Writing FAST - Jeff Bollow 2012

The mental pre-flight
Squeeze the most out of FAST
The payoff

As I’ve been writing this book, I’ve been jotting down ideas. Ways to maximize the FAST System — to get the most out of it.

And I’m excited. I’m really jazzed about this.

Because Chapter 17 is where they come out — how to turbo-charge your writing. It’s got one technique, and six or seven ideas to kick it into overdrive, and get you running at full steam.

For me, it’s a rush. It’s exciting to think I might actually help you get your work written. That maybe (just maybe) ideas from my head might spark ideas in yours.

Call me simple. But I think that’s cool.

If you’re on your second read of this book (and you’ve been applying it), you must be buzzing right now! You’ve nearly finished your project. It’s exciting, isn’t it? See! I told ya!

But if you’re on your first read of the book (still “getting your head around it”), you can see it now. You can see how this book will walk you through it. And you’re ready to try it.

So I’ve got to warn you.

Part of your success with FAST is determined by how you implement it. Notice how I try to encourage you and kick you into gear! To help you get excited about this stuff!

Why? Because when you get excited, you accomplish more. When you raise your energy level, everything is easier. It’s not just “positive thinking.” If you put yourself in that frame of mind, your body gets physically poised to dig into your project.

So let’s make it easy, and look at some reasons to get excited.

The mental pre-flight

The FAST System itself is a step-by-step guide through each phase of the writing process.

But it’s got an amazing side benefit, too.

By simply understanding FAST, you can break down any writing project in just two minutes.

Two minutes!

It’s a technique I call the “Mental FAST System Pre-Flight.”

Or, simply, “the Pre-Flight.”

It’s the most powerful technique in this book, and I couldn’t share it until now — until you understood how the FAST System works. And if you really use it, you’ll break down new projects effortlessly, and prep yourself for the writing process.

And best of all, it feeds on itself. The more you do it, the more you understand it, the better you’ll get.

The Pre-Flight is a visualization technique. But before you dismiss it as too “new age” for you, try it.

Here’s how it works.

You’re going to take two minutes, and fly through your entire writing project in your mind.

In other words, you’ll visualize each phase (Focus, Apply, Strengthen, Tweak) unfolding in your imagination. Each phase gets thirty seconds.

Like this:

Thirty seconds watching yourself Focus your idea.

Thirty seconds watching yourself Apply that plan.

Thirty seconds watching yourself Strengthen your work.

Thirty seconds watching yourself Tweak the words.

You’re not just “thinking about the Focus phase.” You’re really going through it — really doing the Focus phase — in full detail. See the whole phase unfold before your eyes.

Pretend you’re watching a videotape from the future — and it shows what you’ve already done. But the videotape is running in fast motion. Like time-lapse photography.

You’re not seeing selected moments from the Focus phase. You’re watching the entire phase zip by!

For example, the first ten seconds, see yourself brainstorming. Capturing your idea in one sentence. Watch that whole process. The next ten seconds, watch yourself making the idea tangible. See it zip by, as you create your Preview in your imagination. Then, the last ten seconds, watch as you stretch that idea across the Power Grid, and chunk out a Focus Plan with checkpoints.

Watch it happen. Watch yourself doing it.

“Pre-fly” through the entire project!

If you haven’t experienced the FAST System yet, it might be difficult to imagine. And it’s true — your first Pre-Flight is just your imagination.

But as you experience the FAST System — as you go through and use it on every project you write — your ability to visualize each phase gets stronger. The Pre-Flights get more “realistic.” You start to see each phase, because you’ve been through it.

And an amazing thing happens.

You begin to go beyond mere imagination. Gradually, you start to foresee the project itself. The answers to your problems. The solutions to your ideas. You see the whole project — days, weeks, months — you harness it — in just two minutes.

You get your mind moving fast!

Don’t underestimate this technique.

It’s not airy-fairy. It’s amazing. And if you really do this, your jaw will hit the floor.

Ideas will spark ideas in a ferocious lightning storm in your brain. And you’ll develop the ability to crystallize those ideas and harness them quickly and efficiently.

It’s a short-cut to nailing your project.

And it works.

Just as you’ll Focus and plan your idea before you blast through it, the Pre-Flight lets you “Focus” the project itself.

And it only takes two measly minutes.

I guarantee you this. No matter how “new age” you think the Pre-Flight is, trust me on this one.

It’s this technique that will change the way you write forever.

How’s that for a Payoff?