5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter Kindle Edition

So, you're considering buying this book. Okay. Here's what you're going to get out of it:-Get a voice dictation program so you can increase your WPM by speaking.-Make a set space to write and remove all distractions. Wake up early if you have to.-Write every day. Even on holidays like Christmas. Get your butt in the chair every single day.That's it. That's the book. I'll admit, I was turned off right from the start, when he assumes a reader won't want to read his book because his suggestions are so hard, then when you get to the end, he restates this again, that most readers will have put down the book a long time ago. By assuming the worst of the readers taking his advice, he's turning them off before they can take it. I wasn't surprised to see so many mentions of reddit on here, because his book reads like every bro-y reddit user ever.Does he ultimately have good advice? Yes. Anytime someone tells a writer "hey, if you sit down and practice writing, your writing speeds are going to get faster, and also you'll be more productive," that's generally good advice. But beyond that basic detail, this book really just didn't give... anything. He talked about gaining wealth, and it's heavily implied that this wealth is tied to his writing career, which makes him seem credible in his suggestions. No, turns out that wealth is tied to apps he develops. Also the book was weirdly fatphobic, dismissing people who overeat and saying how he turned his life around by going to the gym (good for him), but a lot of that seemed wildly unrelated to the rest of what he was trying to say, even as he tried to make it an analogy. Ultimately, for someone who is very "people who put their bio in the beginning just want to talk about themselves," this entire book was filled with I, I, I propping up how wonderful he and his system are.Which... great.Except his system is literally "go sit and time your writing sprint and aim to do better in the next writing sprint." There are better books out there to teach you this same thing, and his idea that editing rounds are even faster than writing rounds is... laughable. (Also, at one point he suggests you practice speed editing by changing the age or gender of a character for... no real reason other than to practice speed editing? Um. Okay).tl;dr: Book tells you to sit your butt down and write. Go do that. It's an infinitely better use of your time than reading the book itself.

I thought I'd try the books in the six-book Write Faster, Write Smarter: Write Faster, Write Smarter series. This was book one. Sadly, the book fell a bit short--figuratively and literally. The book is only about 88 pages, and those 88 pages include the front pages, the intro, and the reminder pages at the very end. The author explains that this is because he knows readers do not care about him; they just want the info to write 5,000 words per hour. I shrugged and accepted that answer, but since I read this as part of a writing group, I know many others felt ripped off. $3.99 for an 88-page book is a bit steep. (Based on previous reviews, this book used to be $2.99.)I mainly gave this one three stars because I didn't learn anything new. In fact, everything the author recommends (aside from outlining/plotting every scene in advance), I already do. I can easily hit 2,500 words an hour, though, so maybe I'm not the right target for this book. However, it should be known that a writer in my writing group only hits about 500-1,000 words an hour (the latter is *much* harder for her, though, but it has happened), and she also already does everything he mentions. We are also devoted writers who write, at a minimum, five days a week, so it's not that we haven't honed our craft yet.Some of what the author mentions is common sense: like setting aside writing time, making sure you only write during writing time, telling your family not to bother you during said time (if you have roommates), putting away things that will distract you, etc. His most important recommendation is the writing stint, and my writing group and I already do those daily, so I really didn't get to takeaway much from this one.The final straw in leaving a three-star review is that the book comes with links to spreadsheets to help track your writing stints, but the links do not work. The author must've put them at a new link address, but forgot to update the book's content. The spreadsheets were really the only thing I was getting from this book, so it was frustrating that I couldn't use them. (The app version of the spreadsheet is only for the iPhone.)To be honest, I was really excited about reading this series, but now, I think I'm going to move on to other ones. However, if you're an emerging writing who has yet to perfect your craft, you will probably get a lot from this book. If you're a seasoned writer, you may not need to read this one.

I've read several books on increasing writing speed (some also recommended by Chris Fox) but this may be the most practical of them all.Chris gives you a plan for increasing your hourly (and daily) word count. A real, practical plan. One that you can start on immediately.Not only does he give you a plan, he provides one tool to do it and recommends others that have helped him. Although he frequently mentions is iPhone app (which is related to this book) he also provides a spreadsheet. BTW Chris, you can take my money now if you develop an Android app or Chrome browser extension version. Don't mistake this book as simply an ad for the app though, he says the spreadsheet will do most of what the app does.This book is very short. There is NO fluff. It is full of "Do this" and "This is how doing this will help" kind of advice. Simple and direct to the point. It's worth the price if not much more.This book is the ideal companion to 2000 to 10000 by Rachel Aaron and Take Off Your Pants by Libbie Hawker. I'd really recommend reading 5000 Words Per Hour before them as it provides basic techniques that those two books are missing or gloss over. I think together, these three books cover the topic of increasing your writing productivity from concept to minute by minute writing.I really like the section on gamification. I think this may be the core of Chris' technique to faster writing. The idea of making writing as addicting as playing a video game is probably going to change my writing career.

