Split It Up: A Fast-Paced Writing Approach

Did you know Barbara Blackburn is the fastest typist in the world, peaking at 212 words per minute using a Dvorak simplified keyboard? As a freelance writer, you must wish you had her fingers, don’t you?

Well, you don’t necessarily need to.

The average typing speed is 44 words per minute with a 92% accuracy rate. That means people tend to make up to 8 typos or errors per 100 words.

Now, to see these stats from a writer’s perspective, we need to do some math.

Let’s say you’re doing 44 words per minute. That’s 2,640 words an hour. We all know it’s not practically possible to type these many words since you also have to research, formulate sentences, paraphrase, etc.

So what is the sweet spot for a writer? Let’s explore a little.

How Many Words Should You Type Per Hour?

It’s not ideal or even possible to make a career out of writing if you’re taking three to four hours to write a 1000-word piece of content.

Ideally, you should be able to type 1000 words per hour. Let’s do some calculations.

To write 1000 words per 60 minutes, you need to type 16.67 words per minute.

That doesn’t seem like a lot, does it? It’s certainly much lower than the average.

So, which factors are slowing your speed? One of them could be switching between windows while writing.

If you’re writing an article, you must have MS Word or Google Docs open in one window while your research material is in another browser window.

Now, if one window is covering the whole screen, you’d have to switch between windows, which takes away some of the seconds in a minute that you could otherwise use to write more words.

So, what’s the solution? Split it up.

Split Screen View

I’m naming the right-hand-side window Docs and the left-hand-side window Research.

Here’s how to do it:

• Divide your screen into equal halves. Do this by clicking on the square (Maximize) on the upper right-hand side of both windows.
• Then, resize the windows to make them fit on your screen. Move your cursor over the border of the window and you’ll see the following option to change its width.
• You can also make the Docs window bigger if it’s more comfortable that way.
• Open all relevant tabs in the Research window. It’s better to arrange them in the order of their appearance in your article. That way, you won’t have to waste a minute or two on finding the right reference text for the next heading.
• Paste all your keywords on the Docs so that you don’t forget to add them in text.
• If you’re required to add them a certain number of times, write the figure in front of the keyword and minus one every time you use the keyword in your content.
• Zoom out on both windows to make sure you have a full pageview. This way, you won’t have to use your keypad to scroll up and down repeatedly.
• If you have to hyperlink a page, simply copy the URL from the Research window and add it to the Docs side without having to switch windows.

It might seem like this method merely saves you a few seconds or minutes. But it’s these little pockets of time that bring down 1000 words per 2–3 hours to 1000 words per hour.

Over time, you will get the hang of writing this way. Even if you don’t, it’s perfectly alright since every writer needs to find a way that works best for them.

This is how I manage to write 1000 words, check the spelling/grammar errors, and proofread the text — all in one hour.

Hope it works for you too.

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