When Free-Writing Goes Wrong
Free-writing is a widely celebrated tool for creativity.
And it deserves the hype! Free-writing is as powerful a practice as they come. Whatever ails us, a free-write meets us where we are. It gives us time and space to tend to ourselves. It sews our torn bits and replaces our rattling worn-out parts.
But I have noticed, in myself and the artists I coach, there are times the free write is NOT RIGHT.
Times the free-write is counter-productive and even dangerous to an artist’s unfolding.
A FREE-WRITE CAN GET NEGATIVE
Some of us constantly second-guess our decisions. Some of us replay our mistakes. Some of us catastrophize about the future. Some of us have unprocessed trauma.
There is danger when we free-write of filling a page with “negative writing.” Not negative in the sense that we address negative things — indeed, some of the most POSITIVE writing touches on deep pain. But negative in the sense that it has a negative effect ON US. Second-guessers start third-guessing and fourth-guessing. Mistake-replayers fall into pits of shame. Catastrophizers invent destabilizing scenarios. Trauma survivors head in directions that don’t serve our healing.
A FREE-WRITE CAN BE UNFREE
Some of us have that most enviable gift of poise. We’re unflappable, even in life’s tumultuous moments. And maybe this extends to our relationship to writing: We’re elegant. We’re precise. We’re curated.
In particular, those of us who are WRITERS have worked hard to become conscientious with our words.
Free writing asks us to loosen our grip. Let our edges fray. Let our colors blend. It’s a kind of verbal recklessness that ultimately leads to greater precision. But for the terminally poised, it’s hard to do anything with a pen and paper besides compose.
A FREE WRITE CAN UNTETHER
The associative mind is a beautiful thing. Artists of every ilk recognize it as a huge boon to creativity. What is creativity, really, if not an aptitude for seeing the connections in seemingly unlike things?
But for those of us who are not just associative but SCATTERED, free writing may send us into the ether. We start off gleeful, one thought flitting to another. But then we lose the thread. What were we writing about again? We close our notebooks feeling not so much that we’ve planted seeds as we’ve thrown them to the wind, unsure of where or even if they’ll grow.
A FREE WRITE CAN DEEPEN A RUT
Sometimes a free-write moves us to new material: forgotten memories, denied feelings, unconsidered ideas. But sometimes, left only with a blank page, we just repeat ourselves. We tell the same stories. We till the same themes. We use the same metaphors.
We outline the edges of our conceptions in thicker and thicker ink.
Simply put, we aren’t interesting ourselves. We aren’t learning anything new about ourselves. We aren’t challenging ourselves. And not only is stagnancy dull, it’s a sneaky kind of depleting.
Muzi! Be Very Prompted!
If free-writing is not for you, that doesn’t mean WRITING is not for you. It just means that your writing would benefit from a little less freedom. OR RATHER, your writing would GET FREER with a little more support.
Enter: THE PROMPT!
For those of us who veer negative, prompts are a fence. They keep us moving in directions beneficial to us. We can do prompted writing until we get the hang of it, then return to free-writes knowing how to keep ourselves well.
For those of us who can’t get free, a prompt cuts us loose. We’re no longer tasked with structuring, so we set about RESPONDING. And just like in a conversation with a best friend, we’re cued to be casual. We give quick quip answers. We can be downright snarky!
For those of us who untether, a prompt is ballast. We still delight in the freedom of association, but now we have a line back to ourselves. We stay aware of ourselves in space. We leave our writing sessions with a better sense of what we’ve gained.
For those of us who fall into ruts, a prompt takes us new places. It scares up new content. It supports us to explore differently. We finish a writing session with armfuls of new ideas.
MUZI HAS PROMPTS
Question of the Week — Muzi asks about often unconsidered aspects of your creative life to get you thinking in new ways. AND you can learn from responses from your fellow Muzis!
Reflections — Muzi takes you through question sequences designed to build inspiration, courage, discipline, rest, and connection.
Creativity Kits — Muzi offers prompts to deal with specific moments of the creative process, such as beginning a new project and recovering from a creative disappointment.