How to write faster
because sometimes you need to go fast
Hi Hollyweirdos! As I mentioned last week I have been (thankfully) sucked into the land of writing for television, a magical place where you get lunch every day and can snack all you want. But you also have to write TV all day (like, all day) which has made it a particularly interesting challenge to juggle ALL OF THE OTHER THINGS that I’ve been keeping you updated on here. Life stuff included.
So I have made a tiny bit of progress on the Ghost Road Trip (see here if you’re confused), but, in reality, I have a TV show AND another feature film that I need to go write that are technically the priorities over that one. Meaning, I’m working in TV Land 10-5 and carving out a little extra feature writing time either before work or after dinner.
I've written before, a lot, about how speed is one of the things I most value in my writing process. My pet theory about it is that going fast helps you get out of your own way, by outrunning the conscious mind's inner critic. And I’d like to think over time I’ve gotten quite good at it.
But now that I am simultaneously juggling concurrent writing jobs I am putting my speed tricks to the test and so wanted to share with you a few tips a for how to speed up your wiring profess.
If only to remind myself how to do it…
Six Tips & Tricks For Writing Fast!
Create a writing ritual. This is just about making a routine that always leads you into writing. It can be making coffee, journaling, lighting a candle, ringing a bell, listening to the same playlist… Whatever you can do every time you're going to start writing to help subconsciously cue your mind to quiet down and focus up. If it worked on Pavlov's dog, it can work on you. Bonus points if it's a routine that you can take with you anywhere, so you can do it on the go. I have a writing playlist, which changes slowly project to project.
Write it out of order. If you get stuck or bored, skip it! Just start writing the next scene that you know you'll enjoy. You will find you almost always have at least one scene you have a good handle on, and you won't be wasting time staring at the blank page. You may also later discover that the scenes you skipped are scenes you didn't even need. The Coen Bros claim this is their writing method, they only write the scenes they want to write and skip all the rest, leaving the "boring ones" out of the movie entirely.
Stop while you know where you're going. If you can cut yourself short at the end of a writing session and leave off in a place where it will feel easy to pick back up again, you've done Future You a great service. Now Future You won’t be sitting down going "Lemme see here. What next? What next?"
Do your homework. Having a really well considered outline, even if it takes more time to get that figured out, ultimately makes the writing process all the faster. It'll also make the rewriting phase faster. Trust me. As someone who has written without plenty of movies without a good outline, everyone is right, it is a lot faster if you’ve done your homework.
Give yourself even less time. This may be counterintuitive but you would be shocked how much you can get done in 30 minutes when that's all you have. If you're feeling overwhelmed, don't bite off more than you can chew, just do 30 minutes. Training with these short sprints will also pay dividends later as you get that much better at writing in short, efficient bursts.
Aim for "good enough." Remember a "good enough," completed screenplay is a much better place to be than a perfect, not yet written screenplay. Try to chill your inner critic out, by reassuring them that you know you'll need to edit, but that can come later. First thing is simply getting it all down.
And that’s it! Do these and I assure you you will be faster!
Or at least, working, which is half the battle anyway!
Any other tips and tricks you all have? I would love to have them (because I need them)! Let me know in the comments, which are always open for discussion.
They’re also always open for your questions, just as a reminder. Have questions about a writing career? Craft? Process? Career advice? I’d be happy to hear ‘em!
What else is going on in Hollyweird, you ask?
I highly recommend this recent episode of the podcast Search Engine. Ostensibly it’s about why dubai chocolate has gone viral, but is really about why things go viral in general, and particularly… how online video has transformed our understanding of what constitutes “entertainment.” It is an extremely interesting listen, and one that has reframed for me a lot of my understanding of user generated content. Highly recommend!
Hollyweird is on instagram! If you want more tips and tricks (like the ones above) for navigating a career and a life in Hollywood, I’m sharing even more there. So gimme a follow.
We have an upcoming, paid subscriber only, Hollyweird Hang on the books for Saturday September 6th. So if you want to get to log on and chat with me, and other subscribers in real time about what you’re working on and just generally build some community — which I highly recommend — you still have time to upgrade your subscription.
Tommy Cash (this year’s Eurovision third place contestant) released a new song “OK.” As someone who once lived in Italy, I can assure you, it’s exactly like this video. If you aren’t familiar with Cash, his videos are… wild. I’d recommend this one and this one and this one (which is extremely not safe for work).
I appreciated Jon Stahl’s recent piece(s) on “Are Attention Spans Really Shrinking?” A thorough debunking of the common lament everyone keeps repeating, and a thoughtful examination of what might really be going on online. Makes a great companion piece to the Search Engine podcast.
Previously on… Hollyweird!
