How Timed Essays Helped Me Become a Stronger Writer

In high school, I joined the newspaper staff as soon as they would let me, and I took all the honors English classes I could. I was in love with reading and writing — I couldn’t get enough of it.

In honors English we would read a book every two weeks (usually a classic), then write an essay about the book we had just read. It was like clockwork. Every other Monday a new essay was due.

But there was a catch. We never wrote our essays at home. We didn’t even type them! Nope. We wrote them out by hand… in class… in 90 minutes or less (we were on a block schedule with four 90-minute periods a day).

The reason my teacher did it this way was because essay web sites were just coming into fashion. Students could download dozens of pre-written essays on just about any book they wanted. The business of plagiarism  had hung out its shingle and students were responding in kind.

At that time, search technology was in its infancy, so it was actually fairly difficult for teachers to discern whether a paper had been plagiarized or not. Thus the dilemma: Let students write essays at home or force them to do them in class?

My teacher chose the latter. And while it was stressful back then, I’m extremely grateful she decided to do it that way.

You see, the discipline of writing a timed essay by hand once every two weeks forced me to be an efficient writer. I learned how to write fast without editing myself. I learned how to build sentences in my head faster than my hand could transcribe them.

Now, years later, I will sometimes use an $8 dial timer that I picked up at Bed, Bath & Beyond to time myself. If I’m feeling distracted or I’m having a hard time focusing in on my writing, I’ll set the timer for 45 minutes. I’ll force myself to write for the entire time.

Guess what? Every time I set that timer, I write faster. The power of a micro-deadline works just like a normal deadline: it makes you work!

Next time you find yourself struggling to write, pull out your timer or stopwatch, set it for 30 or 45 minutes, and start writing. You’ll be amazed by how quickly your mind snaps to attention. And you’ll be amazed by how quickly the words spill onto the page.

-Ryan M. Healy