You’ll be happy to hear there’s a way to write a blog post in less than an hour.
Writing a blog post – or any piece of text – doesn’t need to be a painful, hours-long affair. Sometimes you have something to say, but you don’t have a substantial amount of time to commit to getting the words down.
In this post, I’ll break down the steps you need to follow to produce a piece of writing in just over 50 minutes. It’s the exact method I used to write this post in under an hour.
Here are some stats and insights for this post:
Start: 9:05
End: 10: 01
Between 10:01 and 10:06, I added two links and one quote. I fought the impulse to polish the article, but I did perform Grammarly check before publishing.
Write what you know
For this experiment, focus on what you feel comfortable writing about. What’s your expertise? What’s your skills? Think through your experiences and create content around that.
Another way to find easy topics to write about is to hone in on what you’re passionate about.
We all have those topics that we can talk about for hours. Outside of writing, I could easily write a good deal of words about motherhood, urban legends, and celebrity news.
So, for this exercise, maybe this is related to your work. Or perhaps you’re equally excited about a hobby or cause. Remember that solid writing serves several purposes. On the career front, your words help to position you as a thought leader; someone who thinks deeply about their industry. Your writing attracts attention to your work. One great example of this is Charles Darwin, the scientist known for his theories around evolution. As the story goes, another scientist was working on the same concept at the time. But because Darwin was the superior writer, his work garnered more exposure, eventually establishing him as the leading voice on the subject.
In other areas, a persuasive piece of writing could help to draw attention to – and drive civic action – around a cause you’re invested in .
Treat it as an experiment
See your efforts to produce a post in 50 minutes for what it is: an experiment.
Remember: you’re writing for yourself. If you choose not to, you will not share your work. Creating privately removes so much of the anxiety that often comes with writing.
Therefore, you have nothing to lose and so much to gain. Once you view the exercise as an experiment, you’re free to have fun with it.
In exchange for setting aside 50 minutes, you’ll learn something new about yourself. You’ll train your focus and create a piece of text that conveys your thoughts and ideas at this moment in time.
Prime yourself with easy writing exercises
Freewriting changed my writing life. Freewriting, a concept popularised by writing professor Peter Elbow, is the idea of writing whatever comes to mind without editing.
I’ve written about freewriting frequently because it liberated me. It freed me from the need to wait until I had a perfectly formed idea before I started writing. It freed me from the tyranny of editing – and questioning – every single idea before it was even fully formed. And it’s simple to implement.
This is how it works: you write non-stop for 10 minutes. That’s it. Put down whatever comes to mind. The only rule? Don’t stop writing.
When I was easing back into writing after having my third baby, I reduced this time to 5 minutes. The beauty of this is that a five-minute freewriting is easy to slot into a busy schedule – even when you don’t feel like writing.
Here’s Elbow on why freewriting works so well:
“Freewriting makes writing easier by helping you with the root psychological or existential difficulty in writing: finding words in your head and putting them down on a blank piece of paper.”
And here’s a blog post on how I incorporate freewriting into my writing process.
Another way to prime your writing muscle is to read a piece of writing you admire. At some point you may even want to copy that writing as part of your writing practice. Legend has it that Benjamin Franklin was a poor writer until he started copying the great writers of the time.
This exact method has worked for many writers – including me.
Tune out all distractions
Research shows that even just having your phone in the same room interferes with your focus. I remember at one stage I was writing while running WhatsApp in an open tab, constantly checking new notifications. The quality of my writing improved once I started protecting my writing sessions.
What this looks like in practice:
- Put your phone out of sight, ideally in another room. It’s only for 50 minutes
- Open up a new Google Doc and close other tabs (research effect of multiple tabs on concentration)
- Set a pomodoro timer for 25 minutes
- Write until the timer goes off
- Set a pomodoro timer for 25 minutes
I’d suggest taking the 5 minute break between these pomodoros – you’ll likely find new ideas marinade during this point.
Another tip is to write without checking sources online. Leave notes for yourself in the text to check afterwards. For example, in this article I needed to include a quote and two links – I left comments on the piece and added it once the second timer went off. In total, this took five minutes.
Now,I struggle with this but I would recommend avoiding the word count tab while writing. Personally, I find it demotivating when I feel like I’ve been writing for a while and I’ve only clocked 312 words. Not only that but a fixation on word count takes away from the goal: you want to have a product by the end of the 50 minutes. A piece of text that captures your ideas in a way that’s useful to your readers. You might accomplish this in 300 or 700 or 1000 words.Word count is irrelevant within the context of this exercise.
Go off on a tangent
Sometimes when I’m writing, I’ll realise I’ve inadvertently come up with a completely new idea that often deserves its post or piece of content.
As you write, you’ll naturally see certain thoughts or ideas that support your main point. But other points will develop, too, and these may only be tangentially related to your core point. Go off on those tangents. Don’t limit yourself to what you decided you were going to write about.
Research shows that we create new thoughts during the writing process. And this writing is so incredibly important. You push yourself to new limits.
Don’t depend on AI
Everyone knows AI can churn out a 1000-word blog post in seconds. The quality of that output is up for debate but that’s a different blog article.
The only promise you need to make for this exercise is that you won’t use AI during any part of the process. Don’t get me wrong – I think there’s a ton of useful applications out there for AI. What I worry about is outsourcing deep thinking to AI. There’s a sense of achievement and pride that comes with wrangling with a difficult piece of writing. How do I say this? What’s a better word for X?
After working through that struggle enough times, you become more confident in your writing ability.
Featured image source: Pexels
