We are amidst exam season, and my assignments are all handed in. Yet, I can’t help but notice people online worrying about their essays and coursework. One of the most prominent issues I see rising is people not being able to sit down and get their thoughts and content onto a page – something I’m sure we all struggle with now and again. Writing, especially writing efficiently, takes its toll on a person when there’s no order to it. I’m no stranger to procrastination and motivation problems, but I’ve found myself recently finding it a lot easier to put pen to paper (fingertips to keys).

It took a lot less effort than you’d think. Simply putting a routine in place has made writing efficiently a walk in the park. Even now, after my exams, I have gotten a post out every day since Sunday. How did I achieve this? My step-by-step writing routine to writing efficiently!

It took a bit of adjusting here and there, but since my move to university, I needed an efficient way to bash out drafts and critical reflections like my life depended on it. So, since September, I have been working on a structure to help make writing feel less like a chore which keeps my passion for it.

Today, I’m going to share my routine to writing efficiently – without the stress and tears.

Step One: The Preparation

Like cooking in a cluttered kitchen or sleeping in a messy bed, writing in a room full of distractions is…well, distracting! If you’ve got papers and junk splayed around the place, how can you expect to focus on your work? Your mind is going to be jumping between thoughts like: “I should wash up these plates” or “This empty sandwich box makes me want a meal deal”. You just can’t work in those conditions. So, what I do, is declutter my area. As teens, my aunt always told us that tidy areas make tidy minds. Whether I’m at my desk or in my bed, straightening out my workspace gets me into a positive mindset. I don’t feel like I want to get the writing over and done with. Instead, I view it as being productive and completing something I can be proud of.

On top of cleaning the workspace, I gear myself up for the process. Writing can take a very long time, especially if you’re trying to perfect it for a deadline. You need to keep yourself fresh along the way. My next port of call is opening the windows and getting myself a cold glass of water. This keeps me cool while writing because sometimes I feel muggy sat in the same place for so long. Avoiding that feeling keeps my writing adequate and my attitude positive. Adjusting your environment to enhance your productivity is of prime importance. Once you’re prepared, it’s time to start writing efficiently!

Step Two: The Plan

Not to sound obvious, but knowing what you’re writing about is crucial. I don’t just mean knowing the content of a text you’re studying or knowing roughly what your plot is. I mean step-by-step sections with bullet points. If you’re writing an essay, what points are you making? For each one, where’s your evidence to support those? How do they apply? What order makes the most sense? How do they relate to the essay title? If you’re writing a piece of fiction, how does it start? How does it end? Who is your protagonist and what is their purpose?

One of my favourite techniques for planning is opening up a google slides presentation and planning point by point. Act one to two to three, what is going on? Who is there? Planning characters: what do they look like? What are they wearing? Everything runs smoother when you know what you’re leading to.

I understand that extensive planning is not for everybody. I know people who get a basic idea for a plot and go straight into their first draft to see where it takes them. If winging it works for you, stick to it! I personally find it easier when I know what I’m writing towards and where I’m putting things. Working in this routine and having everything out in front of me is what helps me write efficiently. Once I’ve got what I need, I can move onto the next step.

Step 3: The First Draft

AHH scary! The actual writing part. Do not panic, fellow writers/students, the first draft exists for good reason. The first draft of your piece exists solely to be the barest copy ever. We don’t want any fancy adverbs or adjectives. Don’t even think about popping in any long, extravagant sentences – we don’t need them yet. Just pure “who did what, where and why”.

The point of a first draft is to create that foundation for yourself, the thing that’s going to make refinements easy. It takes less time and brain power from you because you’re not too focused on the nitty-gritty of it all. All of those goals and ideas you had planned out in the previous step take form on the page without worrying about how it would sound to a reader/examiner. Therefore, you don’t find yourself stuck editing and proofreading as you go.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to get that first draft done and out of the way. If you’re the kind of person who can easily type out a perfect piece of text offhand and submit it the same day, I admire your talents. However, I assume not because this is a post about writing effectively and unless you just love to read my rambles, why else would you be here?

Anyways, you’ve now got your first draft, but what do you do next?

Step 4: The Break

Based on my writing time, I can get about 1000 words out in about an hour. At that hour mark, you may begin to feel unmotivated. You would think that at this stage, you should power through that feeling of turning back, but I think otherwise. Your mind tells you what it wants to do. When you finish that first draft, you may be dreading the copious amount of editing that lies ahead of you; that’s off-putting as hell. If you’re thinking it’s going to be a pain to go straight back into it – take a break!

“A break so early into the process?” you ask, “Isn’t that a little bit pointless?” NO! Taking a bit of time away from the page always pushes me to think of new approaches and ideas. Even writing this very post, I paused to take a shower and get my boyfriend and I lunch. Sitting here now, after that refreshment, I am zooming through this with ease.

Whether you choose to have lunch/dinner, shower, go for a walk or read part of a book, it doesn’t matter! Taking yourself away from the work not only helps keep that motivation up, but it aids your mentality about it. Whatever you may be writing is not the be all and end all. You’re allowed to take a break. It’s easier writing efficiently at a good pace than bursting through it all in one sitting. You could burn out and end up crying into your Lumpy the Heffalump teddy because you’ve decided you might as well fail (random example, don’t read into it…)

Step 5: The Editing Stage

So, you’re back from your break; you’re feeling like you can conquer the rest of your work. Refill that glass of water and get back in that seat because it’s time to continue writing efficiently.

Sitting in front of you, is your very drab first draft. How can we make it better? All those simple sentences, turn into complex sentences (where suitable, obviously). Add in those adverbs and adjectives I stole from you in Step 3. Polish that piece with compelling language and literary skills like there’s no tomorrow. When people read your work, you want them to enjoy reading it. Essays are easier to read when they’re not point by point information dumps in comparison to well-communicated discussions. Stories are more attractive when they excite the reader, no one wants to read monotonous drivel.

Then, once done with editing, run it through text-to-speech (read it aloud if you’ve used pen and paper) and find out what moves nicely and what sticks out like a sore thumb. In seminars, we often read our work out loud and find ourselves unintentionally changing the formation of sentences or switching out words to make the writing flow more. I’ve done it before, especially with my poetry. I find that the verbal changes suit better to my work and I end up rewriting them.

The next step is a little bit more targeted to those who write using devices like tablets or computers. Whatever software you’re using to write, may have a built-in editor. I use Microsoft Word to produce my assignments and creative writing. The editing software allows me to go through grey areas it has picked up or just blatant mistakes I’ve made and allows me to change them. No matter how grammatically advanced you are, mistakes are bound to show up in your work. There is nothing wrong with getting help to find them. You could even pass your work along to a peer and have them feedback on anything they noticed that you could refine. Writing effectively means using things to your advantage and when you are supplied with useful tools like editing software, you might as well use them!

Final Thoughts

I’ll say now that this routine works for me 90% of the time, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s right for you. Writing effectively means understanding your strengths and weaknesses and being able to accommodate them. If you’re struggling to find structure in your writing routine, take mine for a test run; I’d love to hear if it works for you. If it doesn’t, I’m sure there are tweaks you can make to fit your style better, and I’d love to hear if you try that as well.

Happy reading/writing!

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