How to Become a Faster Writer: 10 Expert Tips to Double Your Output

Whether you’re writing a book, a blog post or an essay, becoming a faster writer is the key to getting ahead.

If you only have an hour or two a day to write, speed is of the essence.

However, if you don’t have a solid writing habit, getting the words to flow can feel like pulling teeth at times. You know you have a lot to say and you are a good writer, but, why do the words come out at a snail’s pace?

Luckily, there are tips and tricks to write faster. Learning to write fast is not as hard as you think. With a little practice, you’ll be speed writing and hitting deadlines like an old pro.

Why is Writing Fast Important?

If you write for a living as a freelancer or blogger, time is actually money.

The faster you write, the more articles you produce and the more you get paid.

If you’re writing a book, the chances are you want to get it to print as soon as possible, where it can start to make money.

For those people with busy family commitments, writing around the kids means only small windows of opportunity.

Speed is of the essence here to make the most of the quiet time when you can write.

Writing fast can also increase the quality of your work.

While you may think you’ll just make more mistakes, the sooner you get your words out, the sooner you can edit and make it sound good.

At the end of the day, quality follows quantity.

The more you practice, the better you’ll become.

So, learning to write faster is essential to hone your writing skills.

Can the Average Person Write Faster?

Anyone can learn to write faster with a little practice. Males average 44 words per minute and females 37 words per minute.

Professionals, like data entry workers, usually average 60–80 wpm and transcriptionists or executive secretaries, usually have a typing speed of around 70—100 wpm. Take a free typing test to find your current WPM and use this as a benchmark to improve on.

10 Simple Ways to Improve Writing Speed

1. Write Daily

To write faster, you need to start writing daily.

Your writing speed and quality will improve, the more you practice. Once your mind and fingers get used to the daily writing habit, words will come to your mind more efficiently.

You’ll get better at creating ideas, forming your ideas into stories and the muscle memory in your fingers will develop.

If you’re writing a book, aim for a chapter a day.

For bloggers, challenge yourself to write a post a day. Set yourself a daily word count and stick to it.

2. Type Faster

The simplest way to become a faster writer is to type faster.

There are many free typing games and typing exercises online, designed to strengthen your fingers and increase typing speed.

If you currently don’t use all 10 of your fingers to type, learning to type properly will make you a faster typist.

And, if you look at the keyboard while you’re typing, this slows you down and can be stopped by learning the right technique.

3. Create an Outline

Having a plan of what to write is a surefire way to speed up your writing.

It means you won’t have to constantly stop and wonder what to write next.

A book outline is like a roadmap for your story.

It gives your writing direction so it makes sense and moves along smoothly.

If the story jumps about, you risk confusing your audience.

But how do you write a great outline?

An outline can almost be as intimidating as writing a book, but it’s not that bad if you have a plan. Here are 5 steps to write a great book outline:

• Create the basic idea for your story. Start by answering a few questions such as: who is the main character, what is his/her objective, what does he/she want, how does she get it and what is the central theme/lesson of the story?
• Determine where it will be set. The setting is just as important as the characters and can make a story come alive. Research your setting, find real word images and descriptions and make as many notes as you can.
• Detail the characters and their backstories. Each main character should be profiled and have their details listed. How would you describe them, where did they come from and what situations have shaped their personalities? Past trauma or unresolved issues could be important to the plot.
• Write down a timeline of events. Now you need to construct your plot and write everything down that you plan to happen. This includes events at the beginning, middle and end.
• Flesh out the main scenes. Once you have a plot, flesh out the main scenes. Include things like the characters involved, what they might say and what they are doing. Don’t focus on perfection at this point. Just aim to get everything down on paper.

4. Stop Editing as You Go

One great piece of advice to help you write faster is to refrain from editing as you go.

This slows you down and takes attention away from the actual task of writing. If you’re a perfectionist, this will be tough.

However, if you want to improve writing speed, you need to enter the flow state where words just fall effortlessly onto the page.

Aim to complete your daily word count before you allow yourself to edit.

5. Use Placeholders

No matter how much research you’ve done, there will be a time when you hit a brick wall, not knowing quite what to say next. Maybe you need to look up an idea or a fact, but don’t want to stop writing. A good idea is to use a placeholder like ‘’tk’’ which stands for ‘’to come’’.

