Writing FAST - Jeff Bollow 2012

Write to your checkpoints
Ride your wave to the end
Apply

Each chunk in your plan is separated by two checkpoints.

These checkpoints allow you to seize an idea, get excited by it, and focus on a goal that’s close enough to reach.

Here’s how it works.

When you look at your Focus Plan, see the next checkpoint. Lock the idea in your mind. See the target. And then use Talktation to get there as fast as you can.

For example, in this chapter, each segment subheading is a checkpoint for me. When I look at my Focus Plan, this chunk is “write to your checkpoints.” The next chunk is “find the optimal flow.”

The end of this chunk is my checkpoint. When I’ve made the point — when I think I’ve been clear enough that you understand what I mean by “write to your checkpoints” — I’ve reached my checkpoint for this section.

It might not be graceful. It might not even be terribly effective. But I’m not worried about that right now.

All I care about is filling up this segment. I’ll come back and fix it later. But by filling the pages as quickly as possible, I do the hardest thing a writer has to do: I put words on the page.

And that’s all the Apply phase is about.

This chunk might take a page, or it might take two. I keep writing until I think I’ve made the point as best I can. And when I have, I’ve reached the checkpoint.

And I can move on.

Which would you rather write? A 192-page book, or a one-page chunk?

If you ride the little waves, you’ll be floating along the big wave without even noticing it.