How to Write

Faster

Top-Down Techniques for Bottom-Up Writers

- Compose without editing - Revise without destroying finished work - Find the right words by reading aloud

When I went to school in Pittsburgh, I used to cross Fifth Avenue on my way to Physics

classes or medieval reenactment. The city is famous for potholes, some of which could

swallow a Honda Civic whole. Finally, the city repaired Fifth Avenue. It took a long time, but

when they were done, the scarred roadbed lay beneath a new surface of asphalt, perfectly

smooth and oiled a shiny black. A week later, they tore it up to install a new water main. Years

later, I still remember how much I enjoyed mocking the city planners.

Until - I realized this is my writing process. I fix typos and spelling errors when I type the

rough draft. I rearrange scenes and destroy carefully worked transitions. I spend hours crafting

lyrical phrases in passages that are cut later. I change the structure, and have to do the word

polishing and copy editing all over.

Somewhere, there is an undergraduate on Fifth Avenue laughing at me.

How To Write Faster

This book will teach you not to tear up polished work. When you waste less effort, you will write faster.

Overview

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How To Write Faster – The Process

Planning

Drafting

Revision

Word-Smithing

Copy Editing

One Sentence Summary Three Act Play / Beat Sheet Research

Write as if speaking (type / dictate / longhand ) Don’t fix typos, spelling, wording Write as if change had already been made

Order / Pacing / Cut / Add / Correct Work from High Level to Low Here’s where the draft becomes quality writing

Efficient use of words Natural sounding sentences, easy to read Lyrical phrases

Typos Grammar and Spelling Punctuation

Do First

Do Last

Jeff Bollow, “Writing Faster” Victoria Lynn Schmidt, “Book in a Month”

Do extensive planning

Blast through the first draft

Work high to low (story, scene, paragraph) Don’t wordsmith, don’t copy edit.

Don’t restructure, don’t copy edit

Don’t restructure, don’t wordsmith

1. Evaluation 2. Editing

1. Ideas to words

1. Ideas 2. Organization 3. Goals

Overview

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There Is Only One Plot Planning

Variations of the plot include:

- Coming of Age - Boy meets Girl - Rivalry - Pursuit - Escape - Quest - Temptation - Underdog - Revenge - Who Done It - Metamorphosis

Aristotle – Three Act Play Joseph Campbell, “The Hero’s Journey”

Ronald Tobias, “20 Master Plots and how to build them”

Goal + Motivation, Adversarial Forces, Crisis, Resolution

Know what plot type your story is.

Over the course of the story, the hero is changed

It’s not the plot, it’s the treatment: • Romeo and Juliet <> West Side Story • Moby Dick <> Jaws • Pygmalion <> My Fair Lady <> Pretty Woman • The Count of Monte Cristo <> Revenge • Chinatown <> Who Saved Roger Rabbit

The Three Act Play Structure

Act 1: Beginning Act 2: Middle Act 3: End Climax / Resolution / Epilogue Set-Up / Incident / Journey Obstacles / Friends / Adversarial Forces / Death of the Old Self

Climax The Battle of Good vs. Evil

Inciting Incident

Threshold Begin the Journey

All Is Lost Crisis

Aristotle – idea for the three act play Joseph Campbell, “The Hero’s Journey”

Blake Snyder, “Save the Cat” Syd Field, “Screenplay”

Planning

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Set-up

A Glimpse of the Enemy

Obstacles

Hero has a flaw

Hero has fixed his flaw (or not) which allows him to win (or not)

Hesitation

Mentor

Hero is confronted with flaw, often by the adversary

Friends Along the Way

Stakes are Raised Clock is Running

Midpoint

0 % 25 % 50 % 75 % 100 %

Denouement

Decide to fight back

Defeat Foot Soldiers

Prove that change is real

Defeat Lieutenants

A Whiff of Death

Bad Guys Repelled

Surrender to Fate

Theme Stated

You could call this as a formula which stifles creativity, or see it as a blank canvas, whose width to height are a pleasing proportion. Whatever you paint is up to you. But if you work within a structure that seems to resonate with people at an instinctive, lizard-brain level, your efforts will be better liked.

