posted
What Phanto said, with an addition: Free writing isn't confined to story-telling.
Sometimes I use it before starting a non-fiction piece. I'll take my subject and write as fast, as long, and as much as I can, putting down ideas as they come to me. I do this to figure out all I could say as well as help me find out what I want to say.
Sometimes I use it when I developing a character.
Sometimes I use it when I'm thinking about how a plot should develop.
The real trick of free-writing is not stopping to think about how it should develop. Why? Because the goal of freewriting is to dig into your memory and subconscious for ideas. Anne Dillard tells the story of free-writing about her high-school cafeteria (I can't remember why). She wrote about waiting in line, food fights, the quality of the food, cafeteria ladies, roudiness, etc., and then, at the bottom of page six, she wrote about a boy that always ate by himself. Her next published story was about that boy.
That's the goal of free-writing: discovery. And you can't discover unless you're willing to engage in a kind of rambling meditation on the page. The best ideas generally aren't found at the beginning of a free-writing session, but toward the end.
By the way, this is true of any brainstormming session. OSC's 1000 Ideas an Hour sessions work like this. OSC say when you ask a question, don't accept the first three or four answers--the easy answers. Dig deeper, because that's where good ideas are at.
[This message has been edited by Balthasar (edited July 14, 2004).]
posted
Wow...I'd never heard of that before! I'm gonna try that. Thanks for asking the question and thanks for the info! Posts: 125 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
I love freewriting...it's how I come up with most of my ideas. Often, my freewriting starts like tihs:
Ok, here I am again, writing and writing and trying to figure out what to write about. Sooner or later I'll come up with something. Let's see here...I'm thinking about a garden and a rose. What's interesting about that?
etc. etc. I know it doesn't sound like much, but I'm not going to post a whole freewriting session here because it would bore you and I'm not sure I want you to see the true inner-workings of my random thought patterns. BUt they do usually start out with me talking about freewriting as an exercise because when I sit down to do the freewriting, it's what's on my mind.
I would agree that part of freewriting is to dig out ideas, and, like Christine says, it's what's on your mind at that precise moment. But, I would go further to suggest that freewriting can get out all those things that are on your mind so that space opens up to actually think about writing and the story at hand instead of all those other things. Also, for me, it can just get me writing. Since there are no rules, even if I'm sititng there thinking, I have nothing to write, I have nothing to write. That's what I write, and eventually I have something to put down. Hmmm, I hope that made sense and I hope I'm not the only weirdo who types paragraphs of, I have nothing to write.
posted
I agree with all of the additions, but I forgot an important point of freewriting. In terms of discovery, it only works when you push yourself. Thus, many people who free-write will do so for a set period of time, say, five or ten minutes. If you don't push yourself, you'll never dig deep enough to disover the good ideas.
In short, the "rules" of freewriting are:
(1) Write without concern for grammar or spelling.
(2) Write without stopping to think about how it should develop.
(3) Write without stopping for a set period of time.
(4) You can focus your freewriting by having a set topic or idea.
Did I miss anything?
[This message has been edited by Balthasar (edited July 14, 2004).]
posted
Most of my novels I have a "bible" file. Where I just compse free form notes and tidbits of the such in this form. It's helpful...
Posts: 401 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
Take a look at Mind Mapping, then apply that technique to your Freewriting. It may be useful. I use it all the time in my technical writing, as I am often working on projects that are undiscovered territory.
When I first started my current project, a fantasy novel, I used Mind Mapping to generate the basic outlines of the characters, including the one following. I then used outline as the basis to write the following desciption. Obviously it can be improved, but my point is that I created the Mind Map and wrote this paragraph in 15 minutes flat, which for me is lightspeed.
"Her companion was startling, at first, in the physical beauty that showed through the dirt. Helmut could have been a god, from the waist up, and if his inner spirit had matched even that half he would have commanded armies, owned lands, and inspired fear. As it was he inspired only contempt in those who viewed him now. For if ever a man could have overcome the deformity of the twisted, stunted legs that bore him, surely the man of that face would encounter life head on and demand respect, even from his enemies. But the man who crouched at Marta's side, trembling, was a thief. He stole hope from all who looked at him and saw the groveling wretch he was. He stole dreams from the eyes of the young and brave memories from the old, for he was a man who feared above all; feared life and living."
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Thanks for asking the question and thanks for the info! 
