doing a 15-minute fast write, you will tick that checkbox... and you will come up with more high-quality ideas... and you will improve your writing speed and skill. This is totally worth the short time commitment.
Give it a go for one short week and see what you think. Then... share your experience in the comments below.
