How do you combine creative writing, journaling, mindfulness, brainstorming, and psychotherapy into one practice? We seem to have found the panacea for this: freewriting! Even famous writers used it when they lacked inspiration. But as you can see, the spectrum of freewriting is much wider. How to do everything right and get benefits? Keep reading!
What is Freewriting And What Is Its Purpose?
Freewriting is a technique that involves freely mechanically writing down your thoughts in a limited amount of time without editing.
This article could be summed up in one sentence: take a pen, and write down whatever comes to mind for the next 10 minutes. However, like any other topic, there are many nuances to talk about.
First, let's find out what is freewriting and what is it for:
The search for new ideas. In essence, freewriting is some form of written solitary brainstorming.
Meditation. Of course, it is not meditation in the literal sense of the word. But it is a very good tool for expressing one's thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and at the same time a Mindfulness practice. This technique is also used in psychotherapy.
Writing technique. Freewriting is used by writers as a daily practice and as a way to overcome dead ends and "The fear of the white sheet".
There's a reason we wrote in the title that freewriting is a thought hunt. It seems that it slows down our thinking and helps us see what we don't notice normally. It let us find something hidden, elusive, and invisible.
Now let's find out how everything happens in practice.
Freewriting Rules
Regardless of the purpose for which you are writing, you should adhere to
certain rules:
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Set a timer. 5 to 10 minutes is enough, but if you want more, you can. The time limit will be an additional incentive to continue if for some reason it does not work. |
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Write without stopping! Write anything that comes to mind. The main principle is that you don't have to think about what you're writing. You have to write what you think about. If nothing comes out, just write, "I can't think of anything. |
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Write quickly and without editing. We think at a faster speed than we write. And that's why any edits or stops will interfere with the freewriting process. You are free in everything - don't let grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. embarrass you. The main thing is to get your thoughts out on paper as quickly as possible. |
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Relax. Don't take freewriting as some difficult task that you have to complete. It's more like fun, keep it simple. Remember, you need maximum relaxation. |
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Write with a pen. In addition to being a more natural method that will help you loosen up, writing engages more parts of the brain. |
Freewriting Techniques
Freewriting can be divided into three aspects: meditative, psychotherapeutic, and creative. Already from the name, it is easy to understand what each of them is for. The first two are for the practice of self-development. The second is for the search for new ideas. And, accordingly, each of them has its own peculiarities.
Meditative Freewriting
This aspect of freewriting has two guiding goals: to write out (similar to "speak out") and to go deeper into yourself. By writing your thoughts out on paper, you allow them to emerge from your subconscious mind. Just open your brain's faucet, and you'll see all that flow that has been held back for so long. Not only does it help relieve stress, but it also helps you look at yourself from a different perspective.
In fact, meditative freewriting is a classic version of this technique. You take a piece of paper and simply write down whatever is on your mind. You don't ask yourself any questions, you don't choose a topic.
Psychotherapeutic Freewriting
This is something in between creative and meditative freewriting. Its purpose is to work through specific themes that concern you. Fears, worries, dilemmas, dead ends, existential questions. In this case, you can ask yourself leading questions in the process and consciously develop the thought that arose. You have to reveal to yourself as much as possible about the topic of concern.
Creative Freewriting
This is the single-writing version of the brainstorm we mentioned. The algorithm is simple: choose a topic and write everything you think about related to it for a certain period of time. After you analyze what you have written, highlight the most interesting ideas. For each of them, you can conduct another freewriting session.
- One hundred ideas. Come up with and write down a hundred ideas for your chosen problem. Anything, the craziest and most fantastic ideas, basically anything that has at least something to do with your problem will do. The main thing here is to loosen up your brain.
- Pick five professional terms from your field and write what you think about them.
- Use assumptions. Write about how your problem could have been handled by someone else.
As you can see, everything is simple enough. But, of course, freewriting does not end there. To supplement your knowledge, we recommend reading the article "11 Unusual Freewriting Techniques. After that, you will have much fewer problems with writing any text.
We wish you every success! And as always...
Many thanks for reading.
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