5 WAYS to Write FASTER First Drafts | NaNoWriMo 2020

what's up my friend abby here and welcome back to writer's life wednesdays where we come together to help you make your story matter and make your author dreams come true nanowrimo is just a couple of weeks away and you know what that means time to get into writing gear whether this is your first time writing a novel or you're a seasoned author it can be difficult to write a first draft quickly without it turning out as total rubbish if you're anything like me you have a lot of other commitments in your life and you can't necessarily take the whole day to lock yourself away and write your book however much you might want to which is why we have to talk about writing fast most people take a very aggressive approach to this idea of writing fast they think the best way to write faster is to just crank those words out even if you're not happy with them even if it's a stressful writing process who cares it's just the first draft anyway right uh yeah but don't you want to like enjoy the writing process don't you want to be proud of what you've written writing a book is supposed to be an expression of your creativity it should be fun nanowrimo should be fun so that's why in this video we're going to take a different approach to this goal of writing faster because you do want to reach your word count goal or write a whole novel in 30 days but you don't want to take all the fun out of it is there a way to have both of course it's all about eliminating the things that will slow you down why does your story matter good question what if i told you that there's a science behind every great story i don't just teach you how to write i teach you how to change the world with your story and make your author dreams come true before we get started i would like to say that there are some things that will slow you down but are necessary to writing a good first draft such as time spent thinking about what you're going to write before you write it so when you're sitting at your computer thinking about your next sentence that is time that is well spent some writers might argue that you don't need to stop and think about what you're going to write you just need to write write write write and don't stop don't look back just keep writing that definitely is a method and i'm not knocking it so if it works for you go right ahead but see this method doesn't work for me personally because a major part of my motivation to keep writing is to feel comfortable and confident that what i just wrote is good it doesn't have to be perfect it won't be perfect but it has to be good or else i won't really see the point of writing more now i realize that the word good is very subjective and there might be some self-critical writers watching this right now who think nothing i write is good well that is just your weakness talking don't pull up a chair and listen to what it has to say don't even dignify that crap with a moment of your attention and if you struggle with believing in yourself as a writer check out this podcast that me and my sister just did on that exact topic it will really help you out now let's look at the top five things that slow down most writers without them even realizing it this is how you get more words written every day without having to rush and stress out over your word count first prepare your outline ahead of time it's a proven fact you write slower sloppier first drafts when you have no idea where you're going with this story it's kind of like trying to drive across the country to a specific town with no map once upon a time i used to be a pantser it didn't end happily ever after when i discovered the magic of outlining i never looked back now i'm a self-described intense outliner as in i don't feel super comfortable writing a book without at least a 15 000 word outline but that's not for everyone okay just like the road trip example you might be one of these people who just occasionally glances at the map and you're like oh yeah i know where i'm going and lo and behold you make it there or you might be someone like me who needs the gps on the whole time like talking to you telling you exactly which rows to turn down and exactly which lanes you need to be there is no right or wrong okay how little or how much you outline has nothing to do with how good of a writer you are just like how much you use a gps has nothing to do with how good of a driver you are but if you want to write fast and write well you need some kind of map luckily i've got you covered i have tons of videos on outlining i recommend starting with the preptober series that i posted last year for nanowrimo and it covers my outlining process start to finish and the best secret weapon for writing fast is scene cards so if you want to take this to the next level and stay focused on writing excellent scenes without having to guess your way through any of it scene cards are your new best friend i first stumbled upon scene cards in lisa kron's awesome book story genius and my writing life has never been the same since check out this video for a better explanation on scene cards and how to use them number two prepare source material ahead of time what the heck is source material abby isn't that your outline not quite see an outline tells you what you're going to write and it usually doesn't go into super specific details but source material goes beyond that it's those specific details that you come up with when you're obsessively thinking about the next scene that you're going to write and you actually start writing it in your head basically the idea is to take the time when you're not writing to construct exact details in your imagination and make notes to yourself about these details usually i do this with dialogue so i'll be thinking about the next conversation that my characters are going