How to free your writing with free writing

Timed free-writing — no stopping, no correcting, no fretting — can leapfrog mental paralysis to a “shitty” but valuable first draft of Korrina Duffy’s free-write notebook. Pen poised. Go! Free writing is for when you need to write the damn thing already. If you, like many, have a bad case of blank page syndrome, free writing helps clear mental constipation with verbal diarrhea. To free write, all you need is a pen and paper and a commitment not to stop moving your pen even if all you can think to write is “shit! I can’t think of what to say next.” Free writing forces a writer to get past the agonizing first draft in manageable chunks. Although you can free-write as long as your heart desires, you can also set a timer so that you know when the agony ends. For this free write, I’m setting timers for 4 min, 3 min, and 2 min. When the timer goes off, it allows me to pull back from what I’m writing for a brief moment before jumping back into it. There are psychological reasons why I think free writing is so effective. It forces the writer into a flow state, an immersive experience that lets the writer feel as one with the pen and paper. It also lowers self-awareness by not letting me look back on what I’ve written and by defining the parameters of my writing. I’m mentally […]

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