Freewriting is a very important prewriting technique that not only helps you to get over your writer’s block, but also to tap into your sub-conscience mind and see what all ideas and stories are hiding there.
Most of the times, we get stuck while writing a story, or an article, and simply don’t know what to write next, and sooner or later we find ourselves facing the age old problem – “What to write?”
The only thing that can solve this problem instantly is Freewriting. So, now you know why Freewriting is so important.
Today I will not only tell you what Freewriting is but also show you how it is done using a demo I recorded a few days back. I’ll also tell you how to pick up main streams of thoughts, or, as I like to call them, nuggets of gold, from any Freewriting session. (in order to watch only the demo, watch the second video: Ep. 04 – Freewriting Pt. 02)
Here’s my video podcast on Freewriting:
What is Freewriting?
Freewriting is a prewriting technique in which a writer writes continuously (without stopping) for a predetermined period of time, paying no heed to grammatical mistakes, typos, sentence structure or even the general order of words and sentences.
The whole point of doing Freewriting is that when the writer runs out of things to write consciously, he or she will unintentionally start to write unconsciously if they keep on writing. Don’t bother about what you’re writing. Simply keep on pushing till your predetermined time is over. As soon as the time’s up, stop writing. If you’re in the middle of a sentence, complete it and then stop entirely.
It unclogs your mind and starts a downpour of ideas. Most of the ideas will be crappy, but, trust me, you’ll find at least one idea that’ll be worth working on.
Remember, that it doesn’t matter how much you write or what you write, the only thing that matters is that you write.
How to do it?
Freewriting is the simplest of all writing techniques because you really don’t have to care about anything much other than writing. Following is the step-by-step method to do it:
- Grab a pen & paper, or your laptop and open your writing screen.
- Set a timer for a particular time (anything between 2-30 minutes.)
- Write non-stop, without getting distracted by anything, and by that I mean ANYTHING! If you don’t know what to write, then simply start by writing that, “I don’t know what the hell to write but I’m writing anyway….” and so on.
- Stop only when the timer goes off.
- If you feel that you have more thoughts coming to your mind, then do another session of Freewriting in a similar way.
Freewriting Demo:
Are there any rules?
Yes. Following are the thumb rules of Freewriting:
- Write in a distraction-free environment.
- Don’t bother with the grammar or vocabulary.
- You can write about absolutely anything
- You can even write scenes or dialogues this way
- You can even write about a particular topic in Freewriting sessions.
- Don’t stop till the timer goes off.
- If you’re new to writing then start with a Freewriting session of only 2 minutes and then gradually increase the time period
- You can have multiple Freewriting sessions in a day.
- You can also do a second round of Freewriting session, immediately after the first one.
- Never delete your Freewriting sessions. Save them on a disk or on a cloud service (personally, I use DropBox.)
What to do next?
When you’re done with your Freewriting session, follow it through by selecting its and bits of ideas out of it:
- Read what you’ve written.
- Make notes – highlight the ideas you think are workable.
- Work on these ideas in your next Freewriting session to get more flesh on the subject.
- Keep on doing this till you know what are you going to write about and what are you going to write.
Freewriting will help you tremendously in not only improving your writing habits but also to find some of the best ideas you’ll ever come across. Freewriting is a lifesaver when it comes to writing First Drafts, because it is when you write the First Draft of your project you always get stuck wondering what to write next, and that’s when Freewriting comes in handy.
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If you have any questions or doubts regarding this article then please ask them below in the comments sections and I’ll try my best to answer them as soon as I can. Also, please feel free to share your thoughts on this topic in the comments as I always love listening to all my readers.
Thank you for reading!
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