When it comes to writing, getting started is the hardest part, but free writing makes it so much easier! Even with a chosen theme, a blank page or computer screen can be daunting. Free writing will get children to move on from the blank page.
I make my students and I write freely because it is the best and easiest creative writing idea out there. Many professionals prefer to launch their imaginations in this way. It is also called fast, crazy, or practice writing.
The first time you ask children to do this, they will look at you in disbelief and complain. It will be difficult for them to meet the three minute time requirement. However, after a regular discipline of free writing, they will start to enjoy this time and it is amazing what they can produce. I often have to force them to stop after ten minutes.
The rules for free writing:
- Write quickly and uncritically. Aim for quantity, not quality.
- You must write for the required time period (start with 3 minutes and continue to 10). You don’t need a theme. Start writing. Don’t think about what to write. It does not matter. It is the process, not the product, that is important.
- Your hand must be in motion all the time and you cannot speak. Not even a peep.
- If you can’t think of anything, write “I don’t know what to write” or repeat the last word or letter over and over again to keep the writing going no matter what. If students constantly sneak around like this, ignore it. In time, they will recover. It is much more boring to do this than to write.
- Use a timer that does not tick. I don’t know why that provides an incentive, but it does.
- Use a scribbler. Write the date in the upper right corner. Continue just below this entry next time. These writing samples are often used for future stories.
- When the timer goes off, read what you’ve written and give it a title. Write your title in the upper left corner.
- For best results, parents should freely write in their doodle every time the child writes.
- Spelling, neatness, grammar, spacing, etc. don’t count (can’t stress this enough).
- What you write is private. You can share with others by reading aloud when you are done, but that is completely voluntary. Parents must respect the privacy of children. Only when we feel safe to write down our true feelings will our creativity be unleashed.
- Be faithful with this activity. Start every day with it and stick with it like brushing your teeth. In a very short time it will bear fruit. I used this technique with a high school creative writing course. We started each class by writing freely for ten minutes. I allocated a certain number of free writing sessions for increasing periods of time each week. Sometimes I made them write in unusual places. The results were phenomenal. His writing took off, and I attribute it directly to the free writing exercises. I have heard similar success stories from many parents.
When I started to write freely every morning, I noticed two things happening almost immediately. One was that I began to wait for that moment. It became therapeutic. I never knew what would come out of my pen and I discovered many things about myself. The second was that writing became much easier. When I say writing, I mean writing that I did other than free writing. What I freely wrote was irrelevant. Most of it I never looked at again. The real payoff came when I had to write an article with a deadline. I’d sit at my computer and dive in, headfirst. I no longer stared at a blank screen. Like a long-distance runner, I instantly calmed down and took off.
If you trust me and consistently try for a healthy period of time (months), you will notice a difference in your children’s writing. I’d love for you to write a comment about it on this site and share with others that it really works!