Loosening Up - Freewriting

With summer officially here, there is no time like the present to pick up your pen and paper, find a warm, relaxing spot, and start working on that bestseller...right?

Anyone that understands writing knows that it is a craft; good writing doesn’t develop overnight. The goal here is to be the best writer you can be. Here are some freewriting exercises to help you loosen up and get the creative juices flowing.

Freewriting Exercise One
Objective: To get started with freewriting

Go into your kitchen and select an object strictly on impulse: a spoon, a can-opener, a microwave oven, a blender, a clock, a wall plaque, a napkin ring. It does not matter what you choose, but choose something quickly. Examine it very carefully by looking at it, touching it, and, if feasible, listening to it. Now get back to the workout room and write whatever you wish, for as long as you de4sire. The only requirement is that you give at least some kind of reference to the chosen item. If you choose a spoon, for example, you might freewrite about your grandmother’s spoon collection, your theories on the invention of the spoon, the way spoons look and feel, the material used in spoons, your child’s first spoon, your souvenir spoon from Stockholm…anything goes.

Freewriting Exercise Two
Objective: To get started with freewriting

Remember the nursery rhymes you learned as a child? Hey Diddle Diddle…Three Men in a Tub…Baa Baa Black Sheep? They really didn’t make a whole lot of sense then or now but they were fun to say out loud. Think of the nursery rhymes, songs, poems, and stories of your youth, then write them down. Quickly. Don’t worry if they bump into each other and get all tangled up. If the black sheep ends up in the tub in Mary Contrary’s garden while Robinson Crusoe and Jack and Jill search for the Wizard of Oz in Neverland, so much the better. Keep going in this way as long as you can, splicing rhymes, lyrics and riddles.

You may have some fun patching together a lot of silly images and nonsense, but this exercise does have a legitimate purpose: You’ll do a little harmless exploring with words and meaning, taking risks as you combine elements you would never otherwise try to combine. Much of novel writing involves seeking interesting combinations of ideas. This includes breathing a little new life into Dead-on-Arrival clichés.

Freewriting Exercise Three
Objective: To get started with freewriting.

Freewriting may or may not tell a story, but in most cases freewriting concentrates on descriptions. Let’s see what happens if you try to freewrite an event.

The following is an old grade-school exercise for writing a story, but it is an effective way to get the creative juices flowing. Choose a magazine and stop at the first picture you find particularly interesting or colorful, then write a paragraph or so about it. Afterward, see if t here’s a story you can tell about the figures or the setting in the picture. Does the picture show children washing a dog? Is it their dog? What would happen if the dog ran away? Is the picture of a man and woman kissing? Are they married to each other…or are their spouses in the next room, innocently watching TV? What would happen if the electric power went out?

Whatever story comes to your mind about the picture you’ve chosen, write it down. For that matter, write down as many story possibilities as you can think of. Do not worry about grammar or whether the ideas make sense. The goal is not “picture perfect” writing, rather that you have fun playing with the words and the meanings of those words.

All of these exercises can be found in Writing Aerobics I by Sterling and Davidson.

For more helpful tips and exercises, visit www.sterlinghouse-bookstore.com and check out:
Writing Aerobics I by C. Sterling and M. Davidson

Agree? Disagree? Tell us at editor@writersnewsweekly.com or join the discussion on facebook.com.