Writing FAST - Jeff Bollow 2012

The FAST system on 20 minutes a day
The FAST system in the real world
The payoff

In many ways, I think it’s better to have less time to spend on your project. It forces you to move quickly.

Professional writers have an unfair advantage over the rest of us. They get to write full-time. And because they can devote more time to their writing than someone sneaking a few hours here and there, they get better at their craft more quickly.

You’ll get better at anything you repeatedly do.

But they also have enough time to get stuck. And they have just as many interruptions as you do.

Would you love to write full-time? Imagine all that free time. Imagine having a six-month deadline, and knowing it’ll only take three months, working three hours a day!

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Yeah. And it’s fantasyland. Even if you have all day to write, urgent issues still come up. And always at the wrong time.

Life happens. You’re desperate to make a chapter work, and the phone rings — you need to take the call. You need to deal with a customer. You need to run to the hospital. You need to go to that party you don’t want to go to. And on and on.

Whether you have a full-time job, or no job at all, it’s up to you to put time into your writing, and to make sure it gets done.

The FAST System works on as little as 20 minutes a day.

In fact, I recommend it!

Working in twenty-minute blocks does three things.

Firstly, it focuses you on the task at hand. If you know you’ve “only got twenty minutes,” you’re less likely to let distractions get in the way. You’ll power through your writing.

Secondly, it removes excuses. You can’t tell me you can’t find twenty spare minutes in your day. You can. So you can write.

And thirdly, it keeps you fresh. Blast through for twenty minutes, and then walk around, clear your head, or get distracted. You don’t go numb in the brain from staring at a computer screen for too long.

So whether you’re a professional writer with all the time in the world, or a novice with two jobs, break it down into twenty-minute chunks, and let FAST help you power forward.