Writing FAST - Jeff Bollow 2012

Fill in the details
Attach your lightning rod
Focus

But if you really want to get into speed writing — if you really want to achieve lightning speed — the secret is to zoom in one more level.

Because even a single page can slow you down.

Now I’ll admit something. Don’t tell anyone I said this (people that don’t read this book don’t have to know), but I frequently skip this step. I’m so impatient, that by the time I get here, I just want to dive in. I can’t wait anymore. I hate writing, and I’m dying to get it over with.

And every time I skip it, I regret it. Every time I skip it, my writing takes substantially longer than it needed to.

So here’s what I recommend. I’ve found it works best to create two to five “points” for each chunk.

In other words, depending on what’s going on the page, jot down two to five different ideas. Things to talk about on that page. For example, in this section (“Fill in the Details”), I’ve written “create detail for each page”, “two to five points per chunk”, and “kickstart the idea.” That way, I have a plan.

All the other words you’re reading in this section come as I’m writing it (during the Apply phase, or later). But by having those points listed for this section, I know exactly what I’m going to write here. Even if I can only devote ten or twenty minutes to my writing today, I can easily pick up where I left off tomorrow.

By taking your details to this level, you give your Left-brain (the logical side) a chance to contribute to the writing of this thing. And you won’t ever go more than a paragraph or two without knowing what comes next.