Freewriting helps us get in touch with our creative ideas. It requires that we write quickly without worrying about the grammar or even the ideas. Let the ideas flow. We must be relaxed and waiting --somewhat like fishing--for ideas. The hand must keep moving or the critic will jump in and start editing in the middle of creating. There is a very important relationship between the moving hand and the corpus collosum - the cross over between the left and right brain. As your hand moves you allow information from the right side of the brain to become language creative ideas from coming to the surface and being "discovered." ?!
STEP 1: Write non-stop for 10 minutes without pausing or stopping your pen or pencil. Keep moving. Write until the time is up. If your mind is blank --you write:
"My mind is blank..."
Do not worry about grammar, spelling or punctuation. It is for you to read, no-one else. Be aware of distractions, new thoughts, and watch what is coming into your mind. Keep writing. Let the ideas flow. RELAX.
STEP 2: After the 10 minutes, relax. Read it over at your own pace. Mark things you noticed were interesting or significant. Did you switch topics? This is a good sign you were doing it correctly. You should be surprised. If you are not, perhaps you need to practice this method more.
STEP 3: Put your freewriting aside now and find
something else to do for a while. When you come back
to the writing, it should give you some starting ideas
for a paper. If you find that you need to freewrite
just in one area--focused freewriting--that's fine.
Use freewriting whenever you are stuck, blocked or not
sure what to write next. It is a great technique for
finding out just what you REALLY want to say.
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