Freewriting is a fast method of thinking onto paper. It is basically about spilling your mind onto paper or computer, without any judgment or stopping – just fast continuous writing, going with the flow. You can even talk to yourself in your writing, or write “blah blah blah” repeatedly when stuck. It is the quantity that is important. Quality can be distilled later by editing.
Writers block? Pffff. That doesn’t exist in the realm of Freewriting. Just write – even if it’s crap. You are thinking already, so write the thoughts. Even if you have to write about how you don’t have anything to write, you can write.
The Freewriting technique in allows you to access and exploit your subconscious mind – that’s where the “genius” lives. It enables you access the raw stream of thoughts directly from your sub consciousness. The results are almost always incredible.
And it works for everyone. Even if you hated school writing assignments, you will love Freewriting.
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Part 1 – Six Secrets of Free Writing
Secret #1: Try Easy
You do not have to try hard. In fact, it is best when you give only 90% effort.
Begin your writing by reminding yourself to try easy. Remind yourself that you do not want produce perfect prose that will be cherished and treasured for generations to come; you just want to write some decent words. You just want to dump your brain.
Lower your expectations, and be pleasantly surprised.
Secret #2: Write Fast and Continuously
When you write fast and continuously, you will adopt easy and accepting attitude, which unblocks your subconscious mind.
If you write slowly, your talking mind will creep in. We don’t want that. The talker in your head sucks. There is only so much mental resources, and the talker will eat too much of them. The talker shuts down your genius sub-conscious computer, which can access all your memories, thoughts, experiences, ideas.
Writing continuously is also important. You want to suppress the editor (a.k.a. censor) in your mind, so the idea-producer can do its job unchained. The “inappropriate” thoughts can often be the key, so you want to make sure they can appear in your writing.
When you get stuck, you can:
Babble nonsense onto the page
Repeat the last word again and again
Repeat the last letter you’ve pressed on your keyboarddddddddd
Write anything that comes to your mind, even if it is completely unrelated to the writing
Your mind will quickly get unstuck and come with a new thought to write about.
It’s all about the quantity, uncensored. Think of yourself as word/thought producing factory.
Secret #3: Work Against a Time Limit
Pomodoro technique works brilliantly with Freewriting.
When you are Freewriting, set a short time limit for yourself – e.g. 10 or 20 minutes. You can use a kitchen timer or some software for this.
The time limit is important for two reasons:
The limit energizes your writing effort by giving you parameters. You can go “all in”. Deadlines motivate.
The limit keeps you writing, so you’ll have a chance for a genius moment. You will write even if you’re feeling uninspired, which is a very good thing: Paradoxically, you can get the best ideas when writing the worst junk.
Secret #4: Write the Way You Think
You need to get your raw thoughts.
Don’t write the way you speak, write the way you think. Your speech is already censored.
If you really write the way you think, your writing will probably make no sense to other people. That’s a sign you’re doing it right. (Don’t show it to other people, though. Write for yourself. Knowing that someone else might see the text would activate the little totalitarian censor in your mind.)
To achieve this kind of writing, do:
Use your language.
Keep quiet about things that need no explanation.
Jump around just as your mind does.
You’re the only person that needs to understand what you write.
Freewriting isn’t really writing, it’s a means of watching yourself think.
Secret #5: Go with the Thought
When doing an improv theater, it is a golden rule to always accept the situation and agree with what other actors say. Think “YES, AND”.
Go with what you’re given. Always go with the thought that you’ve just written.
It’s all about “agreeing and extending”. It’s a great way to get “far”.
When you go with a thought, you assume that the thought is true, and you can take a series of logical steps. Just like this: If A is true, that means B is true. And if B is true, that means C is true. And if C is true, …
Secret #6: Redirect Your Attention
When you run out of things to say, you can use “focus changer”. Focus changer is a question you ask yourself on paper that requires you to comment on something you’ve just written. It keeps you moving, and helps you focus on the yet unexplored parts of a situation.
Examples of focus changers include:
What was I thinking here?
How else can I say that?
What am I missing here?
What I am wrong about here?
What I am doing right?
What does this remind me of?
How would I describe this to my grandmother?
Etc. The book includes many more such example questions. You can (and should) also invent your own focus changers.
. So thanks for the tip, I'll start using it right way too :P.
