30 minutes to write 500 word article.

I have constantly been stunned at the number of writers saying that any experienced writer can write a 500 word article in 30 minutes - 10 minutes to research, 10 minutes to write, and 10 minutes to edit.

A few days ago, I finally went to look at all these people's articles. They confuse copy writing with writing. In other words, they're writing about products, not about issues and things that regard serious issues and thought (which is what I regard as writing.)

So my question is: Do you differentiate betweeen copywriting and writing?

I'm useless at copy writing, I feel like a fraud! Which is why any attempt I make at copyrighting leads to thin content, however much I try. This is definitely a skill I need to acquire. For me, writing about issues requires so much more thought than actual writing, but the writing can take a lot longer than one hour!

I was an English Language student last year, and for my final exam I had to write roughly 15 sides of paper in 2 hours, so I can see it certainly being possible, but there's no point in rushing a quality article! :D

Hollie, you and I are certainly alike in that. 

Paul, in an exam situation, you've already done your learning ahead of time, so you don't have to do research. In the old print days, a magazine used to give you two weeks to find the info to write a 700 word article. 

It takes me quite long to research my articles, and at least 3 or 4 hours to write them. Then add in another hour or two to get it posted correctly. We have to find pictures, and choose Amazon items, or Allposters which help make our writing more interesting to people. And I've spent more hours on more difficult topics. I guess I like to make money, but really write for the love of it. I read a lot too, though I find book reviews only do well if it's a new one everybody is talking about.

I think there is the difference between writing for someone else on a per-word basis, writing for someone else on an hourly basis (like a regular desk job) and writing for oneself.  If I was writing for $10 an article or something like that, I would also try to whip them off in 30 min. Don't know if I could, however. It would be a pretty intense 30 min.

I can take much more than 30 min just for the research - even for something in my own field because I would want to know that I have the most up-to-date information.

"Anything worth doing is worth doing well". 500 words in just 1/2 an hour is just words cobbled together to achieve 500 words in 1/2 an hour, not well crafted copy satisfying the reader.

All those that consider poor quality copy to be satisfactory will reap the rewards they deserve. They all seem to want to achieve something as quickly as possible, rather than as well as possible.

Personally I don't adhere to the idea of 'get it out as quickly as possible'. Sometimes it may take me a couple of hours to write an article on a subject I know or where I am expounding a personal point of view, but that is the exception. Usually it takes me several hours or more, over several days, to complete an article with which I am satisfied.

But back to the question - yes I do differentiate between the two - I do little copy-writing as I find it mind-numbingly boring. I write to keep my brain working - not to send it into a coma.

Well, I don't see why not? If you're writing something that you're familiar with there's a chance that you may be able to complete writing it in half an hour. But, you'd need to spend a little time proofreading and correcting typos.

The posts on my blog (just 3 atm) are between 1k - 1.5k words and it took me around 1.5 hours to write each and then around 15 minutes to go through them before publishing. It may not be the best articles, but they do provide people with the info they seek. It's my forum signature if you're interested. 

I definitely can't do it the way Tess mentioned: 10 minutes each though  but, the overall time spent is almost the same. 

Tess: 02/15/2013 - 09:57 PM

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Hollie, you and I are certainly alike in that. 

Paul, in an exam situation, you've already done your learning ahead of time, so you don't have to do research. In the old print days, a magazine used to give you two weeks to find the info to write a 700 word article. 

It was all on unseen text, I wish I could've planned! 

I'm sorry, Paul, but nobody gives you a math exam when you're studying English. 

When I did Latin, sure the text was unseen, but that was the entire point - that I could read a book in Latin, which thankfully I could. I could translate it - sight unseen.

It's true that it was still an English exam, but we had no idea what the texts would be, nor what we'd have to do with them (we knew what it could be, but it covered pretty much everything). It could've been anything from writing a response to a discourse, analysing a passage of text or even providing arguments on the subject of child language acquisition!

In the CLA topics, we'd also be given the research in the exam (also unseen) and have to include that in the essay response. Wasn't fun, but I almost scored 100%