Can You Write a Quality Article in 20 Minutes?
By Joe Ferry on Sep 12, 2008 in Editorial Services, Featured
Over at Copyblogger, Jim Estill recently boasted that he could write a 400-500 word article in 20 minutes.
Is this even physically possible? I’m not sure I can even type 400-500 words in 20 minutes. At least not without having to go back and spend 30 minutes fixing my typos.
Anyway, Jim offers eight tips for becoming a faster writer. His second tip suggests letting the idea incubate for a few days. I presume this also means doing a little research? Aren’t they both legitimate parts of the writing process?
Later on, Jim recommends getting away from writing by taking “a walk, cycle or run.” As every writer knows, this kind of procrastination is a critical part of the job. So is organizing your books by height, solving the cryptogram and contemplating how the Phillies lost a 6.5-game lead with 10 to play in 1964.
I subscribe to the Red Smith theory: “Writing is easy,” he once said. “You just open a vein and bleed.”
Sidebar: I had to Google Red Smith to get his exact quote. My search took me to Amazon.com, and a review of the book “Red Smith on Baseball.” I not only got the quote I was looking for, I bought the book.
Now that’s writing!
The point is writing is much more than what happens when fingers meet keyboard. Writing is an ongoing process, a lifestyle, a mindset. To boil it down to the 20 minutes spent in front of a computer screen is to demean the process.
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On Sep 12, 2008, Rudi Lehnert said:
Copyblogger promotes with this advice a Quick & Dirty attitude to blogging. It took me a whole day to write “WordPress BackStage”
http://blogorama.eisbrecher.net/2008/09/12/wordpress-backstage/
and it’s still not finished. I intend to “finish” (in the web nothing is ever finished) it on sunday evening.
Why do I take this much time for an article? Because a good article needs it. Content is King! The article, not the clock tells you when it is well done.
For example: When you’re in bed with a fine woman you love: you put a clock near the bed or in your head and finish this also in 20 minutes?
On Sep 13, 2008, Rodger Johnson said:
Amen! Bro. I don’t know how many times I locked my jaw and bit my tongue when my former CEO would say something snide, or off color, or assume writing was easy. It’s hard work, a full-time job, a lifestyle.
On Sep 14, 2008, Joe Ferry said:
Rudi: I’ve often said if it wasn’t for deadlines, I might never get a piece of writing done. I can always go back and make changes to a manuscript no matter how many times I’ve edited it.
Rodger: the problem with good writing is that the finished product looks like it must have been easy to achieve. Ideas flow, imagery is spot-on, language is precise. No one sees the struggle that goes into good writing.
No one would ever say building a skyscraper is easy because they can see the work that goes into it. Unfortunately, most people think writers start at the beginning and end at the end.
It’s not that simple.
Thanks for the comments.