Building Blocks: Free Writes

Since I have been yammering on about writing as a process, I want to pull on that thread for the next few newsletters/blog posts. What are the building blocks of my process? How do each of them work? Are they Fordist in orientation? Or, do they magically arrange themselves like Blue’s Clues (or Ghostwriter)? I came to, at least, this conclusion: I have several steps I tend to go through. While each of them are helpful, I also find that not all of them are necessary for each project. For the next four weeks, I’d like to talk about each building block.

Next up: free writes.

I used to use free writes solely for the purposes of academic essays. I would set a timer, position my fingers and white-knuckle it. Amid the misspellings and the odd spacings, I’d find a kernel of an idea, or a logical step I’d missed. I still use the free write for my academic work, especially if I am prompted by a “Call for Papers” or an email. I have begun to use the free write for creative work as well. This is likely not new for others, but I find it shakes loose some of the thoughts that would otherwise be filtered by my very determined inner critic.

Sometimes, I find it helpful to build free writes from notes. I will review the notes or type them out. Then, I time myself while I write.

I know that some people like to think of and discuss free writes as “word salad” or “word vomit.” But, I find that is only genre of free write. Those free writes tend to be most helpful when I think my mind is overcrowded with ideas. That is, I have a lot of thoughts, but they aren’t in any logical sense or they’re all up there and I have no idea how they relate. Taking a brief period (5 mins, 10 mins) to just list the thoughts helps me begin to communicate what I’m thinking.

There is another genre of free write that I find more meditative. When I am trying to tell a story or I need to understand how I am making connections, I find it useful to do a more associative writing. I tend to prompt myself with these. For instance, when I didn’t know what to write for an essay, I started my free write with “I don’t know what to write because…” That lead me to a rethinking of my “discarded/lost” Victor LaValle chapter from Black Madness :: Mad Blackness. I have used other prompts: “I am uncomfortable with this formulation because,” “I associate this idea with X,” and “I don’t want to respond to this reviewer’s feedback because,” among others. The meditative write doesn’t necessarily have to be timed (though that does help), but it does have to be prompted by the need for me to answer a particular question.

I suspect this building block sounds like it is more helpful for my humanities folks than it is for my social sciences or natural sciences & mathematics folks. I insist in the possibility of the free write for all of us. Core to the free write is the act of figuring out your own mind using the medium you’ll need to communicate with others. If you’re doing a presentation, then talk it out. If you’re writing, write it out. If you’re dancing, move.

How might you use the humble free write?