What is “Free Writing” and Why You Need It Posted on: 06/10/10 Category: HowTo

Free Writing or sometimes referred to as pre-writing is a tool that helps writers, students, bloggers, reporters or anyone who need to complete a writing project get started. Free Writing clears the head of all the leftover thoughts, unfinished loops and writers block. I try to free wright before every blog post to InyMySkine.com or any of the other blogs I write for.

The tools needed to Free Writing are as follows:

• A Notebook [of course it should be a Moleskine but any notebook will do]
• A Pen or Pencil [your favorite is best to keep the flow]
• A Time or some sort [Duh use your iPhone]
• A Brain [I like mine lubricated with some Nihonshu...that's Sakè]

The common temptation when attacking a writing task is to sit down to a computer and fire up Microsoft Word. Stop right there! This is the worst thing you can do. The intimidation of a computer alone is bad enough for most people. The biggest problem with this tactic is Microsoft Word alone, but that’s a whole different blog post. To be totally truthful I don’t know why pen and paper work best for Free Writing so I won’t make any claims or wax rhapsodically about it, it just is the way it’s done. What you need to do is find a comfortable place to work. Some folks will say find a sweet spot away from distractions but I say if you are passionate about what you are writing nothing will distract you. Now set yourself a time limit initially start with 5 minutes then as you get better increase it to 10 or 15. Open the notebook to a blank page and write the topic you are supposed to cover on the top of the page. Take a deep breath, start the timer and start writing everything that pops into you head no matter how strange. Don’t stop writing no matter what keep the pen moving nonstop for the entire allotted time. You will keep going off topic but thats ok just keep writing and try to get back on topic as soon as possible; most importantly, keep writing, keep writing and keep writing. When the time is up read you creation and transfer the key elements, thoughts, drawings and task to another sheet and later try to Free Wright for at least 3 minute on each of the subtopics. In no time you will have an outline or though map of all you need to complete the project. The key things to remember is to stick to old school pen and paper(ahem I mean Moleskine), keep writing no mater what and don’t think too hard about spelling, grammar,punctuation or formatting. There will be plenty of time for edits later. Give it a try and I can say you’ll feel a lot better when your are done.