Definition:
A discovery (or prewriting) strategy intended to encourage the development of ideas without concern for the conventional rules of grammar and usage. See also: Getting Started with Freewriting.
Observations:
- In freewriting, advises Peter Elbow in Writing Without Teachers (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), "Never stop to look back, to cross something out, to wonder how to spell something, to wonder what word or thought to use, or to think about what you are doing." The only rule to follow in freewriting is simply not to stop writing.
- "Freewriting can be compared to the warming-up exercises that athletes perform; freewriting limbers up the muscles of your mind, gets you in the mood, undams the stream of language.
"Here is a bit of practical advice: if you have mental writer's cramp, merely sit down with your journal and start entering words in it, just as they pop into your mind; don't even think about sentences necessarily, but fill a complete page of your journal with spontaneously discovered words. There is a good chance that this uncontrolled, effortless writing will begin to assume a direction that you can follow."
(W. Ross Winterowd, The Contemporary Writer: A Practical Rhetoric, 2nd ed., Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981) - "If you are better at talking out than writing out your ideas, try freespeaking, the talking version of freewriting. Begin by speaking into a tape recorder or into a computer with voice-recognition software, and just keep talking about your topic for at least seven to ten minutes. Say whatever comes to your mind, and don't stop talking. You can then listen to or read the results of your freespeaking and look for an idea to pursue at greater length."
(Andrea Lunsford, The St. Martin's Handbook, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008)
