Time saving tools for writing

I've said this before, but: use placeholders. Don't spend too much time thinking about the perfect way to say something, especially when you're not 'feeling it'; just write in what's literally supposed to happen and move on.
You can come back and improve your writing later...and it's easier to make something great out of something than to make something great out of nothing.

Also, plan ahead, even if it's just one chapter, or just in your head. Write with purpose and direction and things will go much faster...for one thing, you won't have to spend time wondering if you're 'done'; you'll know you're done when you've covered all the events you planned to cover.

Tools? Hmmm, if you're a plotter there are beat sheets and if you use programs that have indexes etc. And even a pantser will use those sometimes. My "tools,'' as a pantser are pretty much just cut and paste etc. and write. If I'm dealing with a lot of characters I'll make a list. I'll highlight passages I want to change or remember etc.

But actual "tool?" Nope, none that I can think of. I'm sure people have things they use so hopefully they'll list them for you.

Unfortunately the only tool that's involved in my writing is me, but one thing that helps me for multiple stories is having a character's description already saved. If the same character appears again, I'll cust copy/paste their description in the other story, then tweak it a bit, rather than write it all out.

When it comes to practices, I've lately been trying to write at least 3000 words in my novel for traditional publishing each week. Picking a word goal is definitely extremely useful in my case--somehow it just keeps me on track. So far, it's gotten me up to 50,000 words in just a few months. Not bad. If you're a hyper editor like I am, I would also suggest you only edit once or twice once you're done with the initial write-up. It saves a lot of time, but it also allows there to be quality. If possible, I would suggest building up a buffer too, but while you're building it up, don't edit at all. XD Only edit once you're going to start submitting. I dunno why, but it makes my life so much easier. I dunno of any tools that help with it, though. Some people might use something called a "Scrivener"? To help organize things or something? Haha, I'm such a noob when it comes to writing tools.

• Writing dialogue first (rather than narration). Or write whatever scene is more enjoyable or more vivid to you first.
• If you don't speak English and not sure what is the English word, or just at loss of word whether you are an English speaker or not, just write whatever you got in mind and correct it later.
• Left shit you need to call back or revisiting older chapter later. Even better if you take note of important events occurring on each chapter.
• Copy-paste description and tweak it if you're going to describe a same thing again.
• Gboard's word prediction surely saves time
• Grammarly, ProWritingAid, or your word processor's checker can save time too.

Rather than trying to slog through writing a story from top to bottom, I write whatever scene my imagination is fixated on at the time, completely out of order. Later, I sew them all together like Frankenstein's Monster and edit it all to make sense and be consistent.

I use Scrivner for storing all these bits and pieces, along with chunks of lore and random floaty maybe-ideas.

It sounds ridiculous - probably is ridiculous - but it's a practical method when my ADHD brain won't concentrate on the right part of the story, and it means I get a LOT written where I otherwise wouldn't.

There is one tool, and it's autocomplete text predictor. For example lightkey.

Train yourself on the Pomodoro Technique and you will see your writing speed increase steadily, which saves a lot of time.

I never heard of that before, but when I looked it up...wow. I want to do this one haha.

I use an auto correct for some things. Like "Alexander" and "Mateas" appear to auto text so I don't need to put in the symbol for Mateas's "e" every time, and Alexander is always referred to by his full name, so I just write three letters, and auto complete fill it - or auto correct it. It's fantastic.

For some scenes or sentences, I write what I want to say if I can't think how to word it later, and come back to it. And in the file I'm working on I have a [text here] so I can CTRL F to find it and jump to the end fast. And at the end below the [text here] I have a (set of text on what I want to happen immediately next). So when I jump to the end, I see it and am refreshed without having to re-read ten pages.

With all the other great advice here, I'll add:

Take the time to actively think about your story/characters.

In the car drive, in the shower, when you're washing the dishes, when you're waiting for the microwave / kettle to finish heating up and you've got a couple moments to walk around your place actively miming and talking as said characters. Take the time to be your characters, how they would react to your world.

You don't have to deep dive, but the decisions you make then, and the reworking of dialogue aloud will save you time when you're writing.

In terms of physically writing, just write. No, but like really. Just put it down and move on. You've got a great sequence and you don't know how to bridge it --(CHARACTER SAYS SOMETHING WITTY AND PUNCHES THE JERKFACE WHO INSULTED HIM)--and then you continue onward. Write down your ideas to yourself without the fluff.

ex.

Then character asks for a milkshake, but is taken aback b/c aliens attack. (Aliens look like lizards who smeared avocados on their skin, took a bunch of acid, and think they're going to Cochella) Character's 'spidey-sense' activates and they magical girl transforms into HERO. They kick-ass like a powerpuff girls sequence. At the end of it battle, they go and grab their milkshake covered in guts. they wink and say something dumb-witty about a new facial treatment from the spa.

I keep a thesaurus open / handy, and there's other great websites that help with word finding, too. Also, a pinterest board of writing references, even if it's just emotive words.

*will post, let me know.

Take time to do prep work whether it be research, creating your character list, etc. I find I work better if I know who my players are before I start weaving the storylines together.

Something that's been super useful to me is having a document always open next to my main one that acts as a sort of 'graveyard'. If I'm not feeling a paragraph or a piece of dialogue, I just cut and paste it onto there. Knowing I still have easy access to the writing makes it waaaaay easier for me to be able to make difficult cuts and 'kill my darlings'.

Some things that have helped me save time...

• placeholders: I don't use this very often but if I get stuck and I'm trying to know something out I'll write something like (insert name) or (do the research on this) and put it in red.

• Research: Following the above point, if I know I'm going to include something in a scene, I do the research beforehand. That way I'm not wasting time while trying to write

• Don't look back: This is a hard one. But if my plan is to get the words down, the. I just write and don't reread ANYTHING. Ignore that typo or make a note and go back to fix something later.

• Elminate distractions: I waste a lot of time because of my phone or the internet, putting yourself in a place where it's just you and the writing, you can get loads done.

• Write scenes out of order: I don't do this often either, but if I get stuck on a scene I don't know what do with, I skip and write what I know is going to happen next. It's sort of strange for me, but it's much better than struggling through a scene you hate.

• Have a plan: Now this is going to determine what kind of writers you are. If you know you do better plotting, then make sure you have a good game plan. Discovery writing is a bit different so you may have to tinker with what works best for you. At the very least, having a good understanding of your plot.

I've been reading through all the answers and there's a lot of wonderful things out there but I have one particular question:

If you are not writing for a specific deadline .... why do you want to write faster?

Writing, for me, and I know a couple other people who feel the same way, is such a joy and such a beautiful place to be in that we like to savor every moment we spend doing it. Anything that will give us more time to spend with our characters and their situation is jumped on.

Again, if you're dealing with a deadline I can totally see trying to write faster and more efficiently otherwise....why?

I actually find that the online novel structure itself is really helpful to speed things up. I have a separate file for editing each chapter, so I edit in 1K bits, then paste it into tapas or Wattpad, an have another run with all the editing software that doesn’t run as well on Google docs. It really is much better than doing edits on a large file and missing problems, scrolling, going back... in the end, I think the resulting text is better and faster.

I don't write anymore because I don't speak any language properly anymore but:

Mindmaps!
Save time with organization, help with memory.
Not only it helped me a lot when I was writing, but they are still great to remind me in detail of unfinished stories from 20 years ago, much better than the unfinished stories themselves.
So I find them also very good for (more or less) long time storage of story ideas.
I use them for my comic too.
I'm still doing the physical ones (on poster paper for eg), but there are also softwares available.