Writing well

[Miss Mae]

My colleague can write a 300-word article in 10 minutes. Another can do so in 15 minutes. I already asked them how they do it because it normally takes me an hour to complete mine. They suggested a 50/10 guideline--50 minutes of writing, 10 minutes of rest. But it's not working for me. What should I do?

[Joe Carillo]

Your colleague is either kidding you, or he or she is a superwriter from another planet. Frankly, I don’t know of anyone of my acquaintance who can dash off 30 words per minute on a word processor or typewriter, for that speed means one word every 2 seconds without letup. Another thing: What kind of writing does your colleague do anyway—news story, feature article, essay, or what? It seems to me that any human who can compose 300 words into an intelligible exposition in 10 or 15 minutes, particularly an article that uses multi-syllable words like “infinitesimal” and “extraterrestrial” every 10 words or so, is simply out of this world.

As to the “50/10 suggestion” of your two colleagues—50 minutes of writing and 10 minutes of rest—don’t fret if it doesn’t work for you. It sounds like outrageous nonsense to me. I don’t think it will work for 99.99% of the entire writer population of this planet. In short, Miss Mae, I suspect that those two colleagues of yours are just pulling your leg.

[Miss Mae]

I have our company's tracker to prove it, Sir. But you're right. He was not able to do it all the time. Still, the longest time my colleagues can do their work is 20 minutes--40 minutes earlier from mine. I'm still lagging way, way behind...

[Miss Mae]

I was not able to mention: we're rewriting articles. Most of them are in features, but there would be essays and news stories, too, from time to time. They couldn't be just plagiarizing; my boss is strict, and there are already a number of applications to sort plagiarized articles out there...

[Joe Carillo]

Rewriting an existing article is entirely different from writing an original composition. This should have been mentioned at the very start to put your statements in the proper context. Still, I think that an employer who demands an output of one word every 2 seconds from its cadre of rewriters is running a veritable sweatshop. Perhaps you should closely reexamine the performance parameters you earlier posted to check that this really isn't the case. Otherwise, the only conclusion that can be made here is that your employer is ruthlessly exploiting the hell out of everyone of you.

[Miss Mae]

I'm sorry. It didn't occur to me to tell you about it.

Probably because it's not what I'm doing, anyway. What my boss wanted was for us to come up with an original write-up for every "base" article.

It is also I who wanted to write quickly yet still effectively, Sir. Can I do something about it?

[Joe Carillo]

For the kind of writing you're doing for your agency, I really can't think of any advice on how to do it faster and more effectively. Perhaps Forum members with a writing job similar to yours can share their insights on the matter. I am making this open invitation for that purpose then.

A READING TO HELP PUT FREELANCE WRITING IN BETTER PERSPECTIVE:
Can one make a living as a freelance writer in the Philippines? by Ime Morales

[Joe Carillo]

A response to the above post by Forum member Mwita Chacha has been split into a new topic, "The Proper Usage of Correlative Conjunctions and Appositives."