Voices for Voices®

Speed Writing: The Art of Rapid Storytelling | Episode 218

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 218

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Speed Writing: The Art of Rapid Storytelling | Episode 218

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Ever wondered how some writers produce mountains of quality content in mere minutes? Meet David Solomon, a creative powerhouse who can write 80 pages in just 20 minutes without sacrificing quality or emotion.

In this fascinating conversation, Solomon reveals the origins of his extraordinary speed writing ability – beginning with childhood punishment writing Bible verses repeatedly, which unexpectedly cultivated a rare talent. He walks us through his immersive approach to storytelling, where writing becomes a vivid, cinematic experience. "When you speed write, you're literally writing out a movie playing in your head," Solomon explains, giving listeners a glimpse into his creative process.

What sets Solomon apart isn't just his writing speed, but his multidisciplinary approach. As both a novelist and screenplay writer, he brings unique perspectives to dialogue creation, character development, and scene setting. He demonstrates how he builds emotional depth into characters while maintaining engaging pacing. Perhaps most surprisingly, Solomon reveals how songwriting integrates into his creative process, sometimes composing original music that captures the emotional essence of pivotal scenes in his stories.

Whether you're a writer seeking to improve your productivity, a creative looking for fresh approaches to storytelling, or simply curious about the inner workings of a remarkable mind, this episode offers valuable insights into the intersection of talent, technique, and tireless practice. Solomon's journey reminds us that exceptional abilities often emerge from unexpected beginnings and that even natural talents require dedicated refinement.

Subscribe to hear more fascinating conversations with unique voices making their mark in creative industries and beyond!

David Solomon shares his remarkable speed writing ability, describing how he transforms visual storytelling into written words at an astonishing pace - sometimes producing 80 pages in 20 minutes.

• Origins of speed writing talent beginning with writing Bible verses as childhood punishment
• Viewing writing as "watching a movie in your head" and transcribing what you see
• Balancing descriptive elements with compelling dialogue for effective storytelling
• Creating emotionally resonant characters readers can connect with
• Integrating original songwriting into the storytelling process
• Drawing scenes and characters before writing to establish visual foundations
• Approaching writing with confidence while acknowledging the hard work involved

Subscribe, share, and give us a thumbs up to help us reach our goal of helping 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond.

#speedwriting #rapidstorytelling #writingtips #creativewriting #storytelling #contentcreation #writingcraft #writingskills #writingprompts #writingadvice #writinglife #writingcommunity #writersofinstagram #writinginspiration #writingjourney

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Justin Alan Hayes:

Welcome to another episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I am your host, founder and executive director of Voices for Justin Alan Hayes. Thank you for joining us on this episode. We're over 215 episodes at this point. We're just continuing to help to bring important topics and voices to the forefront, lifting people up in the work that they do and pointing out differences and some work that is also being done. That isn't what we consider very moral, very right, ethically, however, we want to classify it. So that's where we're at, and we've been getting a lot of new attention here really in the last couple of months from all over the world 608 cities now just check the analytics 53 countries and then obviously, one of the countries here being the United States of America, being the United States of America, and so thank you for joining us, whether this is your first episode or whether you've been with us for the whole ride. Check out our catalog, subscribe, share, give us a thumbs up. All that will help us reach more people and get closer to that goal of helping 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond.

Justin Alan Hayes:

So this episode here has been looking forward to this, because I like to learn. I like to learn I said that twice but really just like to learn and hear about kind of new methods, new ways of doing things, and that's what this episode is going to be about. So we're bringing back guests we've had on several times, guests we've had on several times, and this episode, our guest, david Solomon, is going to talk about speed writing, and so there's, as we're finding with a lot of the creators that we're speaking with, everybody kind of has their, maybe their own method to their madness, maybe their own, their own method to their madness, and one of the things that david is good at not just the, the writing uh, but the uh, the speed in which he is able to do that uh and and still turn out quality work um, I'm taken back to growing up and can't remember if it was first, second grade, but we used to have these timed math tests or math quizzes and we would be getting scored not only based on how many questions we got right versus how many we got wrong, but also the time. And that's probably the first time I can cognitively remember how time was brought into kind of my life and remember trying to not only get the highest score I could.

Justin Alan Hayes:

But once that kind of stopwatch went off, you turned over the. You know the quiz I mean it might have been five, five, looking back, five easy, you know addition, multiplication, division. Have you answers or questions to answer? But then also the time, uh, and looking back, you know everybody does things different, differently. Some, uh, some people takes a little bit longer, some people little little shorter to to do that work. So, talking to David of this episode, about speed writing and the, obviously the quality of the work, because that's important for readers, for listeners, for future projects, as he, you know, shares those with perspective of people that are interested in working with him. So, david, thank you again for joining us on the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast.

