Write Faster, Write Better

by David A. Fryxell

Expert advice for writing faster and writing better! Every writer has felt the pressure of a deadline. Writing is a there are the problems of getting started, feelings of writer's block, and numerous interruptions lying between you and a finished piece. This book is your guide to getting through that obstacle course with success. In Write Faster, Write Better , author and editor David A. Fryxell shares his secrets for writing faster while boosting your creativity and the quality of your work. He guides you step-by-step through the writing process to help you create a publishable manuscript in less time. You'll learn how

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 23, 2004

Reviews

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has much advice on how to get organized so you can write more quickly. In fact, most of the tips involve doing more work before you actually sit down to write. While many of the examples are for nonfiction writers, there is still much here that will help people write short stories or novels more quickly. As with most writing books, there are probably sections that are already familiar to you. But Fryxell covers a lot of ground here, so you may find something new and useful. Of course, the book was published over ten years ago, so much of the technology advice is outdated (there's this thing called Google, which lets you find web pages more quickly). In spite of that, it's a solid book that may help you fix some of your bad writing habits.

[Avi Poje · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book in the writing section of my library. I wanted to like it—it promised a way to write faster.

Unfortunately, I found little that I could glean from this book. It felt dated—even for 19 years old it hadn’t held up. There were a lot of references to newspapers, for example: clip articles that interest you and build ideas. It might have been good advice in the dawn of internet 1.0, but the earth has rotated too many times around the sun for the advice to be evergreen.

It also felt more focused on short-form articles instead of books. Great and all, but it’s a different animal and not what I’m after.

I ended up skimming the second half of the book, and remained uninspired.

[Kelly Harmon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has been on my shelf for a long time. I'd started it several times over and just couldn't seem to make it through. I finally pushed myself to get through it...and now I can get rid of the book.

I might have rated this book higher, if I didn't feel the premise were so misleading. The intro and first few chapters or so make you think Fryxell is talking about how to write novels faster and better: but it really doesn't.

The meat of this book -- and the solid advice -- is geared toward making you write NON-fiction faster and better. And there's some good information there. Fryxell makes his living writing non-fiction about writing, so I'm not surprised that there's good information here for non-fiction, and some so-so information about fiction.

There's a good deal of time spent on organization -- and time management -- being the key to getting more done. I don't doubt he's write, but once again I felt misled. This book was supposed to be about writing better and faster, not about getting organized or finding out what 15 minute increments of my day are sucking time out of my writing.

If you're a disorganized writer (or maybe a semi-organized writer) -- and I mean this mostly in the physical sense of your surroundings... Or, if you're lacking the time to get your writing done, you'll benefit from this book.

If you're intent on a non-fiction -- even freelance -- career in writing, you'll find some gems here, too.

If you write chiefly fiction, there are better books to turn to.

[Marshall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Should have been about reading faster; I couldn't finish it. Although well-written and full of useful tips, it didn't have a lot of info that I wouldn't expect from any number of similar books. Each chapter has a lot of exercises, if you want to pretend you're in school.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you don't know how to do this, then this is a decent book to learn. It covers the basics.

[Suzie Quint · Rating 2 out of 5]

This might be a good book if you're inclined towards outlining, but if that destroys your creative process, as it does mine, it's totally worthless.

[Anne Marshall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some useful tips but not something I'd buy

[Bat Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical suggestions for speeding it up and getting it out. Great for those of us who make a living by the word.