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Transcript

The Productive Writer: Write Backward · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: This week we've been talking about ways to be a more productive writer.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: One of the reasons that we get stuck sometimes in our writing is that we see how much left there is to do.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say you're writing a 750-word blog post.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: You would typically write this in sections.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: You would write an introduction, two or three main points, and a call to action or a conclusion.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: So really, this is a collection of pieces which are somewhere between 100 and 200 words each.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you would normally outline the piece, then start writing a first draft with the introduction, progressing through until you write the call to action, right?
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's how we normally write a piece like this.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you can have trouble getting motivated whenever you see how much left that there is to do.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And this is especially true whenever you're working on a something like a book chapter that can be thousands of words long.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: So one way to break this cycle is to start at the end and work your way backward.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So with a blog post, for example, write the call to action first, then the main points from last to first, then write the introduction.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've outlined this material ahead of time, this really shouldn't be a problem because you already know what you're going to say in each of those parts.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever you write backward, so to speak, you interrupt your normal writing pattern and you feel a new sense of creative energy.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have a clear sense of how much you have left because you're going the opposite of how you normally go, and this reduces your tendency to feel distracted.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I usually produce these podcast episodes in batches of one or two weeks at a time.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the time, I will write the last one first, and then I work backwards until I have the first podcast episode finished in that batch.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: I know it sounds weird, but it really does work.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is a super simple way to give yourself a different writing pattern and add some new energy to the creative process.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, going backward actually helps you to go forward.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Here's today's challenge give the writing backward strategy a try on your next piece of writing and see how it goes.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I'll see you tomorrow.