Brainstorming or Freewriting?

2nd November 2021

Happy day to all of you awesome readers. The second of November is here, well actually I am sure it is the third of November for some of you that are reading this just now.

I made a goal yesterday for November. It was simply just one goal and that goal was to write one article every day in November.

I am determined not to fall at the first hurdle so let's get cracking.

Have you heard of freewriting?

“Don’t think; just write!” —Ray Bradbury

Freewriting is a writing strategy that was developed by Peter Elbow in 1973 and is similar to brainstorming except that freewriting is written in sentence and paragraph form without stopping. 

Do you practice freewriting?

If not then I think you should!

It is actually good practice for when you have writer's block or to practice writing in a foreign language. Something that affects almost all of us at some point in our read.cash journey.

“The consequence [of writing] is that you must start by writing the wrong meanings in the wrong words; but keep writing until you get to the right meanings in the right words. Only in the end will you know what you are saying.” —Peter Elbow

Sounds simple doesn't it?

Well, it really is simple, just trust me!

Freewriting :

• increases the flow of ideas and reduces the chance that you’ll accidentally censor a good idea.

• helps to increase the fluency  of second-language learners.

Just as in Brainstorming:

• DON'T worry about using correct grammar or even having correct spelling!

• DO write down every idea you can think of no matter how crazy it might sound.

Unlike in Brainstorming:

• DO write in sentence and paragraph form.

• DO feel free to use an occasional word from your native language if you can't think of the English word, look at me and my use of foreign words every so often!

• DO KEEP YOUR HANDS MOVING. If you can’t think of anything,  then keep repeating what you are writing (e.g., “bonnie wee lassie, bonnie wee lassie") or write something like “Oh come on, I'm waiting for ideas to appear, Oh come on, I'm waiting for ideas to appear” over and over again until those ideas do appear. (And appear they will!);

• DO keep going for 5 or 10 minutes or until you think that you have enough to start your article.

In Peter Elbow's original freewriting, it was designed to generate not only ideas but even a whole topic. The writer writes for a few minutes, chooses one idea or word from that initial freewriting and then freewrites about that new topic for several minutes. Now rinse and repeat and you can be churning out articles in no time.

This method is awesome if you are truly starting from scratch and are not even sure what you want to write your article about.

There are even FreeWriting prompts all over the place, an example is the Writing Prompt community here in read.cash.

I find though what works best for me is sitting down and starting to look around as I type. I will see lots of things from plants to books to food to what is on television. I write sentences about them and before I know it I have six or seven drafts saved in my articles, that are ready to edit and publish!

So no more writer's block people, start Freewriting today, and get your article written and published as if by magic!

Copyright @TengoLoTodo 2021 and yes All Rights Reserved. All images, words, and ramblings are from the author unless otherwise stated.

And don't forget ;)

Haste ye back.

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