Ever heard the term ‘Freewriting’? I did it for many years before I learned what it was called. I don’t know where the term originated, but I’ve found it in a number of books and learned that English classes in many schools use it for daily writing practice.

Freewriting is a great way to get a piece of writing or a speech or in fact any communication started. Sometimes I use it to break out of a mind-lock that prevents progress, sometimes it’s just a good way to get warmed up. Freewriting for me is often a mind dump that takes me to places I’m not expecting.

The essence of Freewriting is to choose a time period, say 5, 10, or 15 minutes, and just start writing. You can start with a focus, but allow your writing to wander wherever your thoughts go. If you can’t think of anything to write, just write “I can’t think of anything to write” or anything else over and over again until your mind goes somewhere else. The point is to start and to keep writing until your time us up. Some people set an alarm and keep going until it goes off.

In a focused freewrite, start with a topic and dump everything you know or that comes to mind. Getting off topic is OK just as long as you keep going.

There are no real ‘rules’ for freewriting, but there are some guidelines:

1. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, or anything else. Turn off your internal editor and just write whatever comes to mind.

2. Don’t stop, keep going for the whole time you’ve chosen.

3. Don’t worry about what you’re writing, write anything whether you’re going in a specific direction or not

4. Don’t look at this as a draft or any sort of predecessor to a piece of writing. Consider this a throw away. It doesn’t mean you can’t use it or part of it, but don’t expect to. If you get something you can use, that’s great, but that’s not the objective.

5. If your mind goes blank, just start writing something, anything “blank … blank … blank” or “I can’t think of anything” or “the quick brown fox … ” or ANYTHING

Is it valuable? I can’t speak for you, but I know it’s useful to me. Linked to a technique like Mind Mapping, freewriting is a great way to just let the flow come out. Not only does it loosen me up and get me moving, but sometimes it uncovers the most amazing things.

Often, I’ll do my initial information dump into a mind map. Add additional information from reading and other research, and keep adding material until I feel I’ve got a pretty good handle on the subject. Before I start a draft or convert this information into an outline, I’ll use a freewriting exercise to see what I come up with.

To freewrite the project, I start with the core idea in mind and just start writing about it. I usually do this into a text editor and not a word processor because I find editors more responsive. Once I’m done with the freewrite, I’ll let it sit for a while then come back and reread it. You’d be amazed at some of the insights that come out in the process.

Much of my best writing started as a freewrite. Sometimes, my freewrite becomes my project after I’ve edited out the stuff which doesn’t fit. Take this blog post for example, would you believe that it originated in a 10 minute freewrite session. I had already worked on the idea, mind mapped it in my journal, and reread some of the books and web sites that talk about it. A couple of days later, I sat down and just starting dumping my thoughts into the text editor. I HAD to stop because a 5 year old climbed up on my lap and said “Papa … you said you’d come and build with me!” You don’t refuse that kind of invitation. So I saved what I’d written and left. Several hours later I came back, reread it, and found I was close to what I wanted to say. I added some new thoughts, dropped some that did hit the mark, cleaned it up, added references, and now it’s ready to post.

What more could I ask for?

To see a sample Freewrite, check out

http://www.techiwriter.com/wordpress/a-freewriting-sample/

I hope my old English teacher will forgive me!

If you want to learn more about how to do it, there are several books that mention Freewriting. There’s not much in any of them about it, but these are pretty basic references.

Peter Elbow Writing with Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process (1981)

Julia Cameron The Artist’s Way (1992)

Natalie Goldberg Writing Down the Bones (1986)

If you don’t want to bother buying a book just to get a few pages on Freewriting, then take a look at these web sites. Each page has good information about how to do it. There’s not much there, but there doesn’t need to be.

Freewriting: A way around Writer’s Block

Getting Started: Freewriting

How to Freewrite

Categories: Skills