David Solomon:

Always a blessing to be here. Thanks for having me.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, absolutely yeah. So I thought we would maybe dive into kind of like the kind of tips and tricks we'll call it of your speed writing. You know how you, how you learned that you were good at it and how you've been able to really leverage that.

David Solomon:

Yeah, when I was about seven years old, I disobeyed my mom, as any kid does, and so my mom had a punishment, and that was writing Ephesians 6.1 out. That is, children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. And I would have to write that out a hundred times. I would have to write that out a hundred times. Wow, I would master it to where I got so fast. I got it done in about 10 minutes, wow. But I faked it, you know, and I was like, oh, it's two hours and I would just sit there. And finally she caught on and she goes okay, a thousand times now. And so that's kind of where my mom picked up that I could write really fast. And, of course, after I learned the Bible verse and my lessons, my mom went hmm, this is kind of an interesting gift. Let's see what other people think. So I went to a man named Fred and he's a big, big, big sort of editor and writer in the writing industry, big sort of editor and writer in the writing industry, and he timed me on how fast I could write, because I like to tell stories. It's funny, I didn't believe that I could write. I just like to tell stories, act them out, draw them, but not write them. And so he gave me a pen and paper not a computer and said okay, write something, I'll time you. So he timed me for about 20 minutes and 80 pages later. His mouth just dropped. Um, my mom helped me hone the craft to write that fast.

David Solomon:

And also, what's important when you speed write is you literally are writing out a movie playing in your head and that is so important, so you don't know what you're going to get in the end. That's kind of fun. That's kind of the fun part of speed writing. You really don't know what you're going to get and it's just a movie and you're just watching it and it's just another medium. Instead of popping in the DVD or turning the tv on or netflix or streaming, whatever we do these days um, you're writing the movie that you want to watch and when you think of it that way, it's kind of easy to do so like, uh, yesterday, uh and today, you know, I just plopped down on my desk in my office and got a little paper out and got a pen and hit the timer and yesterday we were at 50 pages in three hours, hours.

David Solomon:

And so speed writing also, I'll go to Barnes and Noble or a Christian bookstore and I'll look at a book and I'll go hmm, that's cool, I can do better. And then I'll want to do better I'm not saying I'm the best, but I want to do better than that person. And then I push it out and back in the day, 2014 was mom's golden years of me and her as a writing duel. Oh man, there was a book every two weeks from a famous author and I had a deadline. It'd be two hours on that, and then switch to screenplay for a TV show and it'd be two hours on that, and then I would do school and it was fun. I got a lot done. I think, justin, you've actually seen some of the pilots and scripts that I wrote as a kid.

Justin Alan Hayes:

And.

David Solomon:

I speed wrote all of them and so I got so fast where I go to Barnes Noble and I also speed read and that means I can read a page in like a minute and then basically memorize it.

David Solomon:

Phot memory yeah, yeah, I'll. Uh, let's see. You want me to read this real quick. This one is uh, we'll read this one. So I wrote this, and I wrote this in record time. Jake was close to finding his target. He felt his blood pressure ramp up with every firm step he took in the muddy ground. He could tell they were not too far, but still a little distance away. Distance away, and trying to keep up the pace in the caked mud with piles of snow made it very hard to lose his balance. Sometimes he looked down on the ground and studied it with his cybernetic eye, pointing out the frequency and volume of blood they were leaving behind, which also told the story of how badly wounded they were also. So I wrote that. I put a timer on and I wrote that part in less than 20 seconds.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Wow.

David Solomon:

And so I was like floored. And that's how you speed write. You basically go. Okay, I see this scene in my head. How do I get it on paper? How do you do that? The one I wrote tonight let's get that out is it is. And I was just you know it is, it is and I was just you know, writing for fun.

David Solomon:

Johnny walked under the pier with his diving suit on and jacket and change of dry clothes in a bag thrown over his shoulder and change of dry clothes in a bag thrown over his shoulder. It was beginning to get more dark out than before, with the sun setting over the blue ocean, painting the sky a serene galore of pastels and light-toned variations of purples and pinks. A more cooler wind blew from the sea, but after being in the water and working up a sweat, it felt good, with the wind blowing back his sweat-soaked head of blonde, bushy hair. After nearly three hours of surfing with his friends who were now taking off, johnny needed to get out. His stomach was famished, sending clear signals through tiny rumbles. It was time to think about finding something to eat. A muscle spasmed in his leg and he winced as he paused to address and rub.