Act 1

Act 2 Part 1

Act 3

Part 2

Set-up

Threshold

Inciting Incident

Hesitation

Midpoint

Crisis

Climax

Denouement

Obstacles

Bad Guys repelled

Each row is a scene required for the Three Act Play structure

Planning The Three Act Play Structure

Blake Snyder, “Save the Cat”

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‘Beat Sheet’

Surrender to Fate

Confrontation

Tie up loose ends, prove that the change in the hero is real.

Show what normal looks like, and introduce the hero.

Something forces the hero to get going and pursue the goal. The hero gets his first glimpse of adversarial forces.

An incident creates a major problem, and gives the hero a goal and motivation.

The hero delays taking action. His mentor gets involved.

Stakes raised, clock ticking. The hero’s flaw is exposed, often by the villain. The hero is changed when he deals with the flaw.

All is lost. Despair, and a whiff of death.

Battle of good vs. evil, a head-on confrontation with the main adversary. Change in the hero lets him defeat the enemy.

The hero faces obstacles, and meets friends along the way.

Clashes and close calls with adversarial forces, but not the main adversary. A false victory - the bad guys fall back to regroup.

No options, open to whatever happens next.

Decide to fight back. Take on minions in ascending order of rank.

Act 1

Act 2 Part 1

Act 3

Part 2

Set-up

Threshold

Inciting Incident

Hesitation

Midpoint

Crisis

Climax

Denouement

Obstacles

Bad Guys repelled

Each row is a scene required for the Three Act Play structure

Planning The Three Act Play Structure

Blake Snyder, “Save the Cat”

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‘Beat Sheet’

Surrender to Fate

Confrontation

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Planning

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Planning Planning Tools

• Elevator Pitch – One Sentence Summary

• Outline

• Three Act Play Structure - Mountain Range Graph (Visual) - Scene List (Text)

• Timeline

• Concept Map

• Interviews with characters, dossiers of their behavior and habits

• Reference Materials (Background, Maps, Photos)

The plan is not cast in stone. Even Military planners say, “The Plan won’t survive first contact with the Enemy.”

Planning

A well-liked, good natured officer, badgered beyond endurance, leads a mutiny against his former friend.

An American Tragedy A socially ambitious young man murders his pregnant girlfriend to marry a wealthy heiress.

Mutiny on the Bounty

A plucky orphan goes to boarding school, and with the help of his friends, stands up to bullies.

Tom Brown’s School Days

An eccentric archeologist turns commando and leads a revolt against an evil Empire.

Lawrence of Arabia or Indiana Jones

or Harry Potter

A detective is hired to find an object everyone else wants, too. The Maltese Falcon

On The Beach A submarine commander and his neighbors in Australia carry on with their lives while waiting for the end of the world.

One Sentence Synopsis (“The Elevator Pitch”)

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Research

Topic Knowledge • Clothing styles • Cuisine • Social customs • Agriculture • Medicine in other cultures • Seamanship / Horsemanship / means of travel • Rules of magic • How the local economy works • Warfare / weapons / fortifications / armies • Psychology of personality disorders • How to read body language • Weather patterns • etc.

Maps / Floor plans Photos of Characters, Landscapes, Interiors, Animals, Objects, Clouds

Planning

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Constrain the Solution Space

By limiting the number of ways to say something, writing goes faster. A prospector is looking for gold. Much of the gold eroded from the mountain ends up in a riverbed. If the prospector searches the riverbeds and skips the high peaks and steep flanks of the mountain, he will find the gold faster.