A k is used instead of a c, because there are not many words that use the combination ‘’tk’’.

This means it won’t go unnoticed while editing. Another idea, is to quickly highlight the text, so you know what needs attention later on.

6. Schedule Practice Sessions

What often slows you down, is that your fingers can’t keep up with your thoughts.

A way to get around this is by taking speed typing tests. Typing Test and Speed Typing Online are just a few of the places to test your skills and challenge yourself to get faster.

7. Join Writing Sprints

Another way to become a faster writer is to take part in writing sprints. These are exactly what they sound like – writing as fast as you can for a certain amount of time.

Writing sprint communities can be found on Twitter using the #WritingSprint hashtag.

Sprints usually last for 10, 15 or 25 minutes, with the goal being to write non-stop for the allotted time, resisting the urge to edit or stop and read.

8. Use Voice to Text

Getting your fingers to speed up is the hard part when trying to write faster.

But, what if you could give your fingers a break and use your voice instead?

Thanks to the advancements in technology, talk-to-text software can be used to write and short paragraph or an entire book.

Google Docs has an incredible free voice typing software, anyone can use. To write faster using voice to text you have to:

• Open Google Docs
• Click on ‘’Tools’’
• Select ‘’Voice typing’’
• Ensure your microphone is on
• Click the microphone icon on the top left of the doc and speak
• Your words will be typed out in the doc

9. Get an Accountability Partner

An accountability partner, or buddy, is a great way to become a faster writer and keep you hitting deadlines.

If no one is checking up on you, it’s so easy to just put writing off and make an excuse why you can’t hit your target that day.

The benefits of having an accountability partner are huge.

They include:

• Keep each other accountable
• Can partner on writing sprints and typing tests
• Someone to help you get over writer’s block
• Giving you a pep talk when needed
• Keep you on track and writing faster to hit deadlines

Accountability partner relationships are win/win.

Whether you want to write a book faster or write more often, having weekly meetings with someone else on the same journey is invaluable.

• Optimize Your Work Space

Writing fast is easier when you have an optimized work space.

This means keeping distractions to a minimum, sitting upright in a supportive chair and having all your tools and notes at hand.

If you’re lucky enough to have a dedicated writing space at home, this is great.

Having a place that is your own, away from the buzz of family will really help.

Make sure the kids or housemates know when to leave you alone and to respect your writing time.

Other small changes to optimize your writing time include blocking out notifications on your phone and using browser extensions such as Pause, StayFocused and Limit.

These free tools cut out websites that cause the most distractions, keeping you focused and writing more than scrolling!

Having the right desk and supportive chair also makes a huge difference.

If your back is aching, you’ll be stretching more than you write.

Choose an ergonomic chair that is height adjustable and keeps your lumbar spine in a natural position.

Can Writing Tools Help You Write Faster?

Yes, there are many free and paid tools designed to help you write more, in less time.

Sometimes tapping away in your own world isn’t enough.

Many tools have been designed by writers, for writers.

Here are a few of the best writing tools to help you write faster, without sacrificing quality.

11 Best Writing Tools to Increase Your Writing Speed

1. FocusMe

Do you struggle to focus at regular intervals? Then a time tracking app such as FocusMe could become your best friend.

It helps writers get more done, in less time so your output increases. Here’s how it works:

• Install the app on your desktop
• It tracks the amount of time you spend on each app and website
• You read the detailed findings report and block the apps/websites that are distracting you the most
• Customize the number of writing sessions you need and the duration of each
• Track tasks daily and weekly according to your writing assignments and deadlines
• FocusMe reminds you of important tasks that need to get done

This app is a great tool to use to speed up your writing and to help you hit deadlines.

It costs $2.25 per month, but students can get a 30% discount and if you follow them on Twitter and Facebook, you can enjoy another 15% off.

2. Scrivener

Scrivener combines all the tools you need in one to create your first draft.

This software allows you to bring all your notes, research and writing together in one place.

