Freewriting Exercise

 

I've posted many times about the freewriting exercise. The reason I remind you every now and then about doing it is that the exercise brings results.

Freewriting is done with the aid of a prompt. It can be a word or a phrase. What word? What phrase? Find one by opening a book, any book, close your eyes and point. Wherever your finger lands is the word you'll use for the exercise. 

Set a timer for ten minutes. Type the word, then start writing. No thinking, just write. It need not make any sense to you but keep writing whatever comes into your mind and flows to your fingers. As our poster today tells us, this exercise helps to free your writer's voice. It also allows thoughts to emerge from the depths of your mind. 

More than once, when I've written for ten minutes, then read what I'd written, I am amazed at what I read. I've thought 'where did that come from?' Sometimes, memories from long ago surface.

You might also find the bones of a story or a personal essay. And everything you wrote might seem like gibberish. That happens, and it's no problem. The important thing is to do the exercise and let the words flow without stopping for the entire ten minutes. I know people who set the timer for fifteen or twenty minutes. Ten is fine, especially when you first try this exercise. 

Some writers do this exercise on a regular basis as they feel it gets the juices flowing for the more serious writing they will do next. A warm-up.

If you don't want to try the point to a word in a book method, here's a list of winter words to use as prompts. You may end up writing something altogether different than the weather these words imply.

• cold
• temperature
• snow
• sleet
• ice
• skates
• ski
• chills
• frost

Writing exercises are the way writers practice just like athletes who do warm-ups before a game.

Don't be one of those writers who thumb their nose at exercises. They can be fun and help you on your writing journey.