Why do I love freewriting? I first learned about freewriting in seventh grade. It was actually my history teacher who showed it to us. She had us purchase journals and decorate them. She didn’t tell us what they’d be for. After we finished making them special, she explained the process. Every day for about a month, she had us free-write for an entire class. A lot of the students didn’t like it. But I immediately fell in love. It’s something I’ve been doing ever since.
What is freewriting?
Freewriting is when you write whatever comes to mind for a set amount of time. It can be used to stimulate creativity, help you focus before you begin writing what you really want to write, or help keep you motivated on those days when you don’t really feel like writing. Ray Bradbury said that to be a good writer, you should write every day. Freewriting is a great way to stick to that goal. Additional benefits of freewriting include:
- Practicing your writing craft without the stress of having to complete a project, or even to write well. (In fact, part of the process is not correcting spelling, grammar, syntax errors.)
- Allowing you to navigate abstract or imprecise ideas; thoughts that aren’t quite concrete in your mind.
- Stimulating your creativity, and the possibility of discovering ideas you might not have realized existed.
How to Complete a Successful Freewriting Session
Step One: Create Your Space
Once you’ve decided how you’re going to write (paper and pen/pencil, computer, or typewriter, or even your phone), set up your writing space. Your writing space should include your mental space and your physical space. Check out this post to learn more about creating the perfect writing space.
If you plan on doing this exercise frequently, you might want to dedicate space in your writer’s notebook for freewriting. A simple method is to just use the next blank page. But if you’re super OCD about how your notebook is formatted, then have a separate notebook for freewriting. Customize it to give you maximum inspiration. Decorate the cover. Add quotes, doodles, and photos. Use fancy pens or markers. Make it special.
Next, make sure you’re comfortable. Have all of your supplies ready to go. Take a moment to breathe and relax before you begin. You don’t necessarily need a topic. But if you have one in mind, go ahead and write that at the top of your page. Once you’re done setting up your writing space, move on to the next step.
Step Two: Decide How Long You Want to Practice
This is a timed exercise. A good starting point is 15 minutes. This is exclusively the time you’re going to dedicate to writing. So you have to be all setup and ready to go before you start your timer.
If you think 15 minutes is too much, start smaller. If you don’t think it’s long enough, crank it up to 30 minutes, or even longer if you’re feeling super motivated.
Personally, I prefer a 20-minute free-write session on days when I’m not working on anything specific. It’s just long enough to work through an idea, but not so long that I feel like I’m forcing myself to do something I don’t want to do. Once you have decided how long you will spend freewriting, move on to step three.
Step 3: Write!
This, obviously, is the most critical step. But when you’re really not feeling it, this can be the toughest part. Just start writing, that’s all there is to it. Keep writing until your time is up.
Don’t worry about mistakes. Do not stop to fix them. Don’t fuss over spelling, grammar, syntax, punctuation. None of it matters for this. Here’s an example of one of my freewriting sessions:
“So I’m writing because I need to write. I don’t really know what I want to write about. I’m just typing whatever, literally whatever. But something good will come from this. I just know it. Actually, this is a really great writing exercise, I should make a blog post about it!”
(This has been edited for clarity, but it was a mess before editing.)
Just write down whatever pops into your head. As you can see, some really cool ideas can come from this. If you can’t think of anything to write, then write that! Just keep writing, “I don’t know what to write,” until something else develops. You can do it!
Step 4: Rest, Review, Revise, Recreate…
Once the timer stops, take a moment to breathe. I use a 4-7-8 breath strategy. Breathe in for four seconds, hold for seven seconds, then exhale gently for eight seconds. Stretch for a bit, too. Don’t forget to get up and walk to loosen up your back and legs. (Check this out for some ideas for stretches to do after sitting for a while.)
After you’ve taken a quick break, it’s time for the fun part. Look over what you’ve written. Read it through a couple of times. Does anything inspire you to write something else? Go ahead and keep writing if it does. Jot down any other ideas you think might be useful later.
I always keep my freewriting sessions in a specific notebook. It’s the only thing I do in there. Once I’ve finished a session, I transfer all of the good stuff to my writer’s notebook. Refer back to your sessions often for inspiration and motivation. Sometimes, you can find ideas months from when you did a session that you didn’t notice the first time around.
So now freewriting is no longer a mystery. Hopefully, you have a better understanding of what it is and how it can help you on your writing journey. If you want to read more about freewriting, check out this article. Try doing some freewriting every day for a week. If you find it useful, work it into your writing schedule. If you don’t have a writing schedule, check out this post to learn how to create one.
Freewriting Notebook Ideas: (affiliate links)
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