David Solomon:

It might have been to give back to the people who lost their homes in the local wildfires, but his coach still made him work harder than usual to push for a win. To push for a victory. Coach Jensen stood behind 13-year-old Johnny. Now notice we set this scene. We're under a pier. That took 60 seconds today.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Oh, wow.

David Solomon:

And so you're setting a scene of a movie. And when I write, when I sit down, I want to make a movie. I want to set the scene. I want to let the people know what I see. I want you to imagine going to a movie theater and I want you to take your popcorn and have a ball. I want you to come out of that a better person. But also it's a visual feast.

David Solomon:

See, the joy of writing is that you don't watch TV. You have to imagine yourself there, and that's what's so powerful about writing is that you don't watch TV. You have to imagine yourself there, and that's what's so powerful about writing, compared to TV or visual, is that you're there. Now, comic books are a little like that too, in that you imagine you're the character sometimes, and that does happen. But novels is really special because you imagine yourself as that character. And that's why first person is my favorite, because it's I did this and they did that and that. That just comes easy. And so, third person I really do not like writing, but I find myself writing it now and so, like when I go on Amazon or when I go to a bookstore, I'll see a book and I'll open it up and I'll memorize the, the way it's written, you know, the uh, the lyrics going, he said. She said looked like this, the sun looked like that, and I'll memorize what worked for that author and what sounded terrible, and then I'll copy it in my own way and make it unique. You know, I'll give you an example.

David Solomon:

Let's see, off the top of my head, a small bill. You know, clark moved with speed as the raindrops hit his red coat. He took a breath and felt the cold hit his lungs. He sighed Something wasn't right, something was wrong. And then it happened the ground shook beneath him, his worst fears coming true. And you know, that's just. You know, off the top of my head, you're setting the scene, but I took what worked from a TV show that I worked in to other novels and you're looking at how to describe things that sound good. But you're also looking at what other people relate to.

David Solomon:

Not, he said, she said that's boring. So so kick that, kill that. And so when you speed right, you just want to describe everything you can so that your audience is watching the movie and they have that visual feast, so that they can be a part of the movie. I don't want to be sitting in here, you know, having a movie and not knowing what color the walls are. I want to know what color the walls are, but I don't want to know all the decorations on the wall in the room, unless they matter to the story. That's up to the reader to find out, and so that's important too. Some writers get so hung up on novels that they spend 47 pages in one chapter. It doesn't work so like. There's one writer I know, and his prologue was 35 pages. That's a lot.

David Solomon:

You would think a lot would have happened in 35 pages. Nothing happened in 35 pages. He got off his horse, he killed the dragon, he ran, but we had to spend 35 pages talking about the different sounds of the crickets and the geese and the dragon and the scales and the reflection. Sometimes that works for high fantasy, but for a reader, especially now with attention spans, you want to move the pace, you want to tell the story. One thing that makes me unique, that a lot of people crucify me over, is I'm a screenplay writer and I'm a novel writer, so I grew up writing movies and TV shows first, so I'm a dialogue person. A lot of people that write novels hate dialogue and I'm the opposite. I was just going to ask you about that?

Justin Alan Hayes:

about that, because we spoke to one author and that was a pain point for for them, because they were having to now, you know, break it down, you know, character by character conversation, how that formats, and uh, and so for you, you really, I was like the hard part first and then eased in, I guess in a way, not to diminish the work by any stretch, but just as far as the type.

David Solomon:

Yes, when I want to create a show and then make it a novel which is what I do I always act it out. So I will act out the characters, the dialogue, the monologue. I'll become the character. I'll get to know the character, what they're going to wear, what their favorite food is, how are they walking, what accent do they have? Do they like this person? Do they like that person? What are their dislikes? You know, and then you set the mood. What does the room look like when this character walks in? Is there a fireplace? Is it raining? Is it snowing? What season are we in?

David Solomon:

And it's a visual feast when you're acting it out, because you imagine everything. But then it's quite something else when you put that to paper and go okay, well, nobody else can see what I see. So how do I put that into words? That materialize into something beautiful and complex and picturesque. And that is the beauty of what God has given me the ability to do. And screenplay I really excel at, because you don't have to describe a lot, you can just do dialogue. You describe a little bit. Do dialogue, you describe a little bit. But when I got into novels I learned that, oh, it's not that different. You're just telling what's around the characters. A lot of people got hung up when I was doing Smallville and other shows. They said well, you can't write a novel based on an episode? Well, why can't you? It's the same thing, I mean. I'll give you an example.