There is a short review and the slightly longer review, depending on how much I want to say into my new recording device that I'm using right now. I mentioned the recording device because that to me is what this book is about, instead of writing faster, writing smarter. I'm not saying that it is deceptive, because it delivers, but could have delivered that in half the size of the size and half of the of the price. Effective yes because I went out and bought an affordable microphone, and downloaded some affordable recording software, and bought Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and I'm generating a few thousand words per hour more than my type speed of 1000. By planning your work a little bit in advance or making notes is to be the structure of what you want to say, then dictating is more effective than because you still probably need to make the same amount of edits. I mention Dragon NaturallySpeaking instead of Dragon Anywhere because dragon anywhere requires you to be connected to the Internet in order to dictate to your iPhone, and if you want to dictate to your phone, then something like GBoard from Google gives you much the same capability.

Chris is an inspirational guy. He has achieved much more than me in relation to writing, but he makes me believe I can achieve just as much.It goes with the territory of this book, but I've written and published a few books myself. I have a wife, kids, a job and some mental health difficulties, and I struggle to write as much as I'd like. In effect, I've got a whole host of excuses lines up.I've always been cynical of this obsession with writing thousands of words per hour. Who cares if what you write is cr ap, right?And I still stick to this to a large degree.I was also cynical of the title of this book. 5,000 words an hour is an incredible amount.But really the 5,000 words is irrelevant. It is about writing a productive amount for YOU.The book is about writing effectively and efficiently and not wasting time. And then improving over time through practice, self-discipline and perseverance.I'm sold on this formula.I'm a guy (and I realise I'm talking about myself a lot here, but this is a self-help book) who cannot spend hours and hours at the computer, and therefore every minute needs to count.I'm going to read this book again, and dip into it on a regular basis.Well done Chris, not only for this book but for what you've achieved.

Not sure if I should give this book 5 or 3 stars. I must confess I haven’t finished reading or listening to it, why? When I was told to complete the 5 minute writing task in the very first chapter I couldn’t stop writing. I normally only muster up 500 words a day, but today ( still 4pm) I managed 2,800. I started at 11.30am and finished at 3pm. Now I did not take the authors advice- don’t write in bed, don’t edit, switch off internet, don’t xyz. Nevertheless, I am going to associate writing in bed only when the headlight is on, and sleep and do other activities with no or low lighting.It’s been a productive day, not only have I started writing again, but I actually loved it. And to top things off I began to add structure my book.Nevertheless, I’m not sure if it was him or I was due a writing bust. I guess it doesn’t matter because the author is very motivational ! I will revisit the rest of the book in a few days/ weeks. If I do slip up I might have to follow his advice to the T....Lastly, what am not sold on is the idea to write anything. Lets get one thing clear, editing is the longest and most difficult part of the writing process. Am not falling into the trap of just writing any old gibberish just for the sake of it - there will be a harder mountain to climb- I’ve learnt my lesson from university.

I like this book, as it gives very clear advice that can be easily followed, and playful tone that I really enjoyed. To give you an example, I particularly appreciated the first exercise where you are asked to write a simple paragraph. "How did you do?" asks the next section. "...you're probably staring at a small pile of words you feel are utter cr*p". And that's exactly how I felt. Thankfully, this is then followed by dozens of genuinely helpful suggestions about how to get better!Yes, I appreciate that the book contains material that I have read before, but it also contains a few gems that I had never considered. The author really understands the psychology behind writing, and as a result it feels like a real conversation between friends rather than another sermon from the mountain top by some self-proclaimed writing guru.

I've just read this book and it is, as some others have said, inspirational. Chris emphasises the need to do the exercises so that's next, as well as use a typing app to increase my accurate typing speed which must be a crre skill for a productive author.Fast accurate touch typing must be the foundation on which to build fast writing.Once I've done the exercises I'll update this review.