Aug 8Liked by Bec Evans, Chris Smith, Breakthroughs & Blocks
I free write a lot for similar reasons to you. I feel lighter after I've got all the crap out of my head and onto paper. I also really enjoy writing by hand, always a pencil and an A5 brightly coloured notebook. Interestingly, some of the most raw and powerful memoir writing has flowed from a morning free writing session when I've had a lot of life stuff/admin going on and have put all of that down first. It's funny how getting the to-do list down on paper then frees up space for the other writing. I try to carry a notebook & pencil around with me but Notes on my phone has become a rich library of thoughts and ideas that crop up. Free writing on Ilkley Moor is the best! I guess I try not to put too many rules around how long/how many pages though because that immediately puts thoughts and obstacles in the way, sometimes it's a page, other times it's pages and pages that I then start to weave into an existing draft. It's just free...
Yes! Absolutely. I love your freewriting on Ilkley Moor. I have never tried writing outdoors - if a thought grabs me, I'll dictate into my phone and if I haven't got my phone I repeat and repeat until it gets fixed in my memory and can be scribbled when I have access to a pen and paper. Here's to all the ways we are freed by writing.
Totally agree! And it reminds me I haven’t done real ‘free’ freewriting for ages. I always thought freewriting was a fun waste of time until I did it for real a few years ago. Without it, I wouldn’t have ended up with the memoir I’m now serialising here on Substack. Thank you, Bec.
Amazing! I love hearing how it how you started your memoir and got you to Substack. And likewise, I forget to do it but when I do, it transforms everything about how I think and write. It was such fun to write this.
There's definitely an overlap and as I hint in the post, many writers and writing teaching have managed to 'brand' their approaches to what is simply writing by hand.
Well, there’s lots of different ways of journaling too. Bullet journals look amazing and my friend swears by sketching stuff and making it beautiful - but I tend to only sketch when it helps me illustrate a concept (more of a diagram than a fairy!)
I really enjoyed reading this. Thank you, Bec. I also turn to Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones” when I need support with developing a free writing practice. Love how the essence of it feels similar, but each writer/practitioner has their own approach.
Thanks Jupiter - I am glad it resonated. Natalie Goldberg was on my longlist of approaches - I'm sorry I didn't get to share more of her amazing approach to writing and self-discovery.
The use of prompts comes up in the advice for both academic and business writers. Alison Jones has an appendix of prompts at the back of Exploratory Writing.
Ooh, that’s interesting. Most of the writing prompts I’ve seen so far feel like they are aimed at fiction writing or memoir, which means that I find them harder to engage with. Prompts relevant to business writing are more likely to help me feel like I’m exploring ground that might end up in the textbook!
I free write a lot for similar reasons to you. I feel lighter after I've got all the crap out of my head and onto paper. I also really enjoy writing by hand, always a pencil and an A5 brightly coloured notebook. Interestingly, some of the most raw and powerful memoir writing has flowed from a morning free writing session when I've had a lot of life stuff/admin going on and have put all of that down first. It's funny how getting the to-do list down on paper then frees up space for the other writing. I try to carry a notebook & pencil around with me but Notes on my phone has become a rich library of thoughts and ideas that crop up. Free writing on Ilkley Moor is the best! I guess I try not to put too many rules around how long/how many pages though because that immediately puts thoughts and obstacles in the way, sometimes it's a page, other times it's pages and pages that I then start to weave into an existing draft. It's just free...
Yes! Absolutely. I love your freewriting on Ilkley Moor. I have never tried writing outdoors - if a thought grabs me, I'll dictate into my phone and if I haven't got my phone I repeat and repeat until it gets fixed in my memory and can be scribbled when I have access to a pen and paper. Here's to all the ways we are freed by writing.
Totally agree! And it reminds me I haven’t done real ‘free’ freewriting for ages. I always thought freewriting was a fun waste of time until I did it for real a few years ago. Without it, I wouldn’t have ended up with the memoir I’m now serialising here on Substack. Thank you, Bec.
Amazing! I love hearing how it how you started your memoir and got you to Substack. And likewise, I forget to do it but when I do, it transforms everything about how I think and write. It was such fun to write this.
I‘ve for long been a fan of journalling, which sounds different from free writing, though. I suppose the two can overlap?
Really interesting post. I’ve heard of the 3 morning pages, but it’s interesting to read about the other methods too!
There's definitely an overlap and as I hint in the post, many writers and writing teaching have managed to 'brand' their approaches to what is simply writing by hand.
Well, there’s lots of different ways of journaling too. Bullet journals look amazing and my friend swears by sketching stuff and making it beautiful - but I tend to only sketch when it helps me illustrate a concept (more of a diagram than a fairy!)
For me, the key is writing by hand - I mostly write, but I love a mind map or spider diagram and I though I rarely sketch, doing it visually can transform what I 'think' - I wrote about it here: https://open.substack.com/pub/breakthroughsandblocks/p/picturing-the-creative-process?r=1uafr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
HA! I used to bullet journaling with drawings and stuff—but now I keep my journal as simple as possible and became more of a diagram person 😂
I really enjoyed reading this. Thank you, Bec. I also turn to Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones” when I need support with developing a free writing practice. Love how the essence of it feels similar, but each writer/practitioner has their own approach.
Thanks Jupiter - I am glad it resonated. Natalie Goldberg was on my longlist of approaches - I'm sorry I didn't get to share more of her amazing approach to writing and self-discovery.
Thanks so much for sharing, I’ve been writing morning pages on and off for years and these are other references are all super helpful 🌟
Glad they helped!
These are all great tips - especially framing the prompts around questions you want to explore/answer.
The use of prompts comes up in the advice for both academic and business writers. Alison Jones has an appendix of prompts at the back of Exploratory Writing.
Ooh, that’s interesting. Most of the writing prompts I’ve seen so far feel like they are aimed at fiction writing or memoir, which means that I find them harder to engage with. Prompts relevant to business writing are more likely to help me feel like I’m exploring ground that might end up in the textbook!
I’ll have to give it a try.
Great! The important thing is to keep it as low stakes as possible - even just a few minutes writing by hand can be enough.