The Irony of Writing Quickly

Image courtesy of adamr, FreeDigitalPhtos.net

My latest writing experiments have been in writing more quickly. I've been writing short reports, ebooks and articles and it's all working pretty well because my writing speed has increased which means that I can write more without having to write longer.

I've found other advantages too because it helps me to stay focused.

You see the way it works is that when I sit down to write, I give myself a set amount of time to do it. So for a short article, I only allow myself a few minutes to do it. For a small ebook or report I allow 2 hours.

So because I have only a short amount of time to get my writing done, it keeps my attention where it should be because I don't have the time to get distracted. There is a saying that we stretch our work to fit the time that we have to do it. So the less time I give myself, the quicker I get it done.

Which means that, because I'm writing more in less time than it used to take, I should have more time for other things, right?

Wrong. And I just couldn't believe the irony.
I always believed that writing more quickly, without spending more time sat writing would improve my time management by giving me more time for other things.

But the opposite is happening and it's just ironic.

I thought that if it usually takes me a day to write a short ebook, but now I can do it in 2 hours, then I've just scored almost a whole extra day of time.

But it just doesn't seem to work that way.

Now I spend just as much time writing, but I write more.

The upside is that I get a lot more writing done every day because instead of writing an ebook in one day, I write it in 2 hours, then spend the rest of the day writing auto-responder emails, marketing articles, blog posts and more.

My original reason for wanting to write faster was to have more time, but instead, I'm writing for the same amount of hours a day, but I'm getting more written.

I thought that I'd write just as much every day, but it wouldn't take as long. But I'm dedicated to my craft and so instead of writing for less time every day, I'm writing for just as long. The only thing that has changed is how much I get written.

In fact, saying it's the only difference isn't true. It also makes me feel more focused and I get more 'job satisfaction' in getting more written every day.

It was something that I hadn't considered, but it's a welcome surprise.

Which makes it quite a win-win situation.

And that's never a bad thing.

If you want to try writing faster, take a look at my 2 Hour Writing Challenge and see how it can help you become a more prolific writer.