I have written this post because following the release of White Wind Rising and my blog posts about how quickly I completed it (4 weeks!) people have been asking me how I write so flipping fast. 

You too can learn to write like this guy chases a gazelle. Only without it all ending in a bloody mess.

Well, look, we’re all busy here so, in the spirit of alacrity and without further ado, here are my five top tips on how I, Dan Davis, write fast.

Oh, wait, one quick caveat before we do start; if one or more doesn’t apply to you and your style of work then that is only to be expected because we are all individuals, especially me as I’m the uniquest snowflake ever.

1. Dan is Planning Before Writing

Okay so a) everyone knows this one and b) not everyone likes to plan but I have learned that when I don’t plan I spend too long writing stuff I am only going to delete.

When I sit down to write I MUST already know, for example, that I have to do chapter 4 which consists of two scenes; the bit where they talk about the plan to rob the store and then the robbery scene where nothing goes to plan. And then I write it and then I can go to bed. If I don’t know where the story is going then I will get lost and I will have written a lot of words that could have been better spent elsewhere than in a folder called “Drafts”.

I wrote a 150k word fantasy novel in my 20s that is – possibly – beyond salvaging, although Lord knows I tried. I deleted about 50k words and wrote another 40k in order to rescue it. This wasn’t wasted time as such because I love the story and I learned a lot (I feel I “became” a writer through writing it) but if I had only planned the structure before I started writing I would also have a finished product and not a beautiful mess.

2. Writing in Dan’s Head (or, if you want to be all zen about it, Writing Without Writing)

Think on someone else’s dime. This guy is at work right now

This is probably the Big One. If I have a “secret technique”, it’s this. And it sounds a bit like #1. again but whereas #1. stops me from going all over the place and having to rewrite whole sections. This one is about not using writing time for thinking.

I play the action over and over in my head whenever I’m not writing. That’s it. On the train, making dinner, walking… in a meeting, talking to a boring person you can’t escape from… any downtime I get can be used productively. I watch the scenes play out, over and over, changing or adding stuff.

Often I will “write” / watch / mentally act out the scenes I have to write that night. That way when I sit down I don’t have to make many decisions, I simply describe the scenes I have already seen played out a dozen times in in my mind’s eye throughout the day rather than tapping my pen on the desk for 45 minutes. 

There are lots of scenes for books I haven’t even started yet all existing up there in my brain box just waiting to get written.

One example: I have this story where I have played out the final confrontation literally hundreds of times over many years now, from every angle. It’s in a bedroom at night with rain lashing against the black window or it’s on the roof of a New York skyscraper or in the Egyptian desert or in a ruined Welsh castle (yeah this one gets around a bit). Sometime they’re shouting or talking quietly, sometimes he kills him with a sword or a gun or kicks him off the roof and sometimes he doesn’t kill him at all. Each time I’m building it and improving. 

And I really enjoy it! Sometimes I find myself silently mouthing the words, watching my face contort in the darkened kitchen window or running an invisible person through with the vegetable knife. I’ve never written a word of it. But when I do all I’ll be doing is describing something I know inside and out and it’s going to be awesome.

3. Dan Don’t Stop to Edit

When I am typing I just focus on getting the words out. I don’t go back and change a word earlier in the sentence even if I know it needs changing. All that stuff is for editing later. I know I shouldn’t stop the flow or I might get distracted and end up in an editing spiral from which there is no escape. 

I might even not stop to correct typos but in all truth, most of the time I just can’t let myself go that far. I try… but I always have to quickly go back and turn “complusion” into “compulsion”.

Vocabulary. This should perhaps have its own numbered point in the list but if I am spending ages struggling to find the right word or going onto Thesaurus.com or using Word/OpenOffice thesaurus then, clearly, I’m not writing. It doesn’t have to be the perfect word; that’s what editing is for. But having enough vocabulary to pluck something out of the air and carry on really helps me… precipitate my, erm, disquisition.

4. Dan Learned to Type Fast! (and type good)

Again, this might be offensively obvious but for years I just couldn’t type as fast as the words were pouring from my head. But I worked really hard at going faster and keeping my accuracy high until… okay, I still can’t keep up with my mind, exactly, but I’m much faster now.

Or maybe it’s because now I’m older I just think slower… damn.

5. How Dan Learned to Stop Worrying and Edit Quickly

If writing is rewriting then editing is a type of writing, right?

This guy is still worried about whether his character’s educational level would allow her to use the word “perturbed” correctly

This is an area I am still improving rapidly all the time but I have learned to stop deliberating so much and reach a decision as quickly as possible and, most importantly, to trust myself. I used to second guess every other word choice and never be satisfied but I’m learning to let it go.

Am I just lowering my standards? I don’t think so, I think I’m being easier on myself. A story will never be perfect and I have realised that the point where “good enough” is good enough is entirely up to me… and I’m not that bad at it.

So that’s it, that’s my top five, I reckon. Thanks for reading.

If you have any more to add or any tips of your own please let me know in the comments!