It s 2 am and you re sitting at your desk, no ideas and no thoughts. The cup of coffee to your side is the sixth. But still, the same blank sheet of paper from an hour ago taunts you, there is nothing to show for your effort but a back cramp and a feeling of inferiority.
We ve all faced it. The loss of ideas and the lack of drive. When we are left wondering why we can t seem to find the right words.
Perhaps what you need is to simply forget about structure and finding the right words.
Why not take a break from the tedium and free write
The Benefits of Free writing.
If writing was dinner, then free writing would have to be dessert.
It only takes a few minutes a day, but there are many benefits to be gleaned from free writing exercises.
Free writing promotes activity. It keeps the writer sharp and in control of his writings. Practicing free writing everyday is one of the best preventions against writer's block and boredom in the writing process.
Free writing allows you to stop thinking and make mistakes without judgement. When you free write, you allow yourself to be a little kid, able to misspell and be imperfect.
Free writing gives us the freedom to be ourselves with all our faults.
As authors, above all else we need freedom. Freedom to write as we please. Sometimes we even need freedom from ourselves. Free writing allows us to gain that. It allows us to detach from our worries and our mistakes, from our problems and from our concerns. All that is left is the words, with all their imperfections.
Free writing is a good form of brainstorming. When you free write, you are actually performing a type of brainstorming. Free writing can kick start the mental process and bring new ideas and new concepts to the forefront. It brings new life to a tired mind that has focused so much on a topic that it clams up and can no longer create new ideas on that topic.
Free writing in Practice.
Free writing is one of the easiest ways to write. No prose, no context, just us and the words. It doesn't matter how they are arranged, it doesn't matter if they even make sense. All we have to do is write.
For this exercise, let s buy ourselves a spiral bound notebook, I personally use OMNI.
Write in it everyday. Just one page and one side per day. It doesn't matter if you can't think of anything to write, just write what comes to you, even if you feel it is sub par or not worth the effort.
It doesn t have to be neat or perfectly spelled. This exercise isn t about spelling, structure or neatness. Instead, it s meant to promote plain and simple activity. If you write more often, even if you feel it s bad, you will improve. The key to improvement in any activity is to practice often, and writing is no exception.
Keep on free writing everyday, one page and one side at a time. By the time you have reached the end of the book, I can promise you will be more skilled than you were before you started. Once you get into the habit of writing everyday, writing will become easier and more natural.
This exercise also promotes mental clai rity. We all have stress and other issues on our mind. By free writing everyday, we allow our minds to be cleansed of this muck and allow the mind to be freed of that so it can think clearer and create more precise and interesting ideas.