Ellie Marney shares how you can improve your writing speed.

First: don’t write. Yes, you heard me! In the early stages of a story, I always recommend spending some time thinking, not writing. Mainly I think about characters – who they are, what they’re like, how they talk and look and behave. Get to know the characters in your head before you start making them do things on the page.

Plot a little. I usually write down a few key scenes or beats, things I know will be happening sometime in the story. Sometimes I make a little timeline, so I know what’s happening when. You can still be a seat-of-the-pants, compose-onto-the-page writer, but even those writers have some idea of certain key moments in the story.

Write with a timer and don’t edit as you go. Give yourself ten minutes, at first, to just write uninterrupted, then slowly extend the amount of ‘writing sprint’ time. Get into the flow. Don’t second-guess yourself, or worry about whether the words are perfect – just get the words out of your head and onto the page. You can pretty it up later.