If your blog is in need of an update that just won't come to you, try free writing.
Do you find yourself sometimes struggling to create fresh blog content? Struggling with writer’s block? What’s that? Sounds like a resounding “Yes!”
You’re in good company.
If you’re looking to develop some fresh content for your blog, you might consider free writing to help you discover hidden pockets of post-worthy material waiting for you to tap into.
I know what you’re thinking…
What the heck is free writing?
Free writing is an exercise, often associated with Peter Elbow, in which you, the writer, writes for a set period of time (five, ten, fifteen minutes, say) with no attention whatsoever to the following:
- Spelling
- Grammar
- Mechanics
- Flow
- Organization
- SEO techniques and keywords
- Ideas
Wait, what? Ideas?
Yup.
You see, the beauty of free writing is that, while you certainly can do the exercise with a specific idea in mind, an idea is not required. In fact, it’s kind of more fun if you don’t have an idea.
Then what’s the point of free writing?
The point of free writing is to force your brain to move through everything that’s standing between you and that brilliant blogging idea you’ve got somewhere in there. You might have pages of garbage at the end, but the idea is that, out of all of that perceived garbage, you will spark some kind of an idea, notice a pattern, or discover that you actually know a lot more about a topic than you thought you did.
This is an exercise that I used to love to do with my high school students when I was teaching, and I’ll give you the same basic instructions I gave them.
7 steps to free writing
- Eliminate all distractions.
- Decide how long you want to write (five minutes is a good starting place) and set a timer.
- Get a fresh sheet of paper or open a new Word document.
- Start writing. Write whatever comes to your mind. If you can’t think of anything, keep writing “I can’t think of anything, I can’t think of anything. Oh, hey, look, a bird. No. Back to writing. Words are kind of like birds how they fly around all the time.” Yeah, it sounds like garbage, but it’s the garbage that’s preventing you from getting to a clear idea. (And anyway, you might be onto something with that ‘words are like birds’ bit.)
- Whatever you do, do not stop writing.
- When your time is up, read back over what you’ve written. Highlight any interesting words, phrases, or ideas that jump out at you. Don’t worry if you don’t have much to work with the first few times.
- Take your highlights and either a.) free write about those or b.) try to start piecing some writing together from them.
It sounds crazy, but among creative writers, free writing is absolutely invaluable. Wondering how creative writing techniques are going to help your business blog? The better question is how aren’t creative writing techniques going to help your business blog? Brand storytelling, for example, is very much in vogue these days.
(And anyway, as someone who has studied and taught writing, I’d be quick to remind you that this technique is useful for anyone – not just creative writers. While it’s also very useful for academics, it’s a highly transferable writing exercise.)
Try it out for yourself
People sometimes scoff at free writing, claiming they have no time for such a “silly activity.” I say don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it. Free writing takes, at most, ten-to-fifteen minutes of your day. If you make it a regular part of your writing/blogging routine