Use this simple technique to streamline your writing.
How long does it take to write the average blog post?
3.5 hours
Why does it take this long?
Because it’s easy to find excuses not to write and it feels like you’re doing something, while you plan to write or outline your topic.
But - it seems like you’re never ready to write the post and hit “Publish”.
There’s a way to fix this, though.
Take Notes After Each Chapter
Most writers are readers (or they should be) and we often read books to learn more about writing and different types of content.
As you’re reading one of these books, you can take notes at the end of each chapter. That will help you remember the key points from the section. Then, you can continue reading until you’ve finished the book and you should be ready to write an article or post a thread with the key points.
That seems easy enough, right?
Summarize Your Chapter Notes In One Sentence
It’s not easy to summarize those notes into a couple of paragraphs quickly, and that’s when many writers take a break and put it away because they can’t figure out what you want readers to take away from the article.
Maybe you’re different and disciplined enough to read a little, write a little and finish your article, with plenty of time to get to your next project. Or, maybe you’re like me, and many new writers that feel like you have an ocean of unfinished outlines and half-written articles. It gets easier over time, and your list might get shorter, but you still aren’t producing the level of quality content you know you can write.
I don’t mind trying new techniques from people who have experience and do this every day.
Here’s Your New Writing Template
Nicolas Cole tweeted his new writing template, and it’s fast, easy, and effective:
How to create your writing templates:
Stop at end of each chapter and summarize it in 1 sentence.
Stop at end of each chapter section and summarize it in 1 sentence.
Finish the book, then review chapter and section summaries.
You got your article outline done.
Obviously, this doesn’t only apply to articles about books.
You can use this to write about several things:
Case studies
Podcasts
Tutorials
Literature
Technical writing
Medical and science writing
See? What excuse can you make now?
#40/60-day writing challenge.