Okay, maybe there is an existing thread, but it has been pushed back to the 13th page and forgotten under a pile of forum dust. Regardless, I am resurfacing it... Or just surfacing it if it's never been addressed in this forum. I think it's a valuable tool to have in the writer's toolbox.
Definition: You start writing about what you are thinking of or anything you can think of and you don't stop until you've reached the time limit. If you've run out of things to write about, you can just keep writing, "I don't know what to write. I don't know what to write. I don't know what to write," until you get to another random train of thought. The point is to always be writing and to never stop to think of what you've written or to think of how you will write something next. You never stop to fix a spelling error. Just keep going. Time limit can be five minutes to a half hour (or longer, if you want). Recommended is ten minutes. You can write with pen, paper, or keyboard. Whichever medium you prefer. If typing, avoid instinctively backspacing when you know you've hit the wrong key.
This type of exercise is done before you start scribbling out your new idea or plot, or continuation of a story, or the first line of a new story. It's an exercise to help avoid writer's block when you do get to writing your story. It enables you to keep writing instead of writing a few lines, reading them over, writing a few more, reading them over, going back and changing things, writing a few more lines, scrapping the whole thing, etc. It helps in preventing you from over-thinking or over-analysing. It's typically conducted on a daily or regular basis. Writing is like a sport. Practice makes better (there's no such thing as "perfect" in literature, unfortunately). You can't freewrite once and expect the benefits to last to your dying day.
Here's an example:
Ow, my neck hurts. It’s because I’ve been sitting for so long. My back is weak, man, weak. I’m usually lying down on my bed with like a cagillion pillows supporting my back. I used to go to a chiropractor but stopped because I moved out of the city and it’s kinda expensive anyway but yeah. I’m really tired. I need to finish my French homweork. Oops, typo. Ugh, I made such a noob uni mistake. Totally didn’t follow the syallabus, syllabus for my French class. Totally forgot about all these exercises I had to be doing throughout the semester. Yeah. Meant I had to do like, 30 exer ises in the span of three days. And they’re only like one page long but I have to stop and write down definitions for words I don’t know like every two minutes because I suck at French! Rawr! And it’s not just my neck, my shoulders are acky too. Wait, I went grovery shopping. Maybe they hurt because I was carrying groceries?? Idk. Groceries in the wintertime is not fun. At all.
Use emoticons, smileys, short forms, made up words, whatever. As long as you understand what you wrote (because no one else will ever see your freewriting. It's not exactly a great work of literature).
Anyway, that's my recommended writing activity. Try it out. Post opinions/results/complaints, or if I missed something about freewriting, someone can post about it.
And don't forget to ENJOY! This is not a chore, make it fun!
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