I do freewriting as an exercise sometimes. I've also written stream of consciousness as an exercise, although only as an exercise: I've never written any real work where it has seemed appropriate. I have read stuff where stream of consciousness (or writing pretty close to it) has been exactly the right thing, absolutely spot on, for relatively short passages.
Elbow describes auto-writing there, the psychoanalytic technique still used in psychology, so it's not only a historical interest that connects it with writing. The impact of psychoanalysis on 20th c. literature is ...well, not easily measured, but it is great Sorry, I just never cared for Kerouac as much as I did for Virginia so I just mentioned the routes. It is true that American writers were always a few decades slow compared to Europeans ...Now, THAT is contentious Logging out now
What do you guys write about when you freewrite? I try to have at least one 10 minute freewrite session a day, just to get me started. I notice that all my freewriting is personal. I tend to loose my creativity while freewriting. This is probably because everywhere they say you shouldn't think and just write. Because of this, I feel like I'm doing a bad job when I pause and think for a few seconds. Is that really that bad? I want to use my imagination more while freewriting but that part of my brain seems to be blocked by the focus of the act of freewriting (don't think, just write).
I was reading Writing down the Bones - she had a good tip which I've been trying out - 3 minutes, three lines. 1 subject - anything goes. Usually I pick a word or just glance around or get inspired by what I'm watching on t.v. There's enough time to pause and think about the next line. Even rework it. Here's one I wrote watching some crummy old 80's movie - Every day I walk on stars. It’s no big deal. They got names too; Esther Williams and Ruby Keeler and Judy Garland.
Peter Elbow was one of my teachers in a college class "Writing and Experience." He is one of the better-known proponents of freewriting (Google him). I found the class, and especially the freewriting, pretty much worthless. I have had other writing classes that were far more useful. Peachalulu's exercise is not freewriting, and seems much more useful. It has direction, which freewriting lacks.
@Cogito the book I'm reading actually refers to Peter Elbow when explaining the process of freewriting That book (Creative Writing: A workbook with readings) doesn't actually say that freewriting is essential. It just explains the process and purpose. I do like the purpose but as you say, it lacks direction.
I realize, reading this, that I never practice freewriting. Why? I don't know. Guess I never had a reason to.
i don't see what value freewriting can have to someone who wants to write professionally, for publication... and 'don't think, just write' is impossible to do by hand and, if done on a keyboard, would result in just a random series of letters, no words... because if you're not thinking of words, how can you write any?
I have never heard of Elbow, but after searching him up, he's got my interest. I did some freewriting for the heck of it. Most of it were garbled words and nonsensical sentences -- like images from a dream that bares no superficial meaning. But I did get a nugget of an idea from it. What you can get from it are ideas, if you can extract them. But I only did that once, and thought that freewriting was another method of getting ideas.
I really want to get into the habit of writing each day. I've been reading a few tips with exercises but so far I haven't found many that I like. The only one so far is a website that provides dialogue starters, beginning of sentences, and so on. I use this to start and write about random things. I also did some freewriting but as you might have read in my previous thread, I don't see much use in that either. So... I was wondering, is it a good idea to just work on ideas I have? I have quite a few ideas in my mind that I would love to work on. As a beginner, I know that probably most of that work will not be up to standards but I don't mind. To me, it's more about making my brain think that I'm a writer. Maybe later, when I reread my work, I find some hidden gems... In short... Is working on short stories a good practice, if you do it on a daily base? Or should I consider exercises?
I think both are excellent for developing your writing skills. Pretty much any form of writing, whatever it may be, will ultimately help you improve. Personally I prefer working on short stories over writing exercises, because they force me to not only write, but to consider things like plot and characterization. I often find that with writing exercises the focus is purely on writing well, but not necessarily developing plot and characters. Which can be good, but ultimately I personally prefer working on short stories. Of course for all I know, you consider plot and characterisation when doing a writing exercise. Still, I hope I was at least a little bit helpful. And whatever you do, I'm sure it will help.
I try as hard as possible to work on my current project (whatever it is at the time) every day until it's done. It keeps the momentum going, and I find it easier to write if I'm consistently writing. Once I stop it becomes harder to start again, especially if I go a few days. It's good to make it a habit. I've never really tried freewriting or using prompts, as I always have a novel or short story/vignette/idea farm to work on. But I would imagine setting aside time to write every day, regardless of the subject matter, helps in forming the habit and keeping up momentum. Then again, everyone's different. Different strokes and all that.
Write your stories, whatever ideas you have at present. If you do exercises at all, do them as a means to solving a specific problem. For instance, if you can't get a particular piece of dialogue to gel, and if you have an exercise on dialogue, try that as a means of solving that particular story problem. You say you're a beginner, so if you don't have a firm grasp of the basics of story structure, you might do some reading to firm that up. A book like Immediate Fiction could be of use.
Believe me, many great writers do a looooooootta pausing and thinking before they write. Not a bad thing at all.
Thanks all. There's actually one exercise I also love doing. I love browsing art on deviantART and use that as inspiration for a story or just a short paragraph describing what I see. Because I'm more into SF and fantasy, I can get a lot of inspiration from deviantART. I think I will use that exercise and for the rest start working on my stories on a daily base.
Follow up... I bought his book "Writing With Power." So far, reading only the introduction, it looks interesting. I'd say it's another process to get the unwritten story on the page. If you want to do free writing, no one is going to stop you from experimenting with different types of processes. P.S. I bought the book because I'm a seat-of-the-pants writer. The only planning I do is writing down the storyline and the synopsis of the story I'm writing. I like to discover new scenes or elements in the way until I get to the end. The revising process, however, boy, it's long. But I'm learning in the process and gaining a speck of confidence. I think what's important is turning the unwritten story into a written mess. Some folks edit as they go, but personally I couldn't go further than a paragraph or two with that way. Some people outline before they write, but for me, I like discovering new elements as I go (although I risk writing myself into the thicket of the woods -- and I'm not suggesting outlines demand strict adherence). Find what works for you. Stick to it if you're comfortable with it. If you get too comfortable, you can always experiment.
I've experimented with them and currently I do about 5 minutes of stream of consciousness or a loosely organized scene. I try to focus on word flow and rhythm. It seems to focus my mind and I feel that I achieve greater novelty in my sentence structure when I perform this exercise prior to writing. Anyone else do warm ups?
Warm up one: write scene. Warm up two: rewrite scene. Warm up three: edit scene some more. Warm up four: rewrite scene again.... and so on.
I like to write after time away from my laptop during which I was thinking about my ideas. If I spend hours at school or something with relevant thoughts bubbling away that's when I'll get the most out onto a page. So my warm-up exercise is to go away.
I do warm ups. I got into the habit when I was an acolyte of John Steinbeck. He used to warm up by writing a letter to his friend and editor. (He wouldn't mail these; he just used them as warm ups. His editor probably found them when Steinbeck submitted the finished manuscript.) I warm up by making notes about my story. When I write by hand, I take notes in Moleskine notebooks before heading to the big "story" notebook I write the text in. When I write the text of the story, it only goes onto the right-hand pages, leaving me the left-hand pages for corrections and more notes. Rinse and repeat for as many drafts as necessary.
The only "warm up" that I do is listen to Cassandra Gemini by the Mars Volta back to back with Octavarium by Dream Theater. Magic happens.
