What is free-writing?

Free-writing is straightforward.

1. Choose a topic.
2. Set a timer for five or ten minutes.
3. Write without stopping until the timer goes off.

While easy to describe, free-writing is built on two profound premises:

We self-censor too many of our ideas when we write.

Writing can be a way of thinking, not just transcribing our thoughts.

Self-censoring

Ask your students how often they say this to themselves while writing: “I have an idea, but I can’t write it down. It sounds stupid.”

Evaluation is a crucial element of good writing. We’ll talk about it more when we get to revision. The problem is that this kind of self-talk is hard to calibrate. Sometimes you will write a sentence that sounds stupid. But this evaluation is based on the faulty assumption that you must produce a perfect draft on the first try.

Encourage your students to evaluate their writing only after they’ve done some writing. They’ll have plenty of time to evaluate their thoughts once they’re on the page.

While self-censoring a single sentence isn’t a big deal, it can lead to something worse: self-censoring an entire paper.

See if your students tell themselves, “I’m not ready to write this paper.” While this sentence is probably true, it’s also true that if “ready” means “Every single word is already mapped out in my mind so that all I have to do is photocopy my thoughts into Microsoft Word,” your students will never be ready to write their paper.

If you’re habitually writing down your thoughts before you judge them, you’ll have successfully started the writing process.

Writing as Thinking

Free-writing helps your students in two ways.

It neutralizes the students’ negative habit of deleting an idea before they’ve even written it.  

It also reinforces writing’s great power: it helps us think.

Once your students have gotten over the idea that you write an essay in your mind first then sit down and transcribe it, they’ll discover that sitting down to write is the best way to figure out what they want to say.

Students will have a crucial experience when they free-write. They will come up with an idea at minute 7 of a 10-minute exercise that they could not have predicted. By refusing to censor their thoughts and continuing to write, students will be able to figure out things they did not know before their writing began.

When you hear your students say, “I’m not ready to write because I don’t know what I want to say,” your response should be, “That’s the perfect time to start writing.”

And free-writing is a great exercise to help them begin.