{"id":2961,"date":"2011-08-17T14:49:34","date_gmt":"2011-08-17T18:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/?p=2961"},"modified":"2011-08-17T14:49:34","modified_gmt":"2011-08-17T18:49:34","slug":"how-to-be-a-faster-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/08\/17\/how-to-be-a-faster-writer\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2605 “How to be a faster writer.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Slate<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In search of the secret of quickness, I started with a Malcolm Gladwell passage that’s always piqued me. InOutliers<\/em><\/a>, he discusses the now famous 10,000-hour rule\u2014the amount of time it takes to achieve true mastery\u2014and quotes the neurologist Daniel Levitin: “In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concern pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again.” Fiction writers? Really?<\/p>\n

Had MFA students been sent to a lab and force-fed scones while they typed on their laptops? Or had some intrepid grad student done field research in the Starbuckses of the Eastern seaboard? Alas, nothing so interesting, but something ultimately more fascinating. Gladwell led me to a chapter in\u00a0The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance<\/em><\/a>\u2014the much-cited but little-read (by regular people) academic tome. “Professional Writing Expertise,” by Ronald Kellogg, contains enough writerly insight to fuel a thousand Iowa workshops. And the opening words could not be more comforting: “Writing extended texts for publication is a major cognitive challenge, even for professionals who compose for a living.” See, Dad! This is hard work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

10,000 hours sounds about right. I’ve been writing every day for 15 minutes to 2 hours since I was 10 years old. That’s 15 years times at least 15 minutes each day. I have written at least 1,000 hours in the past 15 years of my calculations are correct which I doubt they are because that feels far less than I thought it would be. I’m no expert though but I am a fast writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Slate: In search of the secret of quickness, I started with a Malcolm Gladwell passage that’s always piqued…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-linked","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-LL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2570,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/06\/15\/paul-carr-on-the-internet-community\/","url_meta":{"origin":2961,"position":0},"title":"\u2605 Paul Carr on The Internet Community","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"June 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"TechCrunch: Really, what the press calls The Internet Community is more accurately described as\u00a0The People With Too Much Time On Their Hands Community \u2014 or perhaps\u00a0The I Spend My Life Dicking Around On Twitter And Call It A Job Community,\u00a0The I\u2019ll Do Anything The Internet Tells Me To Do Community\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3719,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2012\/05\/04\/reading-more-books-in-2012-my-progress-so-far\/","url_meta":{"origin":2961,"position":1},"title":"\u2605 Reading More Books in 2012 – My Progress so Far","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"May 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In January, I promised to read more books. Prior to 2012, I might have barely started a book each year. The last book I finished was an assignment to me in grade school so I had gone without reading for 7 years. I'm not a fan of fiction so I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Copperfield's Books - Sebastopol","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4060\/4367793639_a43f194acf_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4060\/4367793639_a43f194acf_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4060\/4367793639_a43f194acf_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6432,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/12\/16\/linked-why-airpods-are-the-best-place-for-siri\/","url_meta":{"origin":2961,"position":2},"title":"Linked: “Why AirPods Are The Best Place For Siri…”","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"December 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"via FastCompany: The ear-based personal assistant isn't a completely new idea. \"Apple\u2019s AirPod device ... is a significant step forward toward a new interface paradigm that has long been anticipated in science fiction,\" says Ari Popper, founder of the futurist consulting and product design firm SciFutures. \"The movie Her is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7997,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2019\/05\/13\/this-is-writers-block\/","url_meta":{"origin":2961,"position":3},"title":"This is Writer’s Block","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"May 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":".","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6299,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/10\/18\/linked-how-to-inspire-a-new-generation-of-writers-through-blogging\/","url_meta":{"origin":2961,"position":4},"title":"Linked: “How to Inspire a New Generation of Writers Through Blogging”","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"October 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"via KQED: However, because I also want my students to have ownership of their own blogs, I encourage them to write on topics that resonate with them personally. They are allowed to write about any topic as long as the content is appropriate for the educational space. It is through\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6281,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2016\/10\/31\/linked-how-things-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":2961,"position":5},"title":"Linked: “How Things Work”","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"October 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"via Gawker: But the readers don\u2019t have the power. It\u2019s difficult to recall now, but at Gawker\u2019s founding there was a sense that the internet was a free space, where anything can be said. An island off the mainland, where people could be themselves. Where writers could say things that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Linked"","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}