Free writing (read this definition) is usually difficult for me…probably because I don’t do it often (like never) and because I like to edit myself while I write. And it’s funny because you’d think that as a writer, I’d do these kinds of exercises all the time, but I don’t. While at Green Mountain At Fox Run I had a couple of opportunities to do some free writing and it was easy. I just let myself go.
Here’s what came out of a prompt to “be in” my body:
brain head body back to brain thoughts fidget oh my shoulders ache it feels so good when I hang my head but should I be still is that what this is about what if I am not in my body enough okay I can feel it my body it’s about 50/50 brain body brain body brain body brain body fidget fidget fidget fidget back to body I wish a massage! Now! Right now! Am I aware or do I just think I am oh wait I realize that my lower back and hips feel pretty good right now but damn those shoulders and there…my belly is digesting
And this came after doing some free-form Nia-like movements:
now I notice that my body is random chaotic too not just my mind the impulses just come and I change how I am moving even if it seems weird I do love the rhythm my body loves it and it just moves differently I have both a great mind body connection and I go back and forth between the two but there are impulses I can’t seem to resist flowing jumping marching wriggling wiggling tightening softening going stopping noticing going away again feeling relief that it’s okay to jerk around or just flow
What do you think of free writing? Have you ever done it? What did it reveal?
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I don’t do free writing all the time, but I have as part of a few workshops and conferences. Usually a workshop facilitator provides a prompt to get things started and just lets us take it from there. In a memoir workshop, the prompt was “I remember…” My gut reaction was, “Well, that can’t get more ambiguous.” But I decided to not think and just write.
I went from “I got nothin’” to powerful recollections of my father’s funeral in less than 5 minutes. Free writing is a slightly scary but powerful tool in a writer’s arsenal!
I’ve never done it. I can’t decide if I’d hate it, since I am a perfectionist and usually edit, edit and edit again… or if I’d love it because I’d be forced to let go of the inner perfectionist.
Never done this & had not heard of it either. I am like Karen & also not sure if I am brave enough!
I used to do free writing exercises with a writing friend, but then I stopped when I became uncomfortable sharing what these types of exercises uncover. I should do them more often, if only for my own eyes. Thanks for the prompt.
Karen, I’ve done some at writing courses, but find that I tend to write about whatever’s on my mind at that second – something I’m stressing about for example.
I don’t mind doing it and am okay about not editing as I go though. (If no one else will see it, that is!)
You’ve reminded me, though, that I’ve been going to revisit a book I’ve started 2 or 3 times now called The Artists Way – to try to help ‘unlock’ (unleash?!) my creativity!
Deb
I have my students do this all the time and I have not really done my own free writing in quite some time. My brain seems to write the sentences and it just appears. I should free write more often. I like to FW because it is a way to get all the randomness out of my head….now, I need a topic or question to spark some free writing.
love ya, big sis!
I do free writing often….in the form of morning pages….haven’t done it in a few weeks…but it always helps
I was offered a Nia Dance class…. but I was way too chicken to try it!
DAILY
for at least five full minutes.
If I have a prompt – even just one word – I can free write. Otherwise, I get a severe case of writer’s block with a side of brain freeze: my grade three teacher FORCED us to do “imaginative writing” every day for 30 minutes and, even at 8 years old, the pressure was just too much for me. I despise it now.
This was just what I needed to read today. Now I have to go do some free writing. Thanks!
Oh wow… I’m always amazed at the discipline and art of REAL writers….
Me? I’m more of a thinker that transcribes… not a writer.
Karen, I don’t really free write either! I do brainstorm and might use prompts here and there. Because I also have to edit as I write, I find that writing in a notebook helps. When I’m typing, it’s too easy to press the delete key, and I type wayyy faster than I handwrite. But free writing is probably a very necessary activity for me because I need to loosen up in general.
It’s one of those things I’ve been saying I want to do, but never have. Mmm. Do you write by hand or on the computer?
These particular free writes I did by hand while at Green Mountain At Fox Run. I’ve never tried doing one via computer.
I have never done it but probably because it seems scary, especially since my body of course would be involved as well…but I would like to try it. I think that whatever is THERE would come up, and I like to censor what comes up…which is why my basic tendency would be to avoid it.
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