Free Writing

Free writing is a simple process that is the basis for other discovery techniques. Basic free writing follows these guidelines:

• Write nonstop for a set period of time (10–20 minutes).
• Do not make corrections as you write.
• Keep writing, even if you have to write something like, "I don't know what to write."
• Write whatever comes into your mind.
• Do not judge or censor what you are writing.

"Then free writing results in a mess?"

Yes, it certainly can. In fact, if your free writing is neat and coherent, you probably haven't loosened up enough. However, remember that you can't fail in free writing. The point of doing free writing is the process, not the end result. If you follow the guidelines, your free writing is successful.

Free writing has these benefits:

• It makes you more comfortable with the act of writing.
• It helps you bypass the "inner critic" who tells you you can't write.
• It can be a valve to release inner tensions.
• It can help you discover things to write about.
• It can indirectly improve your formal writing.
• It can be fun.

Some final suggestions for free writing:

• Use the writing tool that is most comfortable for you— pencil, computer, or whatever.
• Don't cross anything out: Write the new idea down; leave the old one.
• Drop all punctuation. That can make your free writing faster and more fluent.

• An Example of Free Writing
• well I'm sitting here at the key board and I really don't know what to write about it is too chilly in this building today age after we complained all summe about it being too hot - remind myself not to correct errors it's second nature to go back and change mistales mabee i should have written this example in long hand but then i 'd have to translate my hadnwriting I don't know how to wirt ehte link for the Shiki list renga I want ot constribute a link if I can I saw a bumblebee in sweet pea blossoms this morning and i think that would work bery well as an image but i havent got it worked out well i don't know how the bee relates to the blossoms is he hiding in them? is he . . . is he . . . is he . . . making a home there, no of course not bees don't live in blossoms and he's not hiding either I cont' thins bees hide what do yu thing? (i'm aware I, m going to post hthis and aware someone may read it which causes some inihinbition I couldn't rfind another aexample earier my typing isn't always this bads excuses excuses but freedom too mabeb my bee link can can can canc can canc what ? include refenerce to alley where we were aw=walking the dof? i mean dog of course he was buried stuck his head in nettles or something some kinf of weed groins gwo growing in the chain link fense below the sweet peas so may be I can put the fo dog in the link but it can't be more than 14 syllables which isn't very much to wirte I guess but thats renga for you I like the hokku that Dhugal posted "sparrows/erip aw I can't remember they erupt from trees but I think Paul Mena says what kind of trees and there's the third line :"a sudden burst of thunder" and did I remember that write i mean rite and anyway the bee going INTO the blossoms I think links nicely with the sparrows coming out of the rte trees and the thunder with the bee's presumed buzzing although I ididnt hear anything and maybe that would be something to include in the link do you think? henh henh henh I rhymed I did and the bees and the blosssom, ah the birds and the bees and the blossoms and the supposed old fashioned man to man talk a father had with a son but I was a farmboy and it's kinda hard to miss what a bull does to a cow and that's probably enough of that guess I won't spell chect this file hee ehee hee and what next what comes nesct I stiull have a minut or ssp these tehrt there awas and idea aobyut the bee and blossom link there but it's past o yeh the silence the of the bee, ie "the silence of the bee / in the sweetpea blossoms? yeh I think that;s it finish this mess and sebd send it to Dhugal and see how he lings likes it see there, free writing fdoses pay off I didn't not intend that reslult and it wasn't planned iethter so that's about it