Help with writing/typing skills
 

I have this huge thing that I have to get off of my mind, right now.

I hate having to pause every 2-3 words to try and organize my ideas.
I hate having to retype everything due to extreme OCD about how I word myself.
I hate having to write essays, for this reason, because then I'll have to waste every minute trying to figure out which word choice is the best.
I hate having to organize my ideas because I can't do them fast enough in my head, and then I see everyone else typing up their posts/paragraphs in an instant. It makes me wonder what's wrong with me.

there, i did it again. i had to pause when others probably didn't have to.

I tried to type this post up with minimal thought whatsoever, but usually typing up even one line can take a few minutes if I'm really picky. This runs in my family, too -- it makes me so frustrated seeing my parent pore over every single detail of a certain work e-mail message.
I don't know why but I just keep blanking everytime I try to think of ideas (no pun intended lol).
Any way to help?

Re: Help with writing/typing skills
 

Seconding that a bit, you might be hindered by your 'inner editor' trying to proofread everything you type word by word; doing that might make you miss the forest for the trees and end up not even having a good text after all the effort. My advice regarding that is first figuring out mentally what ideas you want to convey without typing anything, then you go along writing a continuous unfiltered text with the first thing that comes to mind and finally you go back through everything proofreading and actually judging what you wrote. So yes, basically what MrPopadopalis said.

Also remember that you only have to come up with something 'good enough' which is usually a low bar most of the time. I used to have a lot more problem with overthinking my writing but nowdays I only really struggle with more formal texts (reports, academic stuff, ddr with fingers forum posts and so on).

The 'organizing your ideas' part I'm guessing it's more related to 'putting your thoughts into words' which is harder if your mentation is highly abstract but it goes hand in hand with the writing part so focus on that instead (if my assumption is correct).

In any case it will be easier to help if you want to target specific modes of writing, be it casual chat, informal forum posts, essays or whatever else.

Re: Help with writing/typing skills
 

try organizing thoughts in extremely vague detail, then narrow down the focus after you've gotten what you wanted to say out in words. like, lets say you wanna talk about a dog running around. type just that: A dog was running around. get into more detail after getting that off your chest first, and it will end up as "A pale white hound darted endlessly across the gray and murky fields." this is just an example and isnt really related to anything, but thats how i get my thoughts out from my head and onto paper. hope this helps.

edit: i do quite a bit of writing, so if u need more help just lemme know.

Re: Help with writing/typing skills
 

wow someone else has the same problem! :O i nearly failed my gr 12 english provincial cause of being too picky about words/phrasing, forgetting ideas midway through writing a sentence

wish i had some nice tips to give but still struggling :( i don't think theres a one quick trick, but maybe doing what plop said (vomit up some english and fix it later) a bunch will eventually give you a whole bunch of subconscious fancy english tricks, then writing up to standards becomes more and more natural, and you can just spit out the whole paragraph in one go and not have to worry about forgetting or re-ordering your ideas?

idk <.> just glad im not alone, ty for posting this :)

ps this post took 30+ mins to write RIP

Re: Help with writing/typing skills
 

well, if you decide to work at improving things like this, writing more (typing) will probably help immensely. When you're bored, just pick a topic, and start writing. like, idk you could probably go on a rant for hours about something or another - definitely just write without needing to worry about anyone reading it, or anyone coming to edit it.

If it helps as well, once you've finished streaming off your consciousness, then just delete the whole entire thing to prevent yourself from going back and editing it perhaps. I don't really know if it'll work, since I think I have the opposite problem - I'll write right off of my mind and often my thoughts will come out really jumbled and sometimes incomprehensible, and will jump all over the place, but it's whatever

like, write like you're having a conversation with someone. maybe even speak aloud as you type, or just like, under your breath/imagine yourself talking out loud or something

Re: Help with writing/typing skills
 

Drink a beer

Re: Help with writing/typing skills
 

typeracer.com

-o24

Re: Help with writing/typing skills
 

Perhaps write an outline first with bullet points of all the things you want to cover.

I think I have an almost opposite problem. When speaking or writing my mind is running so much faster than I can speak or type that I occasionally have to wait and backtrack in my head. I tend to have to go over it in my head several times before I finish, but it usually comes out the way I want it on the first attempt.

Re: Help with writing/typing skills
 

Maybe you should try to write everything you want to write and then edit it later...

Re: Help with writing/typing skills
 

lol andy, i went from 35 wpm to 90 wpm using typeracer :P