Speed does matter. If you’ve just had a mad rush of inspiration, you’ll know what it’s like to have to write for your life. If you don’t use voicemail or some voice recorder for writing down ideas, and if you’re not by your computer at the moment, you’ll have trouble writing stuff down on the spot. Need help? Look no further.
- Practice. Whenever possible, take out a pen and paper and write down the alphabet backwards. Time yourself.
- Learn shorthand. There are places that will teach you alternative alphabets used for writing down English. Alysion.org has a pretty lengthy article about shorthand. You’ll do good looking here too. If no shorthand system out there can teach you, you can always take my approach and make up your own.
- Bigger/smaller pencil. Yeah… bad idea.
- Hold it differently. I place the pencil between the squishiest part of my index finger, the left side of the middle finger and support it with my thumb. You may have your own methods. Note that holding a pencil while writing is not like holding a pencil while drawing. When you write, your whole body should move. You should have less finger movement and more arm movement. If you have major problems holding a pencil, it’s high time you fixed it. You’re going to be a writer, I’m sure.
- Use a grip. This may either slow you down or speed you up. Time yourself with or without one to see whether you need it.
- Abbreviate. The most common English words are “the, of, to, and, a, in, is, it, you, that, he, was, for, on, are, with, as, I, his and they.” You could start by making a unique symbol for each one. This would save you lots of time when taking notes or when writing a book, as you’ll be able to write more in less time. For long words, go ahead and abbreviate. If you’re writing a lot about one subject, make up acronyms for words you use often. I shorten “writing” to “wr.” and “blogging” to “bl,” but you should definitely make up your own system.
