Freewriting
Freewriting is to writers what warm-up exercises are to athletes. It’s a way of limbering up the writing
‘muscle’. It’s a way, as I explain on the page on writing
prompts, of training your subconscious mind to be open and creative and original and intriguing - which,
of course, is exactly what we fiction writers want from our subconscious minds!
But what exactly is freewriting?
It’s a writing technique where you start with a sentence, or a question, or a concept, and then you write
non-stop for a period of time, usually 10 or 15 minutes, in what’s called a stream of consciousness.
What you do is to keep the pen moving, or the fingers moving on the keyboard without stopping. It’s very
important that you don’t stop, and here’s why. It’s all about the Internal Editor.
 I invite you to read the page exploring the causes of
writer's block for information on why the internal editor is so keen to judge and criticise our work.
It’s because it, for good reasons, is trying to stop us writing. It does that by interjecting thoughts which
make us feel about what we’ve written.
Freewriting, however, silences the internal editor by bolting the door to it. Because you’re writing non-stop,
there is simply no space for those negative thoughts to squeeze in.
So do you see why it’s so important to keep writing? Keep that pen moving. Keep those fingers
dancing on the keyboard.
But, you might be saying, I just am not able to write so fast.
Yes, you are. I promise. You just are probably not able to write polished
perfect-enough-to-please-the-internal-editor prose, so fast. But remember what I said: you cannot get this
wrong.
So what you do with free-writing is to keep writing, no matter what comes out. Write whatever comes to
mind, no matter how rubbish it is. Write, I don’t know what to say over and over if that’s what you
need to do. It doesn’t matter, once you’re writing.
You probably will find that the freewriting isn't in complete sentences, and that your grammar and spelling
suffer. That's okay! Getting sentence structure, grammar and spelling right are left-brain
activities, and freewriting is most definitely a right-brain activity. You can't concentrate on both at once, so
don't try.
 Over time you will find that a few very interesting and very exciting things happen:
I do urge you to give freewriting a good try. You'll find the time it takes will repay you in so many ways.
Start of by writing witout stopping for maybe 5 minutes, and gradually work your way up to 10 or 15 minutes. You
can use this excellent online stopwatch to help you time
yourself.
| I very much recommend Holly Lisle's THINKING SIDEWAYS
course which gives excellent advice and techniques for accessing creativity as well as LOTS of
other good stuff. CLICK HERE for details. |
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