David Solomon:

Lex Luthor is walking up to Clark. In the screenplay, lex turns left, looks at Clark and sees that he still has spilling spirulina. He's disappointed. He mouths a cuss word and then walks out. Clark goes after him and confronts him. Okay, that's the screenplay. How do you do that? It's not that much different. Lex stood there watching Clark. He was disappointed as he ran his head, or ran his hand on his bald head, reminding him of the pain that he experienced in the town he called home, in the town he called Smallville. He looked at Clark and saw Clark's piercing eyes see through his soul, haunting him like a ghost. He knew he had done wrong. He knew that he was in the wrong and that is why he had to exit the room before something else happened, before Clark confronted him and knew the truth behind all the secrets that he veiled. Still the same thing.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Same, thing, yeah.

David Solomon:

And then dialogue. A lot of authors hold back on dialogue. I welcome dialogue, I think dialogue is beautiful and that's what makes tv. But I think what, what is rejectful in a lot of novels right now is we don't have dialogue, we have the action. So it's very important to have dialogue With your characters that is believable and not hogwash Like some authors like to do. That's why, when I'm hired as a screenplay writer To screenplay a novel, it's so hard Because you don't have dialogue that makes sense. The author has all this fancy dialogue that just doesn't sound real, and a lot of novels have that problem. It doesn't sound real. You want the dialogue to be real. What would that character say? What would that character do? And so that's important.

David Solomon:

When I write novels, I fall in love with emotion, so I always want my characters to be emotional. I always want to remind the audience that the characters are having an emotion, and when someone is reading my work, I want them to go wow, I feel for that character. Oh, why did that have to happen to that character? I don't want them to take a guess that that happened. I want them to know it happened. Partially. Why I quit the story tonight? Because I stared at it and went huh, no, that's terrible, let's try again. What does he feel when the wind hits him? We know that his hair is wet, we know that it feels good, but what is it making him feel? Is it sending shivers through him? Does he like the cold weather? Does he get sick in the cold weather? Is it unusual to have the cold weather where he is? Is the water cold that he's surfing in? You have to ask all these questions in order to paint a picture and a story, and that's important.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, well, we still have a couple minutes. I know writing your experience writing songs lyrics. Right, writing songs lyrics. How is that different or the approach you take in that case?

David Solomon:

It's really funny. I usually, when I act out, I write the song in the background and so I don't know the song until it fits. The character, like the new one I'm doing for a project, is I kind of want to be more than friends. I don't know where this is going. I don't know about you, but I really like you too. Can you tell me, do you feel the same way too? I want it more than friends. So that's playing in the background of these two characters eyeing each other and they like each other, but they don't know it yet and you know they kind of want to be more than friends.

David Solomon:

That's just an example of you know what do you do in that moment? Or another one is called I ghosted you where I literally was acting out this scene for this pilot I'm doing, and it's a scene where someone's standing over the Brooklyn Bridge and someone goes to them. So it's. I was just standing over the bridge, you said that you would be here and now you're not. I should have looked at my phone. Now. I'm caught up all alone Now. I got my motions tied in the knot.

David Solomon:

I don't know where you went, but I think it's time for me to. Where did you go? Where did you run to? Did you get stuck along the way? So it goes on about how this person ghosted them and how they're emotional about it and that's what plays in the pilot while they're looking at their phone. So I do my own original songs and then I sell it to artists like one republic, like uh jb, like usher, like other people, because you're writing that for that episode or that character. So it's also called speed writing, uh lyrics that's what I was gonna ask you about.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, yeah, they just come naturally.

David Solomon:

It's like, uh, I'm in the shower and the song comes to me. You know, I, uh, I feel this way, I feel that way. You know it's bam bam bam. Oh, that character feels that way. Or you know, I did a Wonder Woman pilot on Most Famous, for that never got to see the light of day and it's I don't want to see you ever again, never again. And it's Diana and she's in her bedroom and she met Steve Trevor and Steve broke her heart and so she doesn't want to see you know him again. And it ends with if you don't want to see me, you just don't want to see me ever again. Don't leave me hanging here so dry. I feel like I just want to cry, I'm breaking down, I'm breaking down tonight. Somebody, help me, help me light. And so she's crying and you pan the camera and it ends. Now we shot it and I wrote the song. The song lives on. You've heard it on the radio, but it's not for that pilot.

