Day 4
1 hr slow-writing + 1hr journal entry
Why free-write? And… what is it?
Free-writing is allowing words to flow, for a set period of time, without stopping or editing.
What’s it good for?
- moving past fears and doubts you hold about your work
- discovering unexpected and interesting things
- developing trust in your instincts
- getting a new project under way
- getting an old project moving again
- when you have limited time
- building momentum
When would you be better using slower, more deliberate writing?
- when you don’t have the above problems!
Jacqui suggests that we try both so that we can appreciate their relative advantages. Once you know how each serves you, ask yourself what you need that day.
Journal entry
Today there is a journal entry to complete. Ask and Answer yourself:
What do I need to ensure my success on this programme?
I tend towards all-or-nothing thinking (a branch of perfectionism) so it’s important for me to stay relaxed and not put too much significance on the outcome. If I get excited about a project then I quickly bound it with Expectation and suddenly my motivation drops off. So I will stay mindful of that and remind myself that this is just for interest and experience, not a way to judge myself.
How will I reward myself for writing?
Going on a walk – either with music / podcast, or phoning a friend. I find that one of the great pleasures of having sat down and written is then getting the hell out and moving around!
How will I not give up if I don’t reach my goal one day?
This is a really good question for me. I tend to give up when I’ve not met some arbitrary standard which has taken on a lot of meaning in my mind — and then I don’t do anything more and sabotage the project. It seems so stark when I summarise it here, but that’s the habit.
Perfectionism is a problem.
If I were doing this daily and I got behind, then I would start from the same place the next day, because there wouldn’t be time to catch up. As I’m doing it weekly, I can use weekend time to catch up, if a Friday afternoon isn’t available for some reason.
Exercise
Interestingly, this week we are not free-writing, despite the discussion:
- 1,000 words: write more slowly and deliberately, and compare the experience to the previous days’ free-writing
or
- 1,000 words: prompt for a scene where one character discovers another’s unsavoury secret
My response
- I chose option 1, the slower writing. This is my natural (or at least habitual) pace and, if I know what the scene is about, I can create something useable on a first draft. The key is knowing what the scene is about. This is why I tend to plan before I write; ideas come to me after I ask questions. Free-writing skips the “asking questions” part — at least consciously — which is why it’s outside of my comfort zone; I worry that I’m wasting my time on creating sentences I’ll never use. Perhaps I am too set in my ways. Perhaps I am underestimating how much of my planning gets thrown out later, after I have, essentially, free-written within each scene and found out that the plan won’t work. Ah! That, just there, was a bit of useful free-writing! It occurs to me that I am a combo writer: I plan a scene in advance, after asking and answering story questions. And then, with the scene setting and aims in place, I free-write the content, letting the characters do or say what they will. And sometimes they break away from the plan, sometimes for the better.
- The option 1 scene I wrote was the main character getting ready for a restaurant meeting with her prospective lover’s family. It was a relief to slow down and consider the details of the room, the products, the character’s thoughts. I feel like more useable work came from this than from other days. However, I had already imagined the framework of the scene; perhaps if I hadn’t, free-writing would have been the way to help it emerge from the mist.
A note on timings
I am finding that the personal planning / journal entries take up a significant amount of time. I’m not able to do both those and the writing exercise within the hour I put aside for them. Combined, I probably spend 2 hours on days where another section precedes the creative writing exercise.
all course content copyright Jacqui Lofthouse thewritingcoach.co.uk