Writing Analytically, 6th Edition - Rosenwasser, David & Stephen, Jill.original_ [18]
FREEWRITING: HOW AND WHY TO DO IT
Freewriting is a method of arriving at ideas by writing continuously about a subject for a limited period of time without pausing to edit or revise. The rationale behind this activity can be understood through a well-known remark by the novelist E.M. Forster (in regard to the “tyranny” of prearranging everything): “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” Freewriting gives you the chance to see what you’ll say.
Author Anne Lamott writes eloquently (in Bird by Bird) about the censors we all hear as nasty voices in our heads that keep us from writing. These are the internalized voices of past critics whose comments have become magnified to suggest that we will never get it right. Freewriting allows us to tune out these voices long enough to discover what we might think.
There aren’t many rules to freewriting—just that you have to keep your pen (or fingers on the keyboard) moving. Don’t reread as you go. Don’t pause to correct things. Don’t cross things out. Don’t quit when you think you have run out of things to say. Just keep writing.
There are various forms of freewriting. For academic and other analytical projects, we recommend passage-based focused freewriting. In passage-based focused freewriting (see Chapters 4 and 5), class members embark from and attempt to stay grounded in some short passage or single sentence (usually their choice) from the day’s reading. In this way, they learn to choose and develop starting points for discussion, rather than rely on a teacher’s questions.
The practice of freewriting has long been advocated by writer, teacher, and writing theorist Peter Elbow who argues that poor writing occurs when writers try to draft and edit at the same time. There are sound psychological and cognitive reasons for trying not to get too bogged down in “fixing” things in the early drafting stages. First, it is hard to keep your larger purpose in sight if you constantly worry about making mistakes or being wrong. You need to keep moving, even when you know parts of what you have written are not yet good enough. Second, it is hard to discover where to go next if you keep looking back. Some people keep reading what they’ve just written, hoping to find the next move. But when you instead try to write fast—to forge ahead without looking back—you are more likely to discover a new leaping-off point, some connection to another and possibly better idea. Freewriting lets this process happen. Give it the chance to surprise you.
Here are some of the things that regular freewriting accomplishes:
develops fluency
deters writer’s block
encourages experimentation
requires you to find your own starting points for writing and run with them
provides a nurturing alternative to rigidly format-driven writing
allows you to observe your characteristic ways of moving as a thinker, your habits of mind
Some Useful Techniques for Freewriting
Here are some analytical methods from later in the book that work especially well to generate freewrites:
Paraphrase × 3, Notice and Focus, and So What? from Chapter 2
Making the Implicit Explicit from Chapter 3
Uncovering Assumptions, Reformulating Binaries, Seems to Be About X, and Difference within Similarity from Chapter 4
10 on 1 in Chapter 10
PROCESS AND PRODUCT: SOME WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT THE WRITING PROCESS
Process and product are the usual terms for thinking about the relation between exploratory writing (such as freewriting) and the more finished kinds of assignments to which it may lead. The process includes everything you needed to do in order to get to the finished draft, which is known as the product. In classical rhetoric, the terms are invention and arrangement (See the short take on Rhetoric). In the invention stage, you follow prescribed methods for coming up with things to say, material which can then be arranged into the most effective form (presentation).