Training to Write Better and Faster

Many new authors embark on a quest to improve their writing. I have undertaken this journey, investing time and money in reading books and attending writer’s conferences. These activities have helped me learn the craft and improve the quality of my writing. But I had not attempted to write faster until the past month.

An athlete works to improve the quality of their actions and their speed. Swimmers and sprinters work to improve their form, training their arms and legs in the best motions to use from the starting block to the finish line. They also train to increase speed and endurance. Shouldn’t I do the same as a writer?

The book 5,000 Words Per Hour by Chris Fox has challenged me to increase my speed. It also instructed me on how to do it. I already used several of the tips Fox mentions, but not the use of dictation. Since my Windows 11 has dictation capabilities, I decided to use it in a two-minute trial.

Ugh! I was incredibly clumsy. The software needs your voice to say words and commands. I’m used to hitting the return key or the comma, period, and quotes keys. But who talks that way? It felt like molasses filled my mind. After two minutes, I clicked off the software and copied the number of words I had managed into my tracking spreadsheet, converting it into an hourly rate. I had already entered some word counts for my typing-only approach. Even with my halting dictation, the hourly rate was over 1,000 words per hour more than my typing rate.

Huh. A fluke? I continued to compare the two methods over a couple of weeks, working my dictation sprints to 20 and 30 minutes. Dictation consistently recorded at a rate of 1,000 words per hour more than typing. (Both methods capture a very rough draft that requires corrections and edits before I can submit it to my critique partners.)

This breakthrough allowed me to compose and smooth (correct typos, add internal thoughts, action beats, etc.) one additional chapter this week! It still feels rough to use dictation, but training will increase my speed further. One tip I discovered was to use some of the same techniques from typing in dictation, for example, don’t worry about all the punctuation, ignore misspelled words, insert notes on things to add later like scene descriptions—don’t stop, keep going. The goal is to enter a mental flow where I can imagine and capture the action and dialog to edit later, not to dictate a publication-ready scene.

I was so happy I finished an extra chapter this week, I took Elaine to a nice restaurant for lasagna and dessert. So now, besides training on dictation, I’ll need to get more physical exercise too. 🙂