Constraints which others have found useful: • Events in chronological order / chronological order that character perceived them • Deep POV order - stimulus, emotion/gut reaction, thought/decision, action • No adverbs • No trash words (very, really, indeed, quite, by far, much, most) • Choose simplest word available • Info dump – give least possible to get by, at the moment reader needs it

• It’s like talking to children about sex. Wait until asked, then give the minimum information needed to answer the question.

Drafting

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A nozzle on a garden hose makes the water shoot out faster. Constraints speed things up.

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Drafting

Drafting is the process of getting words down quickly. This is not your real writing, it is the bones of the structure. It’s allowed to be omniscient, head-

hopping pov, no description, facts wrong, and enriching detail left out.

In costume-making, this is the muslin mockup. The real manuscript will be written later, during the revision process.

Oddly enough, the very fast writing of drafting produces natural, flowing prose, much like speech.

High-Speed Drafting

Options For Recording the Words • Type as if taking dictation • Longhand (no typos, can’t tell if there are spelling errors) • Speech recognition software In revision, read printed copy into speech recognition software, correct on the fly

Write In a Style that Goes Quickly Narrative exposition (change to ‘show’ later) Omniscient POV (change to limited / deep pov later) Abstractions (change to specific examples later) Cliché (change to original expressions / situations later) Passive voice, adverbs, inefficient use of words, clunky (tighten up later)

Use Prompts Follow outline / beat sheet Write description while

• looking at a photographs / map/ floor plan • holding artifacts (coin purse, dagger for eating , dip pen, sealing wax)

Keep Going Forward, Fix In Revision

Don’t stop to fix typos, grammar/spelling, punctuation Don’t stop to fix wording Skip stuff that might change [insert transition here] if scene order changes, transitions change

Skip stuff that’s time-consuming [insert description here]

Jeff Bollow, “Writing Faster” Karen Dionne blog, “The Secret to Writing Faster” (longhand)

Drafting

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Revision

Drafting is the process of getting a mockup down quickly. Revision is the process of making it your own and bringing it to life.

The length of the document might easily double during the process of revision. The

words-per-minute for revision will be significantly slower, because the writing will invoke more skills and be of higher quality. (think rough lumber vs. sanded and finished)

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The Process of Revision Revision

Inspect Arrange Clean Up Enrichment

Story Level

Scene Level

Paragraph Level

Sentence Level

Add Obstacles Add Subplots Add Backstory Make Hero Likeable

Show don’t Tell Description Close / Deep POV Plants, Foreshadow

Passive > Active Emotion > Phys React Abstract > Concrete Tags > Action Phrases

Grammar, Spelling Punctuation Typos Format

N/A N/A Copy Editing

Timeline errors Plot Holes -internal consistency -events for no reason

Repetition Cliché situations Unclear POV Scene purpose

Three act play Character arc Char goal, motivation Theme

Set the scene, POV What’s at stake? Rising tension Crisis/Decision

Shorten sentences Adverbs, slang, jargon Clichés Stilted dialog

Paragraph Outline • mnmnm • nmnm • nmnm

Storyboard mnmnm nmnm nmnm

Three Act Play

Topic sentence Supporting sentences Fix awkward wording

Strunk and White

Don’t destroy finished work (especially not ‘enrichment’ – it’s the most time-consuming to write)

Muslin Mockup cut, rework, throw out

Embroidered Silk too expensive to waste R

evis

ion

N

ot

Rev

isio

n

Rev 1

Rev 2

Rev 3

Revision Cycles

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Revision Checklist – Story Level

Plot Hero doesn’t have a compelling goal Journey doesn’t get started soon enough Not enough obstacles Events happen for no reason, or feel confusing Cliché situations? The plot moves too slowly There’s no point at which the stakes are raised (clock set ticking, moral dilemma) There’s no point at which all hope is lost (death imagery) In final conflict, hero doesn’t solve the problem himself Was there a compelling reason for the hero and villain to cross paths? Subplots not connected to main plot

Plot Holes (logic errors - “The story must make sense”)

