Free Writing

Free writing is like writing stream of consciousness, in a way, except true stream of consciousness writing flows without any internal editor at all. It’s like playing word association football. You go from one sentence to the next without any thought of a common theme, you just let the text pour out of you and you don’t worry about it making any sense or being cohesive in any way.

Free writing is like talking to a friend. Imagine you are talking to a friend and you start out the conversation by talking about something on your mind — something you’re thinking about or curious about at the moment, or maybe just whatever pops in your head. It’s like having a one-sided conversation with your best friend: you allow it to flow across subjects. If it’s helpful, imagine questions that your friend might ask you about the subject. Or you can just start writing about something in the room. For example, I can write about this coffee mug on my desk.

You simply start pontificating on one subject and then allow other subjects to come up naturally. You will find that your brain drifts in and out of subjects. Maybe you will end up talking about something you’ve been mulling over subconsciously without even realizing it. You can trip into writing about something important even when you start with the mundane. A “conversation” about your breakfast might lead to eggs, which leads to factory farming — which has been bothering you a lot recently.

The internal editor is still present when free writing, but you allow him to be subdued. You wouldn’t pour out your stream of consciousness thoughts to a friend. Rather, you would think a little bit before opening your mouth, carrying the conversation logically from one topic to the next.

Even though the internal editor is still present, the act of editing itself is prohibited. The rule is you cannot go back and edit the text in any way as you write: you simply write, ignoring spelling and grammatical errors. If it’s helpful, look at the keyboard and not the screen as you’re typing. I do that a lot. I’m not a great touch typist anyways, so I type faster when I’m watching my fingers. If you struggle with typing it’s worth exploring dictation software.

This year, I started practicing free writing for 20 minutes every morning. It helps me get my thoughts out better than journaling does, and I have ideas that come out of my free writing that carry over to my notes and elsewhere.