Free Writing
Free writing is simple: I set a timer for 15 minutes and then type continuously until the buzzer goes off. Despite this simplicity, free writing is transformative: It transforms my writing process by eliminating the idea that my writing has to be any good and, in doing so, transforms my projects by helping me generate ideas I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Every time I sit down to free write, I start by writing garbage. The whole reason I decided to free write is that I wanted to have creative ideas, which means I don’t have any creative ideas when I start. And because I have just decided to type continuously for 15 minutes, I usually start by writing about typing itself. It’s pretty boring. For example, I might write:
I am typing. Typing, typing. That’s a lot of t’s. typing. I am tying because I am free writing. Writing, writing, writing, writing. Yup, writing. Typing, typing. With all those typos.
This usually goes on for one or two minutes every time I free-write. That’s okay. It’s a necessary stage to get through, in order to get to the creative ideas later on.
It’s not enough to type continuously. To come up with creative ideas, I also have to free myself from criticism. However, when I’m typing continuously, I inevitably make a lot of spelling and grammatical mistakes. Therefore, it’s critical that I am not distracted by those errors. To accomplish this goal, I hide the material I have written. Typically, I put the Word document on an external monitor and turn off the screen. If I have only my laptop, I put a piece of paper in front of the screen.
Because my goal is to type continuously without regard to quality and because I cannot see what I have already written (and its spelling errors, grammatical errors, and obvious lack of meaningful content), my thoughts flow smoothly, without interruptions from criticism or evaluation. Eventually, my mind wanders to the topic I wanted to write about. In a 15-minute free-writing session, I typically get 10 – 14 minutes of high-quality brain-storming and day-dreaming.
When the timer goes off, I breathe a sigh of relief and stop typing. Then I reveal the screen and scroll through the material I wrote. Most of it is not insightful: filler words I typed just because I had to type continuously; background information about the project I’m working on. However, every time I sit down to free write, I consistently generate at least one good idea – a good idea I didn’t have before and probably wouldn’t have generated otherwise. Occasionally, I generate two. Therefore, free writing invariably generates new ideas and typically transforms my projects in ways I could not have anticipated. These new ideas might be full sentences or just a couple of words. However big or small those ideas are, I treasure them: I copy them into my official project file and close the free writing file (which is now thankfully gone forever, all its spelling errors erased from history).
Free writing generates new ideas. Therefore, you won’t know what you can gain from it until you try it yourself. I recommend you select a day and time to try it. Do that immediately – as soon as you have finished reading this paragraph: Write it on your schedule or set a reminder. At the appointed time, select a topic to write about. This could be a term paper or newsletter article, a project like selecting a graduate school or training your dog, or a conundrum like what to do about a tricky interpersonal relationship. Then set your timer, hide your screen, and start writing.
Kimberly A. Barchard is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at UNLV and is the Director of the Interactive Measurement Group. She has been writing all her life. She learned about free writing from Tara Gray’s book Publish and Flourish, which she highly recommends.