This week I’ll be launching the first of two posts about about freewriting, the most versatile, powerful, yet least understood of the creative tools in a novelist’s toolbox.
But before we get there, let’s get the procedural piece out of the way, so I can devote the rest of the series to the real meat: how it works, when you should use it, and what to expect from it.
No matter which variation of freewriting you’re attempting (again, details to come), here are the “rules.” In other words, what you should actually do.
If you wonder why I put “rules” in quotes it’s because, ironically, each of these precepts is too flexible to be thought of as anything other than a guide or customizable template that can be bent to fit any individual writer’s needs.
So then, without any further ado, here are what I call the 7 habits of highly successful freewriters:
1. Don’t prepare.
Do find a special place, do have a ready supply of pens and paper (if you freewrite longhand) make sure you start on time, coffee made, etc. That kind of prep is fine. But no thinking ahead, planning what you’re going to write beforehand. Freewriting is thinking. Anticipation will put the chill on it. As they say in Zen, don’t push the water.
2. Use a timer.
Any kind will do. I use a big metalic kitchen timer. But use one. It’s important to mark off the time limits within which you’re going to work. Any time period will do. Just decide on it, and stick to it.
3. Don’t stop writing. If you pause, pause only for a few seconds.
You may run out of thoughts. Keep writing. Write that you’ve run dry and what a drag that is, but let’s write about something, anything…like: he has a big nose. And he got it playing football. Nobody knows he played football, he never talks about it… And like that, you’re back in the flow. If you had stopped and stared out the window instead, you’d still be staring out the window.
4. Don’t judge what you’re writing.
Even if what’s coming out of you sounds so cheesy, so corny, so half-baked, who cares? Keep going. Write through it. The dreck can serve as a bridge to something brilliant–and you would never have gotten there without it.
5. Allow yourself to be messy.
Don’t bother punctuating. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar. Don’t go back. The entire point is go forward, forward, always forward. No one else will ever read it. It’s not for anyone’s eyes but yours, so relax.
6. When you’re finished, put the pages away for at least half-a day.
You may want to jump right on them again, but don’t. Let them bake for a little while: they’ll taste much better.
7. Read over what you wrote, pick out the most useful, most generative material, and export it.
Let yourself take a few minutes to be amazed.
That’s all for now. It might be ass-backwards to have begun with the how-to portion, but it’s done. Tomorrow the plot thickens, the fun begins. Check it out.
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This is a great technique when you’re just starting a story and trying to discover it, but I use it even more when I’m deep into the first draft and get stuck. Freewriting, with its “permission” to write whatever floats through my mind, tends to dredge up real gems just when I thought the well was totally dry.
Just discovered your blog a couple of days ago. It’s very good!
That’s exactly what it does, Laurin. It’s the purest form of creative thinking I know of, besides dreaming–though some folks find it hard to accept that the writing IS the thinking. Like dreaming it draws directly on the unconscious, but unlike dreaming, it can be directed, focused on a specific question or problem area. That’s why I think of it as a tool, and like any good tool, you should pick it up and use it whenever you need it.
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