Compose Faster By Breaking Up Your Writing Sessions

It seems counterintuitive, but one of the most effective ways I've found for writing music quickly is to break my writing up into multiple sessions.You might think that the best approach to writing quickly would be to sit down and knock it out in one go. The problem with this method is that it doesn't account for natural lulls in your energy level and the loss of momentum that can occur during a regular work session. Our minds need fuel (glucose) and rest (breaks and sleep). We can't simply force mentally taxing work, like creating and producing original music, for extremely long stretches of time.What works best for me is to write a track in two sessions over two days. The first session is the creative one; this is where I come up with the main ideas, plan out the general outline of the piece, and generally let the music find it's voice. This is when I figure out what the track is going to be. As soon as I feel myself slowing down, when I notice that I'm looping the same sections over and over, or even if I just feel kind of "stuck", then I know it's time to stop.Assuming it's not due that afternoon, I'll wait to come back to it the next day. And a miraculous thing happens: the day before I may have thought I was about half way done. But whenever I come back to it after some time away I find that it's about 90% complete. I still am surprised that this happens even though it is a very common occurrence. There is something about the perspective of time away that makes the piece feel fresh again and make me realize that I was slowing down and getting stuck not because what I was writing was bad, but that I was simply running out of energy! Hearing it for the "first time" on a new day allows me to actually hear what the music sounds like without all the clutter of "what to do next" going around in my mind.Then the process of getting the track done becomes quite easy. I flesh out the few sections that are incomplete, add finishing touches, and voila. By splitting the writing process up into two days (writing, then editing), I am able to produce music about twice as fast than if I plow through all in one go. And I'm usually much happier with the result too!What are some techniques you use to make the writing process easier and faster?I have had students tell me that their number one problem is writing too slowly. It can take them days or even weeks to produce a single track that is only a few minutes long. But in the professional world you can't afford to be slow; often deadlines are just days or mere hours away!I'm considering writing an ebook on this topic, How to Write Music Quickly. If that's something that interests you please let me know!