A 'proper' Freewrite

Here is my freewrite that I put on my tutor forums earlier today - it's the fifth attempt at getting a freewrite right.  I am posting the whole post cut and paste:

After finally getting a freewrite under my belt, I got inspired to try again.  The first effort fell flat due to a crazy itchy hand which stopped me dead in my tracks. This is the second effort which had a residue of that itchy hand but I tried to plod on regardless. Please, let me know what  you think, freewrite or freewrong?

The truth is i never left but hid under the stairs behind a panel. they searched the house and couldnt’ find me but I found a wonderful thing, a crown of spiderwebs floating about my head as I climbed a ladder against a wall to fall would hurt or possibly kill, but the thrill is the climb. A climber can hang by one finger over a thousand foot drop. must be mad to try that stunt, I can barely carry myself about the house. A house in the woods would be nice and quiet, teh river running by full of fish and a ship on the waves seeing a light house go dark just as the storm hits, oh shit! trouble looks like its about the hit like a hammer to the teeth I bet that would hurt.. nevermind evermind to mind a fid an died at the hands of a goat. a goat or a ghost, misspelled and alone in the hall of mirrows i saw myself reflected to infinity which opende a door to another universe of possibly existances. damn an itchy finger put paid to this freewrite if that is what it was and i hope that it is - wow that is a lot of nonsense that I like so much.. ah

So that is what I posted, and my tutor gave a response giving it confirmation that indeed this is a freewrite.  It's not meant to look pretty, it's not meant to make sense, or be joined or even be accurate in any constrained way.  It is just what comes out of the pen or the keyboard when given the freedom that the conscious mind denies it most of the time!

I hope that this helps whoever reads this if they are confused or not sure whether their efforts are necessarily free or not!  I must confess that I have redacted a small portion so that I don't cause any offence to certain viewers of my blog - this has in no way affected the 'freeness' of the freewrite, as the portion removed is not integral to the rest of the writing.

Freewriting - Not as easy as it sounds!

Hi!

Today I thought I would give my thoughts on freewriting.  Over the last two to three weeks, I had thought that I was making some good progress in freewriting, and was relatively happy with my efforts.  Then I posted an example on my tutor group forum.  I am SO glad that I did this as it helped make me aware that my 'freewrites' are more 'freewrongs'!
The troubles that I was having with them can be summed up thus:

1. Although I was trying to not think about what I was writing, I was still trying to keep to the initial prompt.  This is not the done thing.  The idea of a focused freewrite is that you use a prompt (the focus) to start the ball rolling, and then let your subconscious lead you wherever it may take you!
2. When I wasn't trying to keep to the key phrase, I wrote for five minutes on a theme so that I basically wrote a story.  This isn't freewriting either, even if I was trying to let my subconscious tell it to my hand without my brain getting in the way.  Even then, it's still basically writing a story not a freewrite.

So whilst neither of these techniques that I was using is wrong in the grand scheme of writing, in the pursuit of freewriting, they most definitely are a no-no.

My tutor had given me pointers about where I am going wrong, and that led me to try again, so with some frustration I hammered out whatever came unbidden to my fingers, writing words on the keyboard as fast as I could for five minutes without pause and without thought.  It looked and felt like the crazed ramblings of a delirious simpleton when I read it back, and with some trepidation I posted this latest pile of drivel onto my tutor group forum.  Lo and behold, it was freewriting!  The mad leaps and angry grumbling that I had produced was my best attempt to date!  

I think that my, and I am sure other peoples greatest problem when it comes to freewriting is that my/their internal editor is deeply embedded in the brain and it hates to see inconsistencies or crazy leaps, spelling and grammar mistakes, amongst other things.  This editor whilst great, has to be switched off for freewriting, whether by frustration or sleepiness, anger or subtlety, determination or subterfuge the gate keeper must be swamped so that he can't correct or change anything!

In summation then, a focused freewrite just means that you have in mind a key word or phrase when you begin, and then you just let whatever wants to come out of the 'end of the pen' do so without interruption or editing!

Thanks for reading this - it helped me to get this out, and I hope that it helps you in your freewriting efforts.  Please feel free to comment and let me know if I have left anything out that could be useful - or if you have any hints tips or tricks to master freewriting that you would like to share!

Free writes are mental!

I am not going to post all that came out in my latest free write session, but I was so excited by it I figured I would have to share my thoughts on freewriting.

Wow!  It's amazing how the brain can tangent!  The key word start really does act like a key.  With my eyes closed I started to type whatever came into my head, and apart from a myriad of spelling mistakes - which really don't matter at all in freewriting, a story emerged, or at least a kernal of one!  It had absolutely nothing to do with the prompt, but told a tale of evil doings of a madman on a stormy night!  I won't post what I wrote as it is, but if I can knock it into shape then I might well post the 'in shape' story then.

I just felt that I had to tell somebody about it as I am so excited, so figured why not just blog it!  I hope that everyone else has a similar experience soon so that they can feel what I am feeling.. If I were to try and vocalise it, I would say a mixture of excitement, pride, nervous energy and wonder!

OK, I will shush now and go relax a bit.  I dare not play with what I have written now in case I mess up what is there!  Take care all!

Neil

My First Freewrite

This is my first free write, that I did a week or two ago.  I think that this is the idea behind free writing, just to let your mind wander whilst your fingers listen and take notes verbatim..  I set myself a 5minute time limit on these free writes - I think that is long enough for now.    I would appreciate any constructive criticism or advice for future efforts. OK, enough introducing, here it is in it's unedited glory:

First

The very first thing that came into my head, I wrote, as now. It's said that by doing this that the subconscious can be unleashed with a fury, a storm of words hammering on the brain like a torrent. If one were to stop suddenly the words would ram into the front of the skull, the momentum stopped too suddenly to contain the velocity change, like water in a fish tank sloshing from one end to the other; The next thing that came into my head from the word 'first' was the first kiss, that special, scary time, then the heart is pumping so manically that you fear it's going to burst right out of the chest, like the alien in the film of the same name. The first kiss, the gleam in the girl's eye, getting closer, her scent, her skin, so smooth, like the finest silk spun from the finest silk worms, her eye's the colour of a clear summers day, the brightest blue sapphires, marred by the dilated pupil's, black pools engorged by the prospect of this very first kiss. The third very first thing that came into my head was the first man on the moon, when he messed up his speech, unsurprising really, the nerves he must have felt.. I wonder what he thought, as he took that fateful last/first step.. Maybe he wondered, or at least part of his mind wondered whether the moon would take his weight? Sure it took the weight of the lander, but what if they got really lucky and landed right on the edge of a big ocean of loosely packed dust? Of course the moon IS made up lots of dust, but rocks as well, millions of years of dormant serenity, endlessly falling around the planet, caught in a perpetual loop of falling at the correct speed. Well, nearly.. Actually I heard or read once that the moon is getting further away slowly bit by bit. They are meant to have put an array of mirrors on the moon, at a certain spot, and every day a man fires a laser at that spot and records the time it takes to get there and back. The time is increasing, ergo the distance is increasing. What will happen to the planet when it interferes with gravity?