Freewriting

Freewriting is my favorite writing hack.

The rules are simple: set a timer for 10 minutes, start writing, and don’t stop until the timer goes off. Do not stop to edit. Don’t worry about punctuation or typos or whether you’ve chosen the right words. If you stop writing for more than 5 seconds you’re overthinking it. Just write. And don’t stop.

Don’t know what to write about? Write about how ironic it is that you don’t know what to write about yet you’re doing it anyway. I sometimes use freewriting for journaling or to empty my mind of useless thoughts. Sometimes I use it as a little warmup technique. Most times, after a 10 minute session, I’d end up writing for hours, even if I initially didn’t feel like it.

Once the 10 minutes are up, you’ll have a few hundred words written on whatever subject you were hoping to write about. It will be absolutely terrible, even painful to look at. It might be the worst thing you’ve ever written. Heck, it might even be the worst thing anyone has ever written. But it doesn’t matter, because a) nobody is looking, and b) even the most terrible draft is a better starting point than a blank page.

I use freewriting all the time to write my newsletter. As you can probably imagine, I’m using it right now. And if you’re reading this, you’re seeing the mostly raw and unedited result of my freewriting session so you can see how low the bar is. I admit that I went back and edited some typos that were just too embarrassing to leave in.

You don’t have to use a 10 minute timer, of course, but I recommend starting with that and then working your way up to 15 or 20 minutes. Once your time is up, chances are that you’ll be on a roll and you’d like to keep going. So keep going, or not, it’s up to you.

Alright, my 10 minutes are almost up and I only have time for like 10 final words.

Freewriting is cool. Try it. And remember, do not stop.