Improving Your Writing Productivity

An interesting question was asked by a new member recently on my forum. Editing it down slightly, it read as follows:

"I'm an online writer, seeking tips to improve my writing productivity. Because everything I write, from flash fictions to articles, goes straight on the web, I don't have to spend time trying to get accepted by publishers. Of course, it is essential that the articles or stories are worth reading and, no doubt, some are better than others. But, at the end of the day, it is a numbers game. The more I write - to an acceptable quality - the more readers I gain and, cent by tortuous cent, the more money I earn. My big question is this: Have you any tips for writing faster whilst still achieving a satisfactory level of quality?"

With apologies for a bit of self-promotion here, it occurred to me that really the essential resource this writer required was my course Write Any Book in Under 28 Days. Not only does this include my unique, five-step blueprinting and outlining system, it is also crammed with other hints and tips on working more efficiently and boosting your writing productivity.

Thinking about it a little more, however, it occurred to me that there are a few other tools you can use as well to speed things along, especially if (like me) you're not the world's fastest typist.

One very useful resource I've been using for a while is Quick-Type, from my publishers WCCL. This is an extremely handy little program that can greatly speed up your typing. You simply give Quick-Type all the common pieces of text you type, along with a keyword for each of them. Then, whenever you type that keyword in future, it gets replaced with your chosen text.

Quick-Type works in any text-based application, including email programs and word processors. You can download a fully functional, time-limited free-trial version from the Quick-Type site. If you like it, you can then pay a small fee to register the software.

Another program that can save you a lot of time and effort is 101 Clips. This is a freeware clipboard program that greatly extends the functionality of the standard Windows clipboard. You can save up to 30 different items on 101 Clips at any one time, including images as well as text. A click on the system tray icon will bring 101 Clips to the front of whatever application you are working on. All of your copied items will be listed, and you can enter the one you require simply by clicking on it.

I used 101 Clips quite extensively recently when working on my accounts (using Microsoft Excel), to save constantly retyping words such as stationery, postage, bank charges, and so on. It's a neat, user-friendly program with quite a few extra features, and obviously you can't beat the price!

Finally, if you'd like to see other people's suggestions for enhancing writing productivity as well, you might like to check out this topic (where the question was originally posed) on my forum.