Freewrite is like conscious thoughts written out loud for ten minutes. It's basically raw materials; no editing, no spell checking, and no stopping at writing. The technique collects your initial thoughts and ideas on a topic. Kind of like a source of brainstorming but not quite. You can write randomly from subject to subject even when you can't think of anything to write about, at least until you get back on subject. I don't think it is the same as automatic writing. Automatic writing is which a person is writing without conscious thoughts of what they are writing. But I can agree that it has it's similarity.
Freewriting is a way for you to be more comfortable about writing and discover topics to write about. The benefits of the exercise helps you get better and reduce time spent editing and eventually make better rough drafts in future writings. Practicing regularly will also help words come out more easily. It will gradually pour out of your thoughts or feelings. People are always concerned about making mistakes and tend to edit their grammars, punctuations, and perform spell check. Because there is no feedbacks or evaluations provided, you can't fail. There is no wrong way of writing in freewriting. If so, correct me if I'm wrong.
I never heard of freewriting, but it sounds interesting and fun. Kind of reminds me of third grade, when spelling, grammars and punctuations wasn't as serious than the following years. Writing was just writing and no one knew the meaning of creating paragraphs. What I find interesting is that people actually use this technique or exercise to improve on their formal writings. Though the article speaks about being "careless", it's kind of hard when you try not to think about being careless about how you are writing and trying to keep the topic on mind at the same time. It's funny how that work, you would think that it would be easy without stopping and wanting to edit your work. I look forward to working on this exercise more often. I think I can benefit from it in many ways.
Hi Susie,
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that we all learn to write, and for some of us, based on experience, we maintain the love and joy that comes with first being capable of producing a sentence to express an idea. But for some of us, writing becomes tedious and we lose our confidence. The freewrite helps us regain some of the joy and it re-programs the way we perceive writing and ourselves as writers.
The freewrite is a little thing, but it's the first step to changing our writing process, and it's that change in our writing process that will eventually change us as writers, but we have to invest the time and energy.
Thanks for your insights!
Take care,
Lauren
Hi Susie,
ReplyDeleteI love the part of free writes where we get to go back to grade school and not worry about grammar and all we have to do is continuously write down our thoughts for 10 min. I miss being in grade school and its nice to sometimes in our mind go back there.
John Lewis
(: Hi Susie,
ReplyDeleteI really loved how you related free writing back to elementary school. Remembering the old times where we didn't even know what an essay was. It is crazy how things seem to get more complicated as you grow older.
Wow it really looks like you understand freewrites much more than me. After reading your blog post I too understand a bit more and for that I thank you. When we are not in a classroom you don't get the instance gratification of questions answered which is something I knew thought about until now. So it is great when I can read other people's blogs and have question answered. Your comment about how freewrites are like 3rd grade is a great way to explain it. I was thinking more like when you are half awake and talking a little nonsense, your explanation is much better. Thank you again for help shine more light on freewrites. In the future I now know how's blog I should read if a question arises .
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