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reewriting - 10 Rules:
- Chose term, title or theme as starting point.
- Set a stopwatch on 10, 15 or 20 minutes.
- Write, whatever comes into your head.
- The writing hand is always in motion.
- Don't read, what you've written. Continue writing.
- Don't delete or correct.
- Don't care about spelling and grammar.
- Debaucheries and nonsense are okay.
- If nothing's going on, then just write 'I have no idea.' (or something similar) until your next thought appears.
- When the time is up, just finish the just started thought and then stop.
Enough with the theory, let's get practical! From
creativewritingprompts.com I've picked Nr. 186:
"Freewrite for 15 minutes using this opening line: Behind her, the noise escalated..."
Behind her, the noise escalated ... what has happened? What could make such a noise? An accident maybe. Maybe somebody is having a dispute, more and more and louder until not only being at daggers drawn, but also flying plates ... speaking of plates, it could also be a joyful noise. A
wedding, no, how is that called, where the pottery is shattered ... can't remember ... right! Eve-of-wedding party (
Polterabend in German)! Maybe the noise came from a collapsing building, after Fokushima (is it written that way?) the thought on a natural disaster had to appear! All right, okay, the noise behind me gets louder and louder, how do I feel? Am I scared? Do I want to turn over, in order to know, what's happening behind me? Do I really want to know that? Just have to think on a growling dog, that's standing threateningly behind me! Cujo was really ... Yuck! Don't get sidetracked! Focus! I have no idea! I have no idea! Damn! Noises - That's not my thing! The noise behind me gets louder and louder - now I have to think on turbines of a starting airplane! That's it! Somewhere in the outback, a solitude in the nowhere, heat, dust, starting turbines, the tense expectations, a flight in a rickety nutshell, und the pleasant anticipation for a safari. Wild animals. Reclusion in the Kalahari or wheresoever, elephants on a river, lions yawning under the trees, luxury lodges.
P.S. I did that freewriting exercise in German, it's simply easier without thinking about vocabulary and grammar, but after finishing I've translated it for you as precisely as possible.
P.P.S. Another very creative 60-second-addiction is
The One Minute Writer!
What a great exercise. Wonderful post. I've been to the first link before, but never the second one. I'll have to save it in my favorites for when I have more time. Thank you for the reminder and the awesome example!
Hi Silvia,
you're welcome! I'm a huge fan of OMW - I'm quite regularly posting there, most of the time with a few days delay! *g* Better late than never, right? And I grant myself a bit more than ONE minute - foreign language bonus! ;-)
Free write is an awesome way to get the creative juices flowing. I just learned about riff-writing which uses free write to flush out a specific part of your WIP. Great post!
Hi Pam,
what exactly is riff-writing? When I understand google right, it's something with playing the guitar? But obviously there's another meaning?!
And, thanks! :-)
I love free-writing exercises! I've never tried The One Minute Writer but I'll have to look it up after the A-Z challenge is over and I have more time. :-)
Have you tried One Word? It gives you a single word as a prompt and 60 seconds to write.
LOL Okay, I just had a quick look at OMW and it looks like you get one word prompts there was well. The difference is tha OMW gives you a few minutes to think about the prompt before writing and OW doesn't.
Thanks for the link, Carol! :-)
I'll have a closer look on that during the weekend!
I love freewriting! sometimes the greatest ideas come for this exercise. i'm also enjoying your blog. You seem to do a lot of serials! amazing!
Great to meet you through this A-Z.
Nutschell
www.thewritingnut.com