Writing FAST - Jeff Bollow 2012

Recycle for a boost
Harness your idea overflow
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And then, finally, you recycle it.

When you fleshed out your Focus Plan in Chapter 6, you left booster areas. You gave yourself a way to include what you discovered along the way.

This is what goes in those booster areas. Your Overflow.

For most of the time I’ve been writing — and all of the time I’ve been teaching — I’ve always believed that part of the magic of writing was in the discovery.

I hated the idea of planning everything out.

I thought if you did, you’d never allow yourself the magic of that discovery. You’d miss those moments that bring writing to life. Those awesome moments where you’re right in the middle of a sentence and — aha! — something fires off in your brain and charges your writing.

It invigorates you, and excites you! You feel it in your bones. And all because you made that discovery in that very moment.

That’s the magic of writing.

And I believe in it now more than ever. Because now I can explain it.

When you let go, your Idea Factory connects with the page directly. You’re not letting your conscious Left-brain Movie Critic get in the way of that flow. The magic comes from harnessing those lightning bolts, and putting them back in your work.

And guess what. Your writing must include those spontaneous discoveries — those ideas you harness as you write. If it doesn’t, the reader will know it. There won’t be any life to it.

By creating a Focus Plan, nailing down your idea, keeping a BIN by your side to harness the overflow, and blasting through your writing as fast as you can, you let magic happen.

And what isn’t on the page, will be waiting in the BIN. If you review it, and infuse it, you launch to the next level.

And that’s magic.

And it happens by design.