Blog 83 - Speed Writing

Blog 83 - Speed Writing

October 2025

Tonight, I thought I might do something a little different. As a writer, I spend an inordinate amount of time polishing, refining, and occasionally crying softly onto my keyboard over the placement of a single comma. I believe entirely in the gospel of the ‘shitty first draft,’ but when the lights are on and the cursor is blinking, the perfectionist gremlins usually win.
Not tonight. Tonight, the perfectionist gremlins are getting a time-out. They’ve been locked in the filing cabinet and given noise-cancelling headphones. Tonight I have set myself a little speed-writing challenge—a mental marathon disguised as a sprint. The coffee is steaming, and my internal monologue is currently screaming a mixture of “You got this!” and “What in the writing-Olympics is this madness?!”
The rules are simple, brutal, and non-negotiable: I must complete this entire blog post, from the beginning paragraph you just read to the final full stop, in no longer than 20 minutes. No elaborate outlining, no second-guessing, and definitely no hours spent agonising over the perfect turn of phrase. Just raw, unfiltered, speedy writing.
So, I promise, hand on heart, that what you see here has been crafted under the shadow of a ticking clock. Okay, deep breath. The timer is set. Let the fun begin!
T=0:00: As the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy once wisely put it; Don’t Panic!
The first sixty seconds are pure adrenaline. There is no time for the traditional staring contest with the ceiling that usually precedes my writing sessions. My fingers are flying, not because I know exactly what I want to say, but because the clock demands forward momentum. If I stop to think, I lose precious seconds.
This is the scary but beautiful part of a speed challenge: it forces you out of your critic brain and into your creator brain. Usually, I spend 5 minutes drafting an outline, 10 minutes filling in bullet points, and 20 minutes deleting the first paragraph because it wasn't good enough. Now? Every keystroke matters. Every sentence has to justify its immediate existence. (Self-check: Is this paragraph coherent? I doubt it. Is it fast? Absolutely.)
The objective, counter-intuitively, is not flawless quality. The objective is completion. It is about proving that the greatest barrier to writing isn't lack of inspiration, but the crippling fear of imperfection.
T=4:30: I can hear the Sound of the Runaway Train!
My laptop keyboard currently sounds like a runaway 19th-century printing press. Typos are casualties of war. I’m ignoring the squiggly red lines with a bravado I usually reserve for avoiding household chores.

When you write this fast, you realize just how much junk your brain tries to filter out before it allows the words onto the page. You accidentally bypass the internal editor whose job it is to ensure structural integrity and correct comma usage. What comes out instead is pure voice, the messy, enthusiastic, slightly incoherent voice of the writer who is trying to beat the clock. And honestly? It’s exhilarating.
I’m editing on the fly here and hopefully this raw output is closer to the real story I want to tell than the polished, grammatically impeccable version I usually spend hours sculpting. This is the difference between writing for the audience’s approval and writing for the sheer joy of communicating an idea right now.
T=9:15: Can I really embrace the Imperfect Draft?
Writers often talk about structure and flow, but when the clock is ticking, flow takes on a new meaning. It’s not about elegant transitions; it’s about a mental downhill slide. Ideas link together not through logic, but through urgency. (Time out; I need to race through this sentence to make sure I hit the point about urgency.)
I’m currently watching my word count climb, a frantic little bar chart of success, and it’s tempting to start padding the prose. But padding takes time. Speed writing encourages conciseness. If I can say it in five words instead of ten, I save myself three seconds. In the writing-Olympics, three seconds is a lifetime.
Think of this exercise as a mental detox. It strips away any form of pretense or procrastination. I dread to think how often I have spent an hour procrastinating because I was waiting for the 'perfect moment' or the 'perfect opening line'. The perfect moment is now. The perfect opening line has been typed, and I don’t have time to go back and change it now. When time is scarce, creativity becomes effective and efficient.
T=14:45: Wow that went quickly!
We are nearing the finish line, and I need to transition from frantic typing to thoughtful conclusion. How has this process benefitted me, and perhaps you?
Well for a start it Slaughters my obsession with Procrastination: You can’t put off the first sentence if you only have 20 minutes for the entire piece. And hopefully it will have unlocked my inner Voice. I doubt my internal critic will have been able to keep up with the typing speed, so I think my genuine, slightly manic voice might be able to shine through. And finally, It Prioritizes Completion over Perfection: A finished, slightly wobbly blog post is infinitely better than a perfectly outlined, yet unwritten masterpiece.
I can feel the pressure mounting. I need to wrap up the central argument and deliver a satisfying closing statement; all the while resisting the urge to go back and rewrite the thing!
T=18:00: The Final Tally
The clock is winding down. I have successfully poured approximately 1000 words of caffeine-fuelled chaos onto the digital page. What you have just read is raw, immediate, and utterly honest. It represents the unfiltered voice of a writer who decided to throw caution, and frankly, some basic grammar rules, into the wind for the sake of an experiment.
The process of speed writing isn't about creating the final product; it's about breaking through the initial friction. It's about generating content, which is always the hardest part. The cleaning up can wait until the timer buzzes.
And speaking of the timer... it is about to sound.
(And yes, I am sending this straight to publish without reading it back. Wish me luck.)
Timer Status: 19:48.(Yay!)