I Need to Write Faster
You need to write faster. The honest answer is there's no magic tool that will make you a faster writer overnight — but a few tools genuinely reduce the friction that slows most people down.
Claude or ChatGPT — for getting past the blank page
The blank page problem is real. Most people don't struggle to write once they have something down — they struggle to start. An AI writing assistant handles that gap well. Give it a rough prompt ("write a first draft of an email to my manager asking for a deadline extension — here are the key points") and you have something to react to rather than something to create from nothing. Reacting is faster than creating.
We use this approach regularly. The output isn't usually what we send — it's a starting point that takes two minutes to arrive rather than fifteen. The time saved is in the setup, not the polishing. For a proper assessment of Claude, see our pick: Claude for Everyday Writing.
Dictation — faster than typing for most people
Most people type at 40-60 words per minute. Most people speak at 130-150 words per minute. If you're writing and you have any privacy, dictation is worth trying. MacOS has built-in dictation (hold the microphone key or set a shortcut). Windows has voice typing (Win+H). Both are free and surprisingly good. The workflow: speak the first draft, then edit the transcript. The editing pass is faster than writing from scratch because you're correcting rather than generating.
This doesn't work for everyone or every writing type — it's awkward for technical content with lots of proper nouns. But for emails, reports, and prose, try it for a week before writing it off.
Grammarly — for reducing editing passes
Writing faster also means editing less. If you regularly spend as much time fixing a piece as writing it, catching errors in real time reduces the editing overhead. Grammarly runs in the background and flags issues as you type — grammar, spelling, occasional style suggestions. The time you save not running a separate editing pass can be meaningful for high-volume writers.
The caveat: Grammarly's style suggestions can slow you down if you engage with all of them. Use it for error correction, not style advice, and it becomes faster rather than slower. Full assessment: Grammarly: Honest Review.
Timed writing sessions — not a tool, but it works
The Pomodoro technique (25 minutes of focused work, 5-minute break) was developed in the 1980s and it still works because the problem it solves — starting and maintaining focus — hasn't changed. For writing specifically, setting a timer and committing to output rather than quality during that window produces more words per hour than open-ended sessions. Most phones have a timer. Most browsers have free Pomodoro timer extensions. The "tool" cost is zero.
If you want a slightly nicer implementation, Forest (mobile) or Pomofocus (web) add a bit of structure. But honestly, your phone timer works fine.