In a guest post on C.S. Lakin’s blog, Jim Denney shares the fast-writing secrets of C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia – but you probably knew that). “Though Lewis used a dip-pen, a relic of the nineteenth century, he was an amazingly productive writer,” Denney says. “Whenever he sat down to write—which he did almost daily—he wrote confidently, intuitively, and with astonishing speed.”
Lewis claimed to write quickly. His first novel was finished in two weeks, and most took no more than 2-3 months. “The key to his amazing speed is what I call ‘writing in overdrive’: the ability to write intuitively and without inhibition under the influence of unconscious inspiration,” Denney writes. “Here’s the good news: you can learn to write as Lewis did.”
What’s the trick? “Lewis could enter a state of creative ‘flow’ at will,” Denney explains. “He wrote swiftly, almost effortlessly. And so can you. We can enter a state of spontaneous inspiration anytime we choose—if we adequately prepare ourselves for our writing session.”
Denney recommends five steps:
- Set a challenging goal. “Choose a boldly ambitious goal of a specific number of words or pages, or the completion of a chapter or story,” Denney suggests. “Only when we take on a bold, risky challenge can we experience the exhilaration of overdrive.”
- Write badly. Lewis wrote a lot, quickly, but he also threw away a lot. “Write eagerly, boldly, without inhibition,” Denney says. “Let images and emotions pour from your pen or your keyboard, completely unedited and without looking back.”
- Relax. “A state of relaxation enables you to write freely, without inhibition, so that you can experience pure, unrestrained imagination and inspiration,” Denney writes. “Great writing flows from a relaxed mind.”
- Work in silence. When asked for advice, Lewis recommended turning off the radio, writing by hand (not a typewriter), and listening to the flow of your language as you write. “We should listen for unconscious inspiration,” Denney says. “We must hear the rhythm of our sentences as we write. Noise muffles the voice of our unconscious mind and mutes the music of our words.”
- Start strong and push. “To write in overdrive, start confidently and let your words pull you to the finish line,” Denneyt writes. “Practice writing quickly in first draft, never thinking or analyzing but simply drawing inspiration from the unconscious imagination. Do this day after day and you’ll soon tap into the miracle of writing in overdrive.”
