Content is the key to the success of any brand that has an online presence. The more content a brand has, the likely its chances of getting more exposure. If you are a content developer and could write content faster than you could, wouldn’t that be great?

Personally, in the past, I used to write long-form content with high-quality content in a long space of time. But of late, I can proudly assert that I can write content faster. If I can, you can.

In the course of this article, we would be looking at how to double your writing speed by reducing the quality of your content.

Practical Guide to Increasing Your Content Creation Speed

#1. Get your typing up to speed

You can never create content quickly if you cant type fast. It does not matter how well you stay focused for a long duration. If you are the type of writer that pecks at letters, one finger at a time, you are not going to be a fast content creator.

You still need to be well aware that you do not need to be a master typist to be a fast writer. You just need to be appraised to the core rules of using a keyboard to type. Imagine being able to type at least 60 words in a minute, that would be 3600 words in one hour.

Although this scenario is not realistic, because you would be doing a lot of creative thinking, which takes time. But in the example given, you can at least reach a fraction of that production rate. There are platforms that you can use to take typing speed tests. These tests would let you know how many words you can type in an hour and a minute.

If you have a typing speed below the standard 60WPM (words per minute), you would need to fix that.

Let us look at some practical steps that you can take to increase your typing speed.

Step 1: Make Use of the proper hand placement on the Keyboard

For you to be able to type properly, you should have your thumbs hovering over the space bar and your four fingers of each hand of the keys in the middle row. If you are new to this, it would take you a little bit of practice to get used to keyboard hand placement.

Step 2: Do not stare at the keyboard

You need to practice until you can type with your eyes closed. Part of the reasons why people stare at keyboards while typing is because of their posture. When you are hunched over the keyboard, it would very much possible that you are looking at the keyboard because you are caught in its line of sight. The best posture that helps you follow this principle is to sit up straight. With this postural discipline in place, you can be able to type with speed.

Step 3: Practice, practice, practice

Most of us were not lucky enough to start typing from a young age, but that doesn’t mean we can’t pick up late! There are loads of online tools that you can use to practice and learn typing on a professional level.

2. Get rid of distractions

In this modern era of the internet, there are lots of distractions that face computer users. There is this urge to check your emails, check your social media accounts and even click on a bookmark to go to your favourite website.

You might be even be tempted to check your search engine rankings or site traffic before proceeding to write your article. Whenever you give in to these urges, you are slowing down on your writing project.

That is why one of the pro tips that would help you to write faster is to not give in to distractions.

3. Outline your post Before you Start Writing

Before you start pouring out your ideas on a text editor, it would be best that you put down an outline of your article beforehand. With a post outline, you would have a clear idea of how you would be expressing your thoughts in words. You would also have a good grasp of the best resources to consult in other to make your content appear engaging to your users.

If you pay close attention, you would find out that this article has an introduction, you are already on the body, and after a few scrolls would get to the conclusion. Although different kinds of content call for different outlines. The outline of sales copy is going to be very different from that of a product review or a biography

For instance, if you want to write an article on “mompha Biography or tems boiograhy or even how to transfer airtime on MTN ”, your outline would differ from that of a review article about a product.

It is important to note that outlines don’t take long to piece together. The main reason for doing outlines is that it makes you focus on preset writing goals. It is easier to accomplish something that you are mentally prepared for than something that is somewhat of an abstract indulgence.

4. Do some Research Before Writing

We as content writers find it easier to write articles that we have more experience or expertise in. Research is one way to become an expert in a topic that you want to write about. It is very easy to write an article about a subject matter that you are well versed in than to try to put pieces together as you go.

I am not implying that you need to be an expert writer from day one, but at least, you need to know something about any topic that you want to write about.

If you do not research well before writing, task switching would slow you do when typing. Imagine opening different tabs and looking up case studies that would make your point weighty? You would never make 30WPM with task switching.

So, do some diggings before you start to write.

5. Write Your Article first, then edit later

According to the popular Ernest Hemingway, “The first draft of anything is garbage.” Yep from my personal experience, Mr Ernest who was a popular 20th-century author said it right. Your first draft of your writing piece is always a piece of junk. The article gets better after some revisions are done.

Imagine Hemingway asserting that his first drafts are a piece of overrated junk literature, what then would I call mine and your first drafts?

So, if you want to write a good article, there are two things that you have to do. You can either continue to edit each sentence and paragraph as you write.

Or, you can write your first article draft like most professional writers do, and then edit it later.

Any approach that you choose to follow would give you good content, but the second option is a must-choose if you want to write content faster.

If you keep on moving from writing to editing, you would wind up task switching, which is one of the reasons for slow writing. Nothing kills your writing vibe like asking your brain to switch from writing to editing. Whenever you are writing content-just write-you have the ability to focus on writing only.

6. Give yourself a Writing deadline

According to Parkinson’s Law, “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. This implies that if you give excess time to finish a project, or just do not think that it matters when you are done, the writing project would take longer.

Procrastination can kill any writer’s career. Most writers procrastinate because they cannot do a writing job quickly or the writing task is becoming very difficult.

Atulegwu David

How To Increase Your Writing Speed Without Lowering Your Article Quality

Content is the key to the success of any brand that has an online presence. The more content a brand has, the likely its chances of getting more exposure. If you are a content developer and could write content faster than you could, wouldn’t that be [...]

Atulegwu David