Get connected with your thoughts with Free Writing daily
"Freewriting, also known as “stream of consciousness writing,” involves writing your thoughts down the moment they come. There’s no filtering what you write, and no controlling what you think: topicality, style, and continuity are wholly unnecessary in the freewriting process. While the idea of freewriting seems easy, it’s much harder than you think – examining your thoughts without controlling them takes a while to master, and the impulse to control what you write isn’t easy to tame." - Writers.com
This activity nurtures our Intrapersonal Dimension by getting us to hear our own thoughts and to acknowledge them on paper - best done by hand and not on a computer. Time with yourself is an important dimension of life. It is during these times that we allow ourselves to reflect, ponder and analyze our ideas, actions and feelings. Learn to know yourself profoundly and your ideas will become clearer. You can then better reflect your true self to the world.
The article below comes from two different articles published on the website Writers.com - an amazing resource for learning about writing and connecting with the words and ideas within you.
What is Freewriting?
Freewriting (sometimes written as one word: freewriting) is a writing technique in which the writer journals their thoughts onto the page without letting their pen rest.
The idea is simply to keep the pen moving, and that every word and idea that arises in the mind is important to jot down, regardless of matters like grammar, meaning, and usability. In other words, you aren’t trying to write capital-A Art, you are simply putting words onto paper.
In freewriting, the writer:
Focuses on simply generating raw material.
Keeps the pen moving with whatever thoughts arise, including (and especially) thoughts that seem irrelevant or unrelated to the previous thought.
Does not worry about the “value,” “merit,” or “publishability” of anything written down.
Does not worry about spelling, grammar, syntax, or readability.
Writes for typically no longer than 15 minutes.
Creates a daily freewriting practice, as the process gets easier and more rewarding when done regularly.
You aren’t trying to write capital-A Art, you are simply putting words onto paper. A freewrite can be done with a prompt or simply with the writer’s mind in its most neutral state. Later in this article we provide some freewriting prompts, but first, let’s examine the benefits of this writing technique.
Benefits of Freewriting
If you’re not writing anything worth reading, what’s the point of freewriting in the first place? It might seem counterintuitive, but freewriting can seriously improve your craft and help you write better poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction. The benefits of this technique include:
Getting the words flowing: it’s much easier to write towards a project if you’ve loosened up the “writing muscles.”
Freeing the mind from self-consciousness: freewriting helps train the mind not to care about “is this good?”—a question that can be debilitating for any first draft.
Experimentation and ideation: Because the goal is to write what arises in the mind, you might inadvertently write new ideas or come up with interesting uses of language that can then be employed in future writing. To put it a different way: language first; ideas follow.
Stumbling into greatness: Similar to the above bullet, you might accidentally write something really good or useful, or have an epiphany that you might otherwise never have had.
Setting down your thoughts, quieting your mind: By putting your freeform thoughts onto the page, you can quiet your mind into focusing on writing projects after you’ve finished your freewrite.
Some critics argue that this technique emphasizes writing over revising, or that it encourages writers not to engage with the broader literary canon. However, both critiques miss the point of freewriting. Writers should still revise and edit their work, as well as read other writers: to do a freewrite is simply to get the words flowing, making it easier to tackle the projects a writer is working on.
How to Freewrite
Set aside 10-15 minutes.
Write with pen and paper. If you have a strong preference towards typing, you can do so, but we find that handwriting is better for waking the writing mind up.
Keep your pen moving. Don’t let it rest.
If you’re stuck on what to write, have some transitional phrases on hand. “How I feel about that is…” “What I’m trying to say is…” “And then…” or even just “I don’t know what to say.”
Allow yourself to write nonsense. Write without the expectation of being “good.”
Do not reread what you have written until after the writing session is over.
Do not worry about spelling, grammar, writing style, “literary merit,” or legibility. You are not performing on the page, and the intent is not to be James Joyce or Virginia Woolf—there is no “good freewriting” or “bad freewriting,” it is simply writing.
Do this once a day, preferably every morning, but certainly before you start work on a writing project.
Once you have finished your freewrite, you can reread your pages, or simply let them rest. Upon a reread, you might find sentences, phrases, or accidents of language that could be useful for future poems, stories, or essays. [ed: sometimes it is best to just the words lie on the page without reviewing - a type of 'verbal release' in which re-reading may reintroduce those very words into your head. It depends on your purpose for undertaking freewriting.] You don’t necessarily need to “do” anything with a freewrite. The point is to get your mind in a writing space so that you can better tackle whatever projects you’re working on.
These writing exercises all involve freewriting. We encourage you to make this a daily practice: the more you do it, the freer your language will be. Freewrite every day, and every day force yourself to freewrite for a little bit longer and yesterday. Freewrite for 2 minutes on Monday, 3 minutes on Tuesday, 4 minutes on Wednesday, etc. Work your way up to 15 minutes.
Every morning.
Inspiration for this idea comes from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, which encourages serious artists to write “morning pages”—or morning freewrites with no purpose other than getting your language brain moving.
Right before bed.
How might your writing be different in the morning versus at night? The point of this writing exercise is mostly just to see what happens when you set the day’s dross down before heading to sleep. (Perhaps your dreams will change, too?)
After meditating.
Meditation helps center the mind’s attention and suspend the inner critic. Marc Olmsted offers some useful tips on mindful writing here.
After reading for at least 30 minutes.
We unconsciously absorb new ideas for writing and thinking simply by reading. The point here is not to plagiarize, it’s to see how your own approach to language changes after being immersed in the word choice of another author.
In the voice of someone that isn’t you.
Adopting a persona is a fun, if challenging, writing exercise, because you have to keep your pen moving while embodying your associations and assumptions about a different character’s voice. How, for example, would Daffy Duck sound if he was doing his morning pages?
General Daily Freewriting Prompts - you may find prompts helpful to begin this daily intrapersonal and creative practice
What have you been thinking about lately?
What questions are you trying to answer in your life?
Write down every sensation you notice, both inside your body and in the world around you.
Do a freewrite in which you talk to God, the Universe, or a higher power.
What feelings are you trying to avoid feeling?
What do you want to manifest for the near future?
Write down the first word that comes to mind. Then, follow whatever associations arise in your brain.
What are you grateful for?
What do you desire most right now?
Write about a memory that is visually or emotionally intense.
Confess something.
In your head, place yourself somewhere you know very well, such as your childhood home or a street you visit often. Write down as many details about that place as possible.
What has saved you?
What is an important realization you have had recently?
Where do you wish you were?
Write about and interpret a dream you’ve had.
6D Living
Wellness in Balance
Comments