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"freewriting"

By Richard Nordquist, About.com

Definition:

A discovery (or prewriting) strategy intended to encourage the development of ideas without concern for the conventional rules of grammar and usage.

In freewriting, advises Peter Elbow in Writing Without Teachers (New York: Oxford UP, 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.

See Getting Started with Freewriting.

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