Are you a Writer Hare or Turtle?
I have just listened to the teleseminar with Mark Joyner and Richard Webster that was the gift for entering the BeTheNextBestsellingauthor competition.
Two extremely successful people and so different. Mark has written a whole book in one day. Richard writes 2,000 words a day without fail. Over the last 20 years that has resulted in 95 books.
What is true for both though is absolute focus and commitment. No excuses, but following their plan to the letter.
The Hare Writer
So if you are a hare and love running off at the speed of light. There is nothing wrong with that (as long as your body can take it). You just need to stay committed until you are done. If you remember the story of the hare and the turtle you know that the hare went to have a sleep in the middle of the race. Do not succumb to that danger.
The Turtle Writer
It does not matter how little time you have, just keep plugging away each day. Set a goals, stay consistent and you will reach your vision. The danger here might be that you do not see progress quickly and give up. Richard said that he sees every chapter as an accomplishment that he celebrates.
What’s Needed to Win Each Way
The teleseminar was about speed writing. And the main lesson I learned was about preparation. There are different phases in the whole writing process.
- Idea
- Structure
- Research
- Writing
- Editing
The advice was to separate the phases and not be distracted by anything while you actually write. It might be commonsense to you, but to me it was quite revealing. I would often agonize about a report for weeks, only to write it in a day.
I always thought that this was because I was a slow writer. Now I know it is because I mixed the different phases while attempting to write
I know that I plan and structure best when being away from my computer (ideally walking in the National Park). But I do not use it often enough. It feels more serious to sit in front of the computer, when in fact I could be more effective away from it to perform the other stages before the actual writing.
Being a Productive Writer
Having said that, the actual writing is what brings in the Dollars in the end. So that is why Richard has his goal of 2,000 words a day. He does not say: “I have to come up with ideas for 2 hours a day.” It is the actual output in words that is the goal.
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Tags: research writing, slow writer, speed writing, writing process