Whether you’re a best-selling author or freelance writer, Scrivener helps you write faster and stay organized. The benefits of Scrivener include:

• Dissect large projects such as novels into smaller sections to edit more easily
• Store all research notes, images, web pages and any other relevant content within the software for quick access
• Drag and drop different parts of a project with ease
• Utilize Scriveners pre-written templates to get started writing and overcome writers block
• Use the ‘’snapshot’’ feature to store various versions of your content as it develops
• Scrivener works seamlessly on Windows, Mac and in the iOS app
• Scrivener has a handy full-screen mode that blocks notifications and keeps you focused

Scrivener offers a 30-day free trial and it can be purchased for a one-off fee of £47 for Mac or Windows and £19.99 for the app.

3. Grammarly

Grammarly is a well-known tool helping writers improve their writing in many ways. It uses AI powered to improve grammar, spelling and check for plagiarism.

It’s simple to use and you can add the Grammarly Chrome extension in a few clicks, right onto your browser. Even the free version is priceless and will significantly improve your written content.

4. Monday

Monday is a project management software allowing you to customize your workflow, increase productivity and become a more efficient writer.

The handy interface keeps tabs on writing projects, tracks how much time you spend on each project, sets deadlines and schedules future projects.

Task manager and editorial calendar all rolled into one, Monday will definitely help you speed up your writing and get more done, in less time.

5. Mindmeister

Whether you’re writing a blog post, novel or email, you first need to brainstorm a few ideas.

Instead of using a pen and paper, Mindmeister allows you to explore your thoughts via mind maps.

This online mind mapping tool also has project management capabilities where you can organize your ideas and turn plans into action.

Use one of their many free stock templates including blog post outlines and sales plans.

Collaborate with colleagues in real time and integrate Mindmeister with many other applications

6. SugarSync

Imagine you’ve just completed the first six chapters of your book.

You’re feeling accomplished and then, all of a sudden, your content disappears because of a cyber-attack.

This doesn’t just happen in the movies, cybercrime is a real world threat and it increased by 600% during the Covid19 lockdown.

Sugar Sync is one answer to this problem, where you can back up your content in a secure way and share files safely.

You can even store up to five versions of your data and integrate it with popular applications such as Zapier and Gmail.

7. com

Xtensio allows teams to create branded documents such as pitches, sales reports, case studies, agendas and more.

It synchronizes productivity and creativity and allows multiple people to collaborate on content for a speedier output.

The interface is straightforward to use for anyone, even with minimal graphic design skills.

Xtensio is the best way for teams to create and manage documents.

Choose from a ton of pre-made and editable templates and keep tabs on progress with insights and stats.

8. Synchro Edit

Speed up the editing and writing process by using Synchro Edit.

This tool allows multiple users to edit a web based document at the same time, while continually synchronizing changes for all.

Users can even co-write a document on a specific topic, significantly speeding up the time it takes to finish.

Each participant needs to create an account on Synchro Edit so a unique document URL can be shared for collaboration.

9. 750 Words

If you want to speed up your writing, practice is the number one way to make progress.

Many struggle with a daily writing habit and if this sounds like you, 750 Words is a helpful tool.

The platform works by rewarding users with points for the writing they do.

If you do a little writing you get one point, 750 words gets you two points and writing two or three days in a row gets you even more points.

As the days go by, you can learn about yourself, like how often you get distracted and how fast you write, in the handy stats and graphs provided. You can compete against others on the platform, or just aim to better your results each day.

• Zoho Docs

Zoho Docs allows users to create online documents and edit them from any mobile device, including your phone.

It even has a collaborative workspace where teams can come together and get work done securely.

All files are synced and backed up and you can choose who has access to what. Write and edit documents on the go, to save time and get more done when it suits you.

• Dragon Dictate

Write faster and increase your output using the Dragon Dictate speech recognition software.

You can dictate documents, emails, blog posts and search the web using your voice.

Transform your spoken words into text with great accuracy and speed.

With up to 99% accuracy and the ability to work in noisy environments, Dragon Dictate is a top way to write more, while freeing up your hands.

Final Thoughts on How to Become a Faster Writer

As you can see, there are many ways to become a faster writer.

With a little practice, you can improve your writing speed and get more done in less time.

However, as your writing gets faster, mistakes will happen more frequently.

Don’t let this stop you though. Editing tools such as Grammarly and the Hemmingway App have got your back.

Once you’ve got your daily word count down in print, run the text through these apps to catch spelling mistakes, correct grammar, cut out the fluff and edit awkward sentences.