I plan on sharing this Slate piece, “How to Write Faster,” with writers I coach. (“Coach” or “consult with”? I can’t decide which verb is less cheesy.) A lot of its observations ring true, especially this one: “[S]entences are generated in a burst-pause-evaluate, burst-pause-evaluate pattern, with more experienced writers producing longer word bursts.”
Much of the information comes from “Professional Writing Expertise,” a chapter in The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance. This sounds like one of those titles a novelist would come up with as a parody of blandly overcomprehensive or unfinishable academic projects, like Pynchon’s Things That Can Happen in European Politics, but no, it’s real. A photocopy of “Professional Writing Expertise” just found its way onto my mental list of things-to-get.
I’m glad you posted about this, Phil, because I saw it on Slate but I felt scared of it, like it would tell me things that would make me feel bad. But I read it at your recommendation, and it’s great! And cheering!