How To Write Better, Faster, More By Focusing Your Creative Writing

Sometimes, we need to write freely and creatively with no limitations, no restrictions, no barriers.
This kind of explorative and experimental writing is invaluable for enriching your creative writing and helping you diversify into new styles and forms.
This is an approach which we can all benefit from taking from time to time.
More often though, we have more of an outline and a framework in place for writing.
For example, maybe you’re writing a thriller novel set in Berlin in the 1960s, a series of articles on the nutritional needs of a woman during pregnancy, or a collection of haiku’s inspired by your favourite lake in Canada. Maybe you’re writing all of these!
In which case you need focus.
You can’t settle down to work on your novel with a head full of ideas about pregnancy. It’s not very useful to try to write your lakeside haiku’s with Berlin’s industrial landscape looming large in your thoughts.
Focus is not just about subject matter though. Here are the 3 main areas of focus, and how you can be more attuned in each of them to make your creative writing easier, richer and more abundant:
Focus your writing time: Don’t try to snatch ten minutes here, quarter of an hour there and force yourself to throw down some words on the page. Give yourself time to write, to unfold and relax into what you’re writing.
One of the best approaches is to combine writing regularly with longer, more in depth sessions. So for example, set aside 30 minutes each morning to write just on the one writing project you’re currently focusing on, as well as another longer session of 2 hours or more every week.
Focus your writing energy: You can have a whole day free to write and get very little done if your energy is not focused. The main enemies of focus here are distractions and unnecessary reasons to get sidetracked.
Find a space where you can go to write undisturbed, preferably in a room in your home, or in a local library or park. Make it somewhere as free from distraction as possible. Turn off your email, put your phone on answerphone, put up a “Do Not Disturb” sign if necessary. Do what you need to give yourself the best chance to focus your creative writing energy.
Focus your writing style: This is about getting into the voices and the style of the writing you’re working on. Think about the kind of approach you want to use, the style you want to use that will best convey the subject of your writing.
Put yourself in the mind of your potential reader. What will they like to hear, what kind of voice and tone will best convey the content of your creative writing? Also consider the characters you’re writing about and the viewpoint you’re writing from. See the world through their eyes, walk in their shoes. This focus of style will mean your writing will be more authentic and more convincing.
These are 3 major areas you can work on to become more focused in your creative writing and therefore help you to write better, write more and write faster.
Which one are you going to start with today?