Tips on becoming a more prolific writer

Just about every writer wants to become more prolific. If many of us had the choice, we’d quite are day jobs and lock ourselves in our rooms for the better part of the day to devote to writing. Sadly, this remains just a fantasy. We have other responsibilities that include family, jobs, social engagements, errands to run and the many other mundane details that fill our lives.

Just your imagination
But being a prolific writer doesn’t have to be a dream, nor do you have to suffer from hypergraphia to write large quantities of material. Having an active imagination helps, although it’s not a direct requirement. How can this be? Isn’t writing fiction and poetry fully dependent on imagination? Well, yes and no. It takes imagination to come up with story ideas and work out character and plot details. There’s no doubt about that. But actual writing is more of a matter of discipline and perspiration (ie. hard work).

The process of writing is creative one. When you physically start to put words onto paper to create sentences, and those sentences then create paragraphs and so on, until you have a completed manuscript, you are performing a creative act. Creativity begets creativity. So even if you are not, or don’t think you are, creative enough to be a writer, you will start to become more creative as you write more. In other words, creativity can be gained and is not inherent in finite quantities in our brains.

Read, read and read some more!
Reading a lot of fiction and poetry also helps. Reading can inspire ideas and concepts that will fuel your future writing. If you want to be a writer and you’re not reading, then something is wrong and you might want to opt for a new career choice.

Not enough time?
What if you are busy and don’t have a lot of time to write? That’s okay, you can still be prolific. But it means making better use of your free time and setting your priorities. Writing is one activity that can be done just about anywhere for any length of time. Unlike practicing the drums, which requires the proper equipment, the space to hold that equipment and a place to practice where hopefully you won’t disturb those around you.

For writing, however, you just need a paper and pen and a few moments to jot down an idea. That’s it. If you can write in quick 15-minute spurts throughout the day, you can be just as prolific as someone who devotes several hours of daily writing.

Is your inner editor controlling you?
Being a prolific writer also means turning off your inner editor; that little voice in your head that critiques everything your write and says "It’s not good enough!" The point of writing is to write. Get it down on paper first, then worry about making it look pretty later. Remember, nothing is written in stone and can always be changed later. This is something that many of us struggle with (my own inner editor is my worst enemy while
writing). We want our writing to be perfect, even the first draft. Don’t hold yourself up to such an impossible standard.

Quality Vs. Quantity
Finally, being a prolific writer means walking a fine line between quality and quantity. Sure you can spend days working out a single sentence for that novel, and each sentence might end up being perfect, but the novel will probably never get finished. On the other hand, you can churn out a dozen stories per day. But how many of those stories will be publishable? There’s no set formula for getting the quality-to-quantity ratio correct. It’s
something each writer has to work out themselves.

Related posts

• Quality Vs. Quantity: A writer’s dilemma
• John Updike: A man of contradictions, and a very prolific writer
• 7 Tips for Good Writing
• Avoiding burnout and boredom as a writer
• More reasons why budding writers should be prolific readers

Read More: Writing, Writing Tips