I’m going to do a 5 minute Freewrite. To do it, I’ve setup like this:

1) I’ve loaded a countdown timer on my laptop and set it for 5 minutes. Since I’m using a Macbook, I’m using Apimac Timer.

2) I’ve loaded a notepad tool for typing. On my Macbook, I’m using TextEdit which comes preloaded. On Windows, you could use Notepad. The point is to type into something easy and responsive. Set word wrap ON and just go.

OK, so let’s do it
———————————– Freewrite —————————————-
My purpose here is to demonstrate freewriting for everyone who is reading this. It’s kind of interesitng once you get going and know that you can’t stop or wait for an idea to strike you. You have to just keep typing. Don’t worry about spekkling or grammar or whether you hit the right key or not, jsut keep going and worry about it later when you reread this.
The purpose of freewriting is to free your mind, you want to just diunm=p straight from your mind to the paper (or in this case the computer screen)_ and see what comes out. Sometimes it’s a mess, but sometimes, it gives you some great stuff
I don’t know what to type, so I’m going to just do the quick brown fox and keep it going, we can do anything if we don’t have something that we want to type otherwise. I could go one dumping about Systems and Systems Thinking or Systems Theory or the book I’m reading right now from the Gap Series ..,I was amazed that I had finished the thrid book before I realised I was on it to start with. I thought I’d only made it as far as the 2nd beeok, but in fact I completed the third and had to pull out the fourth book to continue on. Now Morn & company have left the station in Amnion space and are escaping and Min and her people are coming to see what’s going on. It’s an intereing situation and full of things that are liable to happen. I don’t remember it well enough to kow what will.
I could go one, but I don’t know again what I should write about. OD I want to write about books, about writing, about mediations,, what am I doing here while I’m typing? Am I going anywhere or just going? Right now, I’m just going. I just looked at the clock and there’s 10 seconds left, 5 4 3 2 1 … times’ up!
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Try the exercise for yourself. What will you get when you write for 5 minutes? If you start with an idea, will you turn up anything new or will you just dump what you know. Until you try it, you never know.

Freewriting doesn’t have to be done on the computer. It can be done by hand in your journal or on a sheet of paper. Heck, you could probably do it on a whiteboard if you were so inclined. However, since you’re reading this, chances are you’ve already got a computer, you’re committed to using it, and it will be the best place for some writing practice.

Freewriting is a tool, nothing more. it’s not a magical wand and often you’ll get nothing out of it but typing practice. However, it can also be an aid to breaking writer’s block as well as a way to pull out ideas that are on the ‘tip of your tongue’ and just don’t want to come out. It can definitely help you ‘Make Your Ideas Clear’

Check out my post on Freewriting