Want to be a quicker writer? Want to complete essays or stories swiftly? Then you need to start using the FBR writing method.
A few years ago, I had a student who would take forever to write a short essay.
She often didn’t know how to start it and as she wrote, she constantly had to re-read and edit every sentence.
Our tutoring session was for an hour but she was never able to complete the writing assignments within that time.
She would get maybe complete the introduction and the first body paragraph.
I often told her to just write it and fix the mistakes later. But for whatever reason, she wouldn’t.
If you have the same problem as my student, you should, unlike her, give the FBR Method a try.
What is write FBR?
This writing method, created by Safi Bahcall, encourages you to write fast, bad, and wrong for your first draft.
“What’s the point of trying on the assignment if I’m just going to do a bad job?” you may be asking.
Well, using this method doesn’t mean that you’re going to do a bad job.
Rather, it’s a way for you to get your thoughts down on paper (or a word document) quickly so that you don’t lose your ideas.
Then, after writing the draft of your essay, you’re going to use all of your skills to proofread and edit it.
This way of writing also takes off the pressure of starting a new piece of work.
FBR is especially useful for students (or writers) who are slow at the task, like me.
I find that it helps me to not care so much when writing my drafts. I can just look at my notes and planning, and just write.
This saves me a lot of time. It also gives me some time away from it, so that when I go back to edit it, I can view it with a different lens.
Additionally, this method is really good for when you do the written parts of exams.
In exams, you only have a certain amount of time to complete your essay or story.
So, if you were to edit it as you write, you may not complete your writing.
But if you wrote the entire thing first with little to no editing, you’ll have a completed essay or story.
And it’s always better to have a completed product (that’s not completely edited) than to have an uncompleted product (that’s completely edited).
How to use FBR writing method
So, here are some tips on how you can switch to this mentality:
- When writing, don’t worry about spelling or punctuation mistakes. Underline (or italicize) them and come back to them later.
- If you think a sentence doesn’t make sense, you can re-read and try to fix it. But if you’re not able to fix it after two minutes, then mark it and come back to it later.
- When it comes to the organization of your essay, you can do that after you’re done writing.
- To make this process easier, remember to make a plan for your essay or story.
- You should use basic or simple words in your writing because they’ll be easier to think of. You can always change them later if necessary.
- Proofread and edit, edit, edit (after you have written your story in its entirety, that is). Always go over your writing and look for the common grammatical errors and fix them. And always look for sentences that don’t make sense and fix them, too.
- Lastly, just write and don’t worry. You’re going to have to force yourself to change to this mentality and it will be difficult for some of you.
Final Thoughts
If you are struggling to write quicker, try the FBR method.
These tips will help prevent you from editing as you write and thus get you to complete your writing faster.
FBR also encourages you to create an essay and story plan, which will also make the writing process easier.
Thus, start using it.