Writing FAST - Jeff Bollow 2012

Inspect from a distance
Inspect what you have
Strengthen

To inspect something is to look at it critically. To hunt for flaws. To examine it. Almost suspiciously.

With your own work, it’s easy to be over-critical.

But we don’t want over-critical. There’s no point wasting time with “it’s bad” or “it’s terrible.”

But then again, we don’t want under-critical, either. If you think everything you write is brilliant, you’ll never improve.

Instead, we want objectivity. We need to see what’s not working, and figure out how to fix it.

And if you finished getting your words on the page yesterday, get outta here. Don’t even try this today. You couldn’t possibly be objective about your work.

You need a break.

How long? I don’t know. Maybe a few days. Maybe a couple weeks. Maybe several months.

You need as long as it takes to get distance from your words.

Otherwise you’ll pay attention to all the wrong things. And instead of writing fast, you’ll take twice as long.

Imagine you’re a football player. You’re on the field. In the final minutes of the game, the other team narrowly snatches victory as time runs out.

Would you wander over to the sideline and start immediately reviewing the videotape? Would you pull up a chair and analyze?

Of course not!

You’d do that later — off the field! When you’re detached from it. When you can look at it with a clear head.

Same goes for your writing.

And it’s the same process. But instead of watching videotape, you’re watching the replay of your words.