Creativity in writing is the skill that every person needs. From completing a home assignment on one of the narrative essay topics to writing a persuasive essay, you’ll need it as a reliable assistant and supporter. Creative skills boost your writing productivity, whether you’re writing for money or marks. So, it’s better to train the creativity muscle to reap the benefit of this skill later. Here we share all you need to know about freewriting – one of the essential creative writing training tools.
What Is Freewriting?
Childhood is the time when our creativity flourishes. But as we grow up, most of us drain our creative juices and get stuck in the sobering routines and realities. Getting creative becomes harder from year to year, and sometimes, writing something creative seems to be torture.
But no matter what you think, your mind can be creative. To unleash its potential, you can engage in freewriting activities. As the name suggests, freewriting presupposes taking a sheet of paper and writing anything coming to your mind. No need to bother about grammar or wording. Write until the moment when your timer rings and tells you to stop.
The freewriting activity usually takes around 10 minutes to complete. After that process is over, you come up with a set of ideas to sort out. Once the sorting is done, you can proceed to write the first draft of an article or paper – the basis for a new writing piece is ready.
Whether you’re procrastinating, struggle to get writing tasks done on time, or feel a writer’s block from time to time – freewriting can help get things moving. Besides, it is a great way to overcome self-criticisms and move on with some creative ideas you shy away from.
How Can Freewriting Help?
Experienced writers point at numerous benefits of freewriting that both novices and experts can reap. Here are some aspects to keep in mind:
- Freewriting allows the unconscious ideas and creative juices to surface on paper without overthinking or over-analyzing by the author.
- This activity brings the writer’s mind to a flow state, allowing them to be more productive with less conscious control over the process.
- By starting to free-write, the author forces their mind to come up with ideas, thus leaving no space for procrastination or going off-topic.
- By putting all creative ideas down on paper, the writer fixes them instead of thinking the topic over and losing most of the good ideas in the process.
- By starting with freewriting, the author can compose a piece quicker because traditional academic writing conventions are omitted.
Thus, freewriting is a boost to creativity in any writing project. Practicing it is an excellent way to move further without getting stuck. Besides, it’s a sure way to improve English writing when you embrace online education, as you practice without focusing on the rules too much.
Practical Tips for Effective Freewriting
Though freewriting is generally concerned with writing on any subject, without consulting a textbook or focusing on the potential grade for the work, you may still use some tips to maximize this activity’s value.
- Make sure you write really fast. The speed is what matters here. The faster you write, the less you focus on mechanics and the more unconscious, creative thoughts you can free. Without critical thinking, you’re sure to be more creative.
- Use relevant prompts. This tip relates to any subject and any writing problem. Whether you’re offering a curriculum change, writing a review on some textbook, or looking for a topic for your Bachelor’s degree or Master’s degree project – freewriting will help.
- Set rigid timeframes. The time you reserve for writing shouldn’t be too short or too long. Anywhere between 5 and 30 minutes will be enough. If you write for less time, you may lose some vital creative ideas out of sight as the timing may not be enough to free your creative spirit. If you write longer, you risk getting repetitive or off-topic.
- Collect ideas in advance. It’s quite hard to write on a topic that you have zero knowledge about. In any way, you’ll have a limited set of ideas and suggestions about it, most of which may even be erroneous. Thus, to avoid such trouble, conduct some preliminary research, and then proceed to freewriting.
- Reinforce freewriting with notes or outlines. Such a method may be more effective than the traditional freewriting session, especially if you need to complete some course project or exam work larger than a couple of pages. In this way, you can craft a preliminary outline and free-write on each point for a set period.
These tips can help you develop a neat set of ideas for the future paper or report, fiction or non-fiction piece, or any other project involving writing. Some people even use freewriting to search for business solutions, so you can apply the method to any problem-solving activity you like. Awakening your creativity and bringing the best ideas to the surface is always the best outcome you can count on.
How to Start with Freewriting?
There’s not much hard about freewriting. All you need is a pen/pencil and a sheet of paper. Some students do it on a computer, but typing is usually faster than writing, depriving your brain of the vital time to produce creative ideas. So, it’s recommended to write your ideas down on paper instead of typing.
Once you’re done, you can use the ready set of ideas as a basis for your future essay or research paper. Don’t worry about the grammar and style issues; freewriting doesn’t presuppose ideal sentence structures and spelling. If you feel unable to polish the final text to perfection, use a best essay editing service to turn your freewriting piece into a legible, well-structured, and correct final draft.
As you can see, freewriting is an excellent skill for students who procrastinate and struggle to meet deadlines for their writing tasks. Try it once in a while, and you’ll see how your productivity grows.
