I love Peter Elbow’s ideas about composing and writing. It’s as if he took some of my ideas, stole them right out of my brain, and put them down on paper in Writing With Power. "Freewriting," an exercise he describes in the book, is something I’ve seen at online communities I’m part of. When I recently joined a new group, Newsvine, I asked if there was interest in the activity there. We are now in our 12th week. Yes, the student has become the teacher.
I’ve watched as the exercise has helped budding writers. Elbow sums up the problem nicely: “Sometimes, in fact, when people think too much during the early stages about what they want to end up with, that preoccupation with the final product keeps them from attaining it.”
Natalie Goldberg calls a very similar exercise “Writing Down the Bones” in her book Writing Down the Bones. She says: “The idea is to keep your hand moving for, say, ten minutes, and don’t cross anything out, because that makes space for our inner editor to come in.”
I lead and participate in this writing exercise online and tell those participating there are only three rules: 1) You can only write for those ten minutes, you can’t spend that time rewriting or proofreading. 2) If you write something you need to read the submissions from others. 3) You must write some form of feedback, but it has to be positive.
As I read Peter Elbow explaining “freewriting,” I felt like I was hearing an echo of the rules I have given. Elbow says those reading other’s work must say “thank you” or cite a part particularly enjoyed. Similarly in our exercises, I will often highlight my favorite sentence or paragraph, and others will follow suit.
Whether the idea comes from Elbow, Goldberg, or me, the concept is the same: Focus on writing, not rewriting or revising, and steer clear of criticism. As Elbow puts it:
If you are trying to be inventive and come up with lots of interesting new ideas, it’s usually the worst thing in the world if someone comes along and starts being critical. Thus, the power of brainstorming: no one is allowed to criticize any idea or suggestion that is offered — no matter how stupid, impractical, or useless it seems…
So you are both turning off your own inner critic while also fending off potential critics among those participating.
While both Goldberg and Elbow suggest the same time limit of ten minutes, there is one key difference: the starting point. Elbow says you can start anywhere, on any topic: “You may stay on one topic, you may flip repeatedly from one to another: it doesn’t matter. Sometimes you will produce a good record of your stream of consciousness, but often you can’t keep up.”
Article comments
1 - Robert
In the early stages of trying to keep my inner editor at bay during the initial draft, I shifted my email composition to first thing in the morning. It gets me in the habit of writing freely, and that habit carries over to my writing when I finally buckle down to work.
2 - Scott Butki
excellent solution. I have found - and i talk about it here - that some of the best times to write are early in the morning or late at nite. it's as if the inner editor goes to sleep.