Freewriting has been around for some time. Brenda Ueland wrote about it back in 1938 in her book If You Want to Write. Peter Elbow showed how freewriting makes writing accessible to everyone in Writing Without Teachers and other books. Generally speaking, freewriting is simple: You write without stopping. At heart, it is a simple… Continue reading What is Depth Freewriting?
Category: freewriting
Freewriting Exercise: Make Erasures
This exercise gets you to freewrite for the express purpose of deleting almost every single word, sparing a few here and there. What is an erasure? An erasure is a kind of poem that you make by taking a page of typewritten material and erasing most of it. The words that you leave are the… Continue reading Freewriting Exercise: Make Erasures
Freewriting Exercise: ‘I Remember’ and ‘I Want’
Interesting things emerge from inviting opposites into the same space. Delicious recipes often involve stirring together very different ingredients. This is the kind of freewriting exercise that is as much about stirring up potential material as it is about simply getting into a state. Just as a singer needs to warm up his/her voice, a… Continue reading Freewriting Exercise: ‘I Remember’ and ‘I Want’
Debunking Writer’s Block: Your Writing Must Be Functional (Part 2)
To break through the block that you’re experiencing, try this simple formula: Write without stopping, no matter what. Stay in the present; perceive, don’t judge. Focus where you want to go. These are the fundamentals of depth freewriting. Write without stopping. Continue moving forward, even if: you don’t know what you want to say you… Continue reading Debunking Writer’s Block: Your Writing Must Be Functional (Part 2)
Debunking Writer’s Block: Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway (Part 1)
The beliefs underlying writer’s block Writer’s block comes in many forms. The most obvious form is the “total stop” kind of writer’s block where even if you wanted to write something, you just can’t. Writer’s block also takes other, more subtle forms. Sometimes it is merely a palpable constriction in your motivation to write. In… Continue reading Debunking Writer’s Block: Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway (Part 1)