Writing Wednesday: Getting A Speed Upgrade

I spent an hour last week with my triathlon coach in the pool, showing me a few drills to help my stroke along. I don't have a terrible stroke, but sometimes it feels like I am just reinforcing bad habits in the water. I swam in high school, but I don't remember ever doing drills to improve stroke. I don't remember talking about stroke at all.The interesting thing about this session was that my coach told me to stop thinking about my stroke all the time and just swim. He did the drills with me, but he didn't want me to think about them while swimming. He said that the change would happen naturally and thinking about it would just make me slower.

When I talk to writers, I feel like the biggest barrier for them is speed of writing. Now, there is nothing wrong with writing slowly, but it seems like a lot of writers are aware that the reason they are writing slowly is that they keep thinking too much about their stroke. They are aware on a micro-level of all the elements that go into making each sentence. They think TOO much about voice, grammar, plot, character. They analyze their own words as they are writing them. Again, this is not wrong. If this is working for you, then don't feel obliged to read my advice. But if you are feeling paralyzed by this, then maybe what I have to say will be useful.

What you need to do: Read more. Read a lot. Read a book a day for the next month. Don't write anything. Just read. My idea here is that if you read fast enough, you may be able to disconnect the editor part of your brain for a little while, or that you may figure out how to turn the switch more consciously. The editor part of your brain is really important. Analyzing things is a great way to become a better writer. But if you are too self-conscious about your writing, you may be standing in your own way. Let yourself be an unconscious reader again for a while.

Do you remember when you were a kid and you would just read and enjoy books--even bad ones? It's not a bad thing to be able to get back to. Telling yourself all the things that a best-selling book does wrong may be missing the point. What is it doing right? That is the question and if you can't be that reader again, you may never find out the answer to this question.

Read, read, read. Read good books and bad. Read them quickly. More quickly than you are used to doing. Don't read every line. Speed read. Feel the flow of the book. Look at the shape of the arc rather than the individual words that make it up. And then when you go back to your own book, try to write it the same way, unconsciously, just filling in the spaces.

Mind you, I'm not saying to send it out in this state, before your editorial brain gets re-engaged, but sometimes people can't finish a draft because they have been to too many workshops and classes, have read too many books on writing. Sometimes you need to stop thinking so hard about writing and just sit down and get it done. Be a reader again, and enjoy your words as you write. Let them flow. Then when you have a full draft, you can re-engage the editor brain and start looking at your sentences analytically.