Drowning in Details

Free write to clear your block.

Copyright © 2010 Golda Mowe. Write to me, or subscribe to my RSS Feed

I have a secret to admit: All of the newer short stories I have put up in this site were never planned. The whole thing was an accident which happened because I was trying to ‘cure’ my writer’s block. I have known for years that free writing is a good way to get my creative juices going, but I never really got around to doing it.

The reason, I discovered some months back, was because I am not comfortable with anything that doesn’t require extensive planning. In fact, my need to plan everything to the minutest detail has made me a bit of a social recluse. Just planning to go out is stressful and any kind of intrusion to my daily schedule is not easily tolerated.

This behavior is also reflected in my writing habit because it has made me obsessed with details. Before I can put down the name of a city or a river into my work, I need to know everything I could about it. Temperature, climate, population, vegetation et cetera –every single thing I could think of. And if I could not get the information I needed, I would even change the location and risk disrupting the whole story. At the end of the day, I would be so exhausted from research, that I would be too depressed to write for weeks.

So one day, I told myself, why don’t I write stories as I see them. And knowing my predisposition to falter and stumble over details, I also added the following conditions to guide me.

I don’t have to detail every single thing, I just have to know the general word to describe the things I see in my mind. This was a very difficult rule for me to follow, especially when I was writing The Artist's Studio. There was so much detail I wanted to add in, but that would mean more research and planning.
I don’t need to specifically name a place, just give it a form such as a school, church, house etc. If the story needs a destination, I will use a generic name, such as St. Andrews for Mr Fats's Halloween Party. This was mentally liberating and it allowed me to keep expressing myself emotionally without being misdirected by the lack of fact.
I will only start with one sentence which meant that I will not plan ahead for the ‘who, what, when, why or how’ of the story. This is the part I enjoy the most because I usually surprise myself with the twist and turns of the story. For example, the first sentence of A Cold Conscience gives the impression of a normal night in, which was exactly what I was expecting to write but then it turned into something else by the third paragraph.

Free writing works firstly because we have all read, seen, heard and experience more than we have ever imagined. All those books, stories, news and gossips that reside in your subconscious will help you churn out interesting stories. The second reason is because writing the first sentence is easy. All you need is a thought, which can be either interesting or boring depending on your situation at that time.

The first time I free wrote with the above conditions, magic happened. I actually enjoyed myself because none of the problems I had expected happened. I was so relaxed while doing it that after writing a few stories I found a writing voice I felt comfortable working with. I guess the moment I decided not to focus on details and techniques, I began to actually write intuitively.

I still do a lot of research work because I love details just as much as I love tall tales, but each time my research work begins to drag me down, I will pick up my pen and write a single sentence on top of a foolscap paper then I free write. Without fail, I will break my mental stalemate.

Even if you are not an information hoarder, I believe that free writing will help free your voice too. Since free writing allows you to be yourself it tends to fix any problem you may have by making it apparent to you. For example, if I stumble over an idea, it usually means that I don’t have enough information about it. Whenever that happens, instead of researching the idea extensively, I will just find general information about it from a dictionary or an encyclopedia then work with it from there.

It works because you must be honest to yourself in order to free writer. There is no planning, hence no way for you to reason if an idea is reasonable or not. Also since you are relaxed and non-judgmental, you tend to speak your mind in a way that is most comfortable for you. That ‘way’ is your writing voice.

If for nothing else, then free write to allow your natural voice to grow. We all have an inherent ability to do things. However, before we can reach a higher form of expression, we must first go through its basic form. Not all of us are born geniuses so it is impossible for us to write like a professional on our first few tries. Yet once we are comfortable at the lower level, it is only natural for us to want to go up to the next.

We all have feelings and opinions. But if you continually express your opinions through the words of another, you will not sound real. So use free writing to tap into your own mental and emotional state and learn to express it coherently. Be honest with yourself and to your readers. Believe me, you will enjoy the journey, for it is one that will surprise you endlessly.

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