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When Free Writing Works…and When It Doesn’t
You’re in the middle of writing a chapter of your novel and suddenly you are stuck. What to do? How to work yourself out of your confusion over what to do next? Free write.
You have a vague idea for a personal essay but there are aspects of it you just can’t wrap your brain around. What to do? Free write.
You want to write but it feels like your ideas are locked inside your brain. What to do? Free write.
Free Writing Process
What is free writing? It is a committed, open-ended writing practice that often produces magical results — not magical in the completion of a fully formed, finished product, but magical in that it accesses thoughts and ideas the deep recesses of your brain.
Here’s what Peter Elbow, widely credited with using free writing to change the way writing is taught at all levels of education, says about it:
Freewriting is an exercise. Write for ten minutes without stopping. No topic. Write whatever comes to mind. It is a space for exploring the mind and language — but…
