Writing FAST - Jeff Bollow 2012

Your rhythm and flow
Inspect what you have
Strengthen

Now, that logic is Left-brained. And it’s crucial, if you want to keep your reader reading.

But it’s only half of the equation.

The other half is Rhythm and Flow. It’s the Right-brain side of your writing. The aesthetic. How it feels. How it flows.

The “vibe” of the thing.

The flow of your work is what keeps the reader’s eyes gliding down the page. Any time the reader stops, or gets stuck, or stumbles over confusing sentences or sections of your writing, you’ve lost the rhythm. And it happens when the ideas within a section aren’t working together.

For example, as you were writing, maybe you had a great idea. It should’ve been thrown in the BIN. But you didn’t have anything else for that page, so you wrote it. You blasted through.

Well, that’s okay while you’re speed writing. But as you read it back, it’s awkward. Jumbled. It stops the flow (because it was a stray idea). The rhythm goes out of step.

It’s like the awkward kid on a dance floor. You know he hears a rhythm. But it’s certainly not what everyone else is listening to. And until they get in sync, it’s just embarrassing.

Unfortunately, it’s very common. It’s easy to break the flow. It happens when you write different parts of a section on different days. Which, let’s face it, is always!

Each day, your mind is in a slightly different place. (That’s why writing has always seemed so difficult!) But you’re putting your ideas on the page. They’ll be read back together — on the same day. If they’re not consistent, you lose the flow.

Notice it!

See when your writing is spotty, sketchy, jumbled, confusing, awkward or clumsy.

Look for sections or chapters or paragraphs that don’t seem to fit. And make a note of it.

Effective writing sets its own rhythm, and everything else flows along in step. Simply. Cleanly.

The ideas should run smoothly from one to the next.