I wrote this story in 1 hour and Isaac Asimov inspired me to attempt it.
No. I am not advocating writing badly just for the heck of it nor am I advocating not devoting sufficient time for writing. Writing works like a muscle. The more you work it, the better you get at it. And the cool thing is, you can train it, the way you want it.
So if you sit down every day for 1 hour to write, it will start coming more easily as your brain gets used to that schedule. You are training yourself to be able to write on cue.
That was precisely what Asimov did when he was asked to write a short story in a very short time.
As The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction reported:
“At 8:00 in the evening of August 21, 1957, Isaac Asimov appeared on Boston’s educational channel, WGBH-TV, as part of a panel discussing means of communicating science. His fellow panelists were John Hansen, a technical writer of directions for using machinery, and [author] David O. Woodbury. The latter suggested, as a gag, that Asimov should then and there write a story to illustrate his means of communication. … Asimov plunged straight ahead and, under TV cameras and lights wrote a story and read it before the half-hour program ended at 8:30.”
The result was Insert Knob A in Hole B, a story just totally 350 words, describing the funny travails of two spacemen having received space equipment from the earth with no instructions to operate them.
How did Asimov write a story from scratch so fast? Can you do it? I bet you can!
And here is how it can be done.
Free Writing — 20 Minutes.
Choose a topic and choose a time when you can write for 20 minutes uninterrupted. Set an alarm to remind you, and sit down to write about whatever comes to your mind when the alarm goes off — no matter what.
Free-writing is simply putting pen to paper for a particular period of time and writing without thinking about spellings, punctuation, organization, or whether or not you’re even making sense. If you feel short of things to write, just scribble, “I don’t know what to write” until you consider there is something to share.
Let your imagination lead your writing wherever it likes. You can free-write about any topic that interests you or about a specific topic of your subject matter.
Some prompts to get you started can be.
The one thing I want to do is……..
The most appealing thing about this issue is…..
If I had to explain this matter to someone who knew nothing about it, I would start with …
And so on…..
One more tip to save time can be to think about the topic you want to write the night before so that you can directly plunge into your freewriting session without thinking about the topic.
Use the Hexagon Technique to Tighten Your Draft — 20 Minutes
Quickly write down your responses to these six sets of prompts, the six sides of a writing hexagon.
• Create: What does your topic remind you of?
• Compare: What is your topic similar to? What is it’s exact opposite?
• Correlate: think about the different parts of your theme and how they work together.
• Probe: How can your subject be used productively?
• Apply: Where and how can you use your topic?
• Debate: Take a stand for or against your theme — or both!
Continue until you answer all the six sides of the hexagon. Use the hexagon to make a turn round sketch from your draft. Do any parts seem to be absent? Does anything appear to be at an off-beam place, or is there anything that should be wiped off? Does this outline clearly convey the premise you want to put forth?
Copy the text of your post on to your text editor and edit/adjust as you go. Your draft will now start resembling like organized matter now.
Finally, Rearrange And Create Your Final Copy-20 Minutes.
Use a highlighter pen or underline to identify ideas that seem attention-grabbing to you and rearrange your story into a tightly coupled piece. You might also snip key sentences or copy them onto individual index cards and then actually move ideas around to see how they might connect or fit together.
Some ways that can help can be.
• Unnecessary words (“that” or “the” can often be removed without ruining a sentence)
• Long sentences that can be split up or shortened
• Confusing or vague points
• Anywhere you can add formatting to improve clarity (e.g. bold, italics)
• Anywhere an image could aid the reader’s understanding
• Anywhere an example could add clarity
Check and correct spellings, punctuations and voila! Your article is ready.
Last Thoughts.
Do yourself a favor and be kind on yourself. Writing need not be as strenuous as running a marathon.
Write for just 30 minutes to 1 hour and then go about your day. Then on the following day, push yourself a little harder. Build your writing muscle; one ligament at a time. Not a wasted word. Not a wasted effort. Time is the essence. This will help you to be a productive and creative writer.
As Elmore Leonard has rightly said.
“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”