to have and they'll just start talking in my head i'll hear them talking and i can't get them to shut up so i don't even try anymore i'll just listen to what they have to say in this conversation and see where it goes and if i like what i hear i'll write it down and use it later but this doesn't just have to be dialogue it could be a piece of narration or a thought process that one of your characters has or just a detailed part of your scene the more you sharpen the details in your mind before you write the less time you'll spend staring out the window when you need to be putting words down when i'm really into a book that i'm writing i'm writing it all the time in my head when i'm cleaning the house making myself food driving somewhere getting ready trying to sleep at night you might want to be careful with that last one though because you do need to get some rest in order to write well put your health first but please create this source material it will save you tons of time because not only will you have a great outline but you'll have these chunks of narration and dialogue and now all you have to do is write a scene around it easy number three prepare your research ahead of time nothing slows down the writing process more than stopping to research something that you don't know when you're in the middle of writing your first draft it's a recipe for disaster don't even try it you'll fall into the endless abyss of interesting facts and your work in progress will never see you again but i'm not going to suggest that you just write tk all over your manuscript first of all that doesn't help with your word count right secondly it's frustrating to have to leave out all of these technical details like i know i'm not the only writer who hates feeling like i don't know what the heck i'm writing about and as i said before a lack of confidence can really do a number on your motivation to keep writing so do as much research as you possibly can ahead of time and keep your notes at your fingertips if you're using scrivener i recommend taking the bits of research that you know you'll need for particular scenes and bookmarking those notes to your corresponding documents by the way i teach you how to use bookmarks and other awesome scrivener features in my new scrivener masterclass check it out obviously you're not going to be able to foresee everything that you're going to need to research so that's when you want to write tk in your manuscript and come back later and fill in those technical details when you're not writing number four prepare your food ahead of time yes food meal prep can save you tons of time writing time it's one of those things that you wouldn't think slows you down but it really does especially when you have to stop in the middle of a scene to go prepare yourself food like that's so frustrating honestly if you do all of that ahead of time that gives you more writing time one of my favorite easy make-ahead meals is overnight oats perfect for those early mornings when you want to grab something fast and get straight to writing if you need some meal prep inspiration just start searching around on youtube and you'll find tons of ideas even if you're on a special diet number five prepare your writing space ahead of time i know a lot of writers who will write all day long and accumulate a bunch of clutter on their desk and in their writing space and then they'll leave it there and clean it up the next day when they sit down to write i don't understand that that's valuable writing time that you are wasting tidying up do this after you finish writing for the day by taking the time to clean up your writing space today you're giving yourself more writing time tomorrow and don't just leave your desk a mess and say oh it's okay i'm used to it no in my experience an orderly space leads to an orderly mind and you really can't afford to have anything distracting you when you're trying to write fast and write well so take the time to declutter and set yourself up for success the next time you sit down to write you'll be glad you did okay boom those are my top five tips for writing faster in eliminating things that slow you down comment below and tell me if you do any of them or all of them also tell me if you are participating in nanowrimo this year if you are i have something super special planned for next week so stick around i think you're going to love it and if you're from the future the link to that video will be right there smash that like button if you liked this video and be sure to subscribe to this channel if you haven't already because i post writing videos and publishing videos every single wednesday and i would love to have you here in the community also be sure to check out my patreon because that's where we go beyond videos and take storytelling to the next level the patreon community is not only the best way to support what i'm doing here on youtube but it's also the only way to connect one-on-one with me and get better guidance on your story so go to patreon.com abbyemens and check out all the awesome extra content that i have over there for you until next week my friend rock on literally so much of the time i will just forget to eat yeah i should probably stop writing and go make myself some food because i'm starving then next thing i know i'm passed out on the floor because i was just so into what i was writing that i forgot to get up and go eat so now i i've just fainted

Channel: Abbie Emmons

Views: 19,285

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Keywords: nanowrimo, national novel writing month, how to write fast, how to write 5000 words a day, write faster, faster first draft, tips for writing fast, authortube, writers life wednesday, abbie emmons, novel

Id: WTQ3WzNJndU

Length: 11min 41sec (701 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 21 2020