Free Write

Uses

  • To generate ideas.
  • To clarify ideas.
  • To loosen up thinking processes.
  • To blast through blocks.
  • To warm up for a thinking/designing session.

Description

Free writing is a writing process that generates ideas and helps you practice silencing your critical voice and letting your creative voice speak.

Take a clean sheet of paper (or a blank computer screen), plunge in and start to write. If you do not know what to say, write that. Write whatever comes to your mind, whether it is on the subject or off it.

Keep writing for a minimum of ten minutes. Mark the spot where you want to stop, but keep on writing.

Where did you want to stop? When you wrote non-stop for ten minutes, did you find that a good idea appears just on the other side of that urge to quit?

TIPS

  • If you hear your critical voice (that nagging voice that says you aren’t any good!) saying that what you are writing stinks, then write that down, but do not stop writing.
  • If your critical voice thinks you have chosen the wrong word, include that assessment also. Circle the word and keep writing.