Tips To Improve Your Speed Without Losing The Heart Of Your Story – Part 2

By Ewrither

I am not a neuroscientist, so take the following as an indication of what happens in our minds when we write. Do not take it as literally how the brain works, nor use it to perform brain surgery.

Writing is a creative and open process but editing is more of a structured, linear process. Sort of right side of the brain versus left side of the brain.

Switching between them is not efficient for writers.

Some ways to minimize that and keep you writing are:
– Write forwards, not forwards and backwards. This means don’t edit as you go unless you really must. Instead, flag that paragraph (par) and come back to it later or continue on but write a new par that is what you want. When you edit the chapter later, just delete the unwanted par and keep the better one.
– Flag any area that needs reworking with a set of characters you use exclusively as a flag. This makes it easier to fix later because you don’t have to hunt as hard – just search for any flags. Two question marks with no space between is my flag. Anything that will not occur in a finished document will do. ??rewrite or ??moveup are examples. Mostly I don’t need words, just ??
– Turn off auto incorrect. Saves a lot of time sorting out what the hell you said that led to this weird word being inserted instead. It also removes an irritating attention hog in the form of a red underline that keeps calling you to fix it. Do a spell check after you write the chapter.
– Don’t touch the mouse, the touchscreen etc because that shifts your mind from creative mode to visual mode and a physical target seeking mode as you click on something or invoke a menu to bold text or other activity.
– Most tasks on a computer can be done with keystrokes and minimal loss of focus. This is another reason to become a touch typist. For example, turning text into italics just means Ctrl-I to start the italics and same again to stop it. If you have already typed it, using control and left arrow takes you back a word at a time to where you can add the shift key so Ctrl-Shift-Left arrow highlights the word/s you want in italics then Ctrl-I finishes it. Your mind is still in your creative space because all of that can be done with no mind shift if you are a touch typist. Ctrl-Up arrow works in a similar way – as do Right and Down arrows.

Ewrither writes short, long, soft or strong. Hence the writhing nature of the beast. The writing and the beast are non-venomous and prone to random humor.