I typically write while researching at around 1,000 words per hour — sometimes even faster. Writing at this speed means I can finish an article in as little as 90 minutes. You can write this fast too using the techniques I’m about to share.

What’s more, by following these techniques, you’ll likely improve the quality of your creative work. Fast writing is usually good writing. As Ray Bradbury writes:

In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are. In hesitation is thought. …

You’ll amaze yourself at what you create when you push your writing to extreme limits. To dive into fast writing is to dive into the mystery of your mind, give your fingertips wings, and launch art out of your unconscious mind. As Albert Einstein wrote:

“The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art.”

To write fast is to get better acquainted with the mystery of your subconscious mind, and discover the treasure it has to offer.

Ray Bradbury wrote his bestselling novel on a timer

The bestselling novelist and short story writer Ray Bradbury found…

Writing is pain — the myth that keeps writers blocked

I spent years taking my writing too seriously. I told myself “I want to write”, then I didn’t write anything. I believed writing takes special inspiration. Writing has to be hard work. I thought I needed to wait for the muses to descend, then sweat blood onto the page.

Or worse, I’d sit down in extreme anxiety, forcing words out of my fingers, feeling everything I wrote fell short of my aspirations.

It’s one of the most common myths in our society: writing is always hard work. Writing is struggle. Writing costs your life, your soul, everything you own and…

For years, I had occasional good ideas for creative projects. New ideas would pop up once every few months, and I’d jot them down. I longed to create — an online course, a magazine article, a novel. Anything. And no writing came.

I felt called to write, and I procrastinated for 20 years. I had words to share, and I was too overwhelmed to sit down with a pen. I was too scared to find out what those words are. I’ve got a shelf stacked with half-empty notebooks, most of them containing idea fragments for books and writing projects.

Part…

Roald Dahl’s books were some of my favorites as a child. They made me squirm, they filled me with wonder, they made me howl with laughter. I couldn’t get enough of them. And with 250 million copies sold worldwide, I’m not the only one they’ve had such a powerful impact upon.

Dahl wrote many of these books from a small writing hut in the garden behind his home in suburban Britain. Dahl spent four hours each day writing here. In addition to Dahl’s writing desk, the hut contained various curious objects. In the hut Dahl kept:

• A model of a…

Amazing news Alana! Adding you to the main post now :)

So excited to see what you publish this month.

I‘m starting a Medium 30-Day Writing Challenge, and you’re invited. The aim of the Challenge is to:

• Get new followers — my goal is 250 new followers.
• Network with other writers — and build valuable connections with some of the best writers on Medium.
• Increase income — my aim is to make March my biggest earning month yet.

…and have a blast along the way.

I’m sharing my cunning plan to run laps of Medium faster than Usain Bolt in a Ferrari.

I’m doing it as a LIVE event, and you’re invited along to take part with me — I…

Thought worms are the genesis of every successful award-winning short story, bestselling novel, and viral article. Every billion-dollar box office movie — from Titanic to Avengers to Star Wars — began as a thought worm.

You have 6,200 thought worms every day. Over two million every year. Each thought worm is a distinct idea and a fresh opportunity. Your brain is constantly processing thought worms, at a rate of almost five per minute.

You can’t capture all of them. You won’t capture all of them. The key to being a successful creator is capturing the thought worms that matter —…