Writing Tip: The Number One Thing That Will Help You Write Faster During NaNoWriMo…

I’ve followed writers doing NaNoWriMo and the Three-Day Novel Contest, and I’ve noticed one thing: I tend to write faster than the average person. Most people seem to write about 1,000 words an hour — sometimes much less. When I was writing my first draft, I was writing at a pace of about 1,500 words per hour.

I’m not saying this to brag. In fact, I wondered if maybe I was doing something wrong — maybe I wasn’t being careful enough about what I wrote?

But then I hit upon what I believe is a pretty reasonable explanation: I know how to type.

Now, I’m not 100% sure that this is the reason why do 1,500 words per hour where others don’t. But I am sure that the faster you type, the faster you will write. That should be incentive enough to learn, n’est pas?

Want to Pick Up Your Typing Speed (and Be a Faster Writer) Before NaNoWriMo Starts?

Here are a couple resources I found to help you practice your typing. They’re online and they’re free.

• http://www.sense-lang.org/typing/tutor/keyboarding.php
• http://www.learn2type.com/TypingTest
• http://www.powertyping.com/qwerty/lessonsq.html

You can find more by Googling “Typing Test” or “Typing Tutor”. Be warned though, there is a lot of junk out there…!

Happy Typing (and Writing)!

~Graham