Was there internal consistency? (King Kong, the wall vs. the Empire State bldg.) Options overlooked? (LOTR - Why didn’t the eagles fly the Ring to the volcano?) Character wouldn’t have said or done that Character couldn’t possibly have known that Chekhov's gun (person or thing introduced but not used) Timeline errors Loose ends not tied up at the end

Becky Levine, “Writing and Critique Group Survival Guide”

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Character Hero isn’t complex enough, doesn’t seem like a real person Did you care about the hero? Hero behaves inconsistently Hero doesn’t have a flaw Hero’s flaw wasn’t exposed (often by adversary) Hero doesn’t grow If hero arrives at final conflict with flaw unfixed, he should suffer / fail Did the hero solve the story problem himself? Cliché characters?

Was the villain / adversarial forces realistic? Villain’s motive is unknown / not plausible

Becky Levine, “Writing and Critique Group Survival Guide”

Revision Checklist – Story Level

19 Becky Levine, “Writing and Critique Group Survival Guide”

Scene Structure The scene set right away (place / time / POV) The scene purpose isn’t clear / The scene doesn’t advance the plot Tension doesn’t increase during the scene The scene is narrative summary rather than action Weak or confusing transitions between scenes The scene starts or ends in the wrong place Nothing / not enough is at stake The scene doesn’t end with a crisis (action scene) or decision (reaction scene)

Character Character doesn’t show enough reaction Reaction is out of character

POV POV is not established when the scene opens Unclear transitions between multiple POVs POV character knows more than they possibly can

Description Too long, too many details Purple prose Doesn’t evoke an image or feeling Invokes only one of the senses Isn’t active, doesn’t include motion

Revision Checklist – Scene Level

20 Becky Levine, “Writing and Critique Group Survival Guide”

Wording • Awkward or clunky sentences • Repeated words within a paragraph

Fact Checking • Dates, amounts, spelling of names

Revision Checklist – Paragraph Level

Cliché Hunting Wording

Substitute a cliché with an almost-cliché

Cliché Phrases “The calm before the storm” => “The deep breath before the plunge” J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Return of the King” “It knocked him head over heels.” => “It knocked him balls over eyeteeth.” Mary Steward, “The Crystal Cave” “Gasping for breath” => “Suffocating in gasps, barely able to speak.” Fanfiction.net, “The Burnt God” “Can’t see the forest for the trees” => “(That’s) good for the tree, but the forest still awaits attention.” Carolyn Hax

Cliché People The hooker with a heart of gold => Someone doing the best they can in a bad situation Evil Stepmother => Long-suffering stepmother, an ordinary person with ordinary flaws

Cliché Situations Seasick and leaning over the side => Seasick and minding the smell of bilge, not enjoying the trip anymore.

Hit the castle gate with fireballs => Casting a spell to make the gate bash in like the hull of a ship striking a reef.

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References

References

Jeff Bollow, “Write Faster”

Joseph Campbell, “The Hero’s Journey”

Syd Field, “Screenplay”

Becky Levine, “Writing and Critique Group Survival Guide”

Blake Snyder, “Save The Cat”

Ronald Tobias, “Twenty Master Plots and how to build them”

“Story Architecture”

“The Plot Whisperer”

Linda Flower and John R. Hayes, “A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing”, 1981

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Worksheets

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Worksheet 1

What is your story about? Give a one sentence “Elevator speech”.

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Worksheet 2

Describe the scene with …

• The final confrontation between good and evil, in which everything is resolved

• The incident that hints something is about to happen

• A second incident that forces the hero to act

• All hope is lost, and a whiff of death

• The stakes are raised, and the clock starts running

• Life at the beginning of the story?

• Life after the final confrontation? What shows the hero is permanently changed?

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Worksheet 3

Describe -

• What is the Hero’s flaw?

• How is the Hero’s flaw exposed?

• How does the Hero change, and fix his flaw?

• How does the fact that he’s repaired the flaw help the Hero defeat the Adversary?

• How do we know the change is real / permanent?