Freewriting Exercise: Get Things Moving

Writing is weird. It’s not like other art forms. And every writer at some point has found it difficult or uninspiring to write. Over the years, I have tried all sorts of writing strategies, exercises and techniques. Sometimes out of frustration, and sometimes out of a desire to embrace all the weird ways that we… Continue reading Freewriting Exercise: Get Things Moving

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)

Freewriting Exercise: Get Sensual With Sound

For this exercise, the main constraint is the auditory element. Freewrite for ten or twenty minutes (at least), focused only on the sense of sound. As you write, really get into the feeling of the sound. You might listen to music and write the way a song feels. You might say nothing about the music,… Continue reading Freewriting Exercise: Get Sensual With Sound

Freewriting Exercise: Write Using Hypotaxis / Parataxis

Writers are fortunate to have all sorts of different descriptive tools to label the things we do and how we use language to give shape to our thoughts and feelings. This article introduces a couple of useful distinctions. They sound more complicated than they really are. They sound complicated because they are Greek. They sound… Continue reading Freewriting Exercise: Write Using Hypotaxis / Parataxis