David Solomon:

The artist took it, made a music video, did the same idea and it works. And so music is a part of my process of creating, and I'm also an artist, so I draw what my characters wear or what they look like. I will always know he has red hair and he likes to wear blue shorts and a green top and he doesn't like gray. I'm not one of these writers that has documents that talk about all their dislikes. I know it because I draw the character and I see it like a comic book come to life, so that's how I create.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah, no, this is I'm glad we got to the lyrics and the music part. That was what I was hoping we would get a chance to, to do and and have you, uh do, do some, uh, do some singing, because I mean, really, I mean we talk about, talk about gifts and, uh, you know what people have and, uh, it's, it's truly you know everything around the creating, whether it's novels, whether it's screenplay, whether it's the lyrics, uh, you definitely, uh, you know, have, have the gifts, and I know you've already, you already know that. But for people who, uh, who don't and are still learning, uh, the evolution of you, know who you are and uh, what, uh, what, what exactly you do and how you do it and how it all kind of comes together, uh, that was, uh, I'm glad we got to that, that point, because that was what I was looking forward to to the most. Um, and you just never know time, time wise, and so to know that you have kind of these layers as you're thinking about a screenplay or novel, and you have that, those lyrics playing during the scene, thinking at this point, but you've been doing it so long that it's just more about the doing, and what do I need to do.

Justin Alan Hayes:

You have the confidence. You have lots of work you've done and are doing, and I think that's key for anybody really finding out what they like, what they, what you do, and then being able to pivot, depending on okay, we're going to take out of this, this, this screenplay, this novel and this song. We're going to take this song and you're going gonna sell it to a particular artist, uh, and, and then maybe the, the screenplay go, goes, uh, goes through, and then the songs playing in the theater, when or or at the, the house or wherever we have happened.

David Solomon:

Uh, some famous songs and some famous movies that I wrote and I hear that and go wow, I had a part to play and like audiences are like that's a cool song, right it's, you know, it's so powerful really because you're, you're bringing you know different senses, you're bringing you know kind of the the watching and the listening and then music.

Justin Alan Hayes:

And you know, no matter where we live across the world, music plays a a huge, huge part. You know there's obviously variances depending on cultures and where people reside. Uh, but from you know the beginning of time, some form of music, hearing the beat in our heads or humming a beat or being as advanced as you are with lyrics, I think that's something that is universal across humankind, human nature. Yeah, I would agree with you and uh we got two minutes.

David Solomon:

Two minutes, just that's why speed writing creating it all stems um.

Justin Alan Hayes:

It's from a lot of hard work right and from god, of course and that's also something for people to listen and hear that what might be easier than something else doesn't mean that it wasn't hard work, that there is a lot of hard work that goes in. So even if you're good and you like something doesn't mean that there's not going to be hard work. There's going to be. You know, sometimes in the shower, sometimes you have a block of time set aside, but maybe you know those thoughts. You're at a point in time where you're like crap, you know, like I had this time set aside and why couldn't that flow in at that particular time. So to know that there is going to be there's going to be hard work, that it's not going to be easy, like as if we're winning the lottery, the Powerball.

David Solomon:

I agree yeah.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I agree. Yeah Well, thank you for again I said, every time being so transparent and going through the different layers screenplay, novels, music, lyrics, the process, going through speed writing, how you learned how to do it, and that's something that you do, current to this day, and so if somebody is out there listening and watching, it may take some time. So what you're doing and excelling at might not be something that another person per se might be, might be picking up and able to do. It could be or it could not, maybe. Maybe it's the lyric part versus the screenplay, versus the novel, and I think, going through the mechanics, like you did, and how it got started with your mom and as you're growing up, and how that started to transfer into screenplays and novels, the lyrics of songs and, uh, we just want to say thank you for for joining us on this episode as, as you, uh, as you do, I'm really just sharing your, your talents and tools of the trade.

David Solomon:

Thank you, I enjoyed being here. Thank you.

Justin Alan Hayes:

And I hope it helps someone too.

David Solomon:

Yeah.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I have a hunch that it might at least one if not more.

Justin Alan Hayes:

And so we'll give it a wrap up now. So thanks to David Solomon for joining us today. Solomon for joining us today. As always, given his time, mechanics, tips, ideas, speed writing and beyond, he was able to share with us and then be able to grace us with some lyrics and some music, so doing acapella. So definitely grateful for that. And we're grateful for you, our viewers, our listeners, wherever you're at, whatever corner of the world you're at. Thank you for watching, thank you for listening. If you can subscribe, give us a thumbs up like share. We would definitely appreciate that and until next time, please be a voice for you or somebody in need.

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