Writing tip: Want to write faster? Use incomplete sentences

Because you can edit an electronic document as many times as you want, you don’t need to worry about coming up with the best words and sentences when creating a first draft. In fact, you don’t even need to worry about writing complete sentences. If you can’t think of the right word or phrase to use somewhere, insert a blank line or “XXX” as a placeholder and come back to it later. You can also insert a word or phrase that’s close to what you’re thinking of as a reminder of what you want to convey. Using these strategies will allow you to keep going with the rest of the draft and not get stuck on a word or phrase that you’re not happy with. Once you finish the entire draft, you can revisit the missing words and phrases knowing that you’ve already succeeded in getting most of your ideas onto the page. You may also find that if you come back to these words and phrases after a day or two, you’re able to think of ways to fill the gaps much more easily.The next time that you’re creating a first draft, give the incomplete-sentence strategy a try and let us know if it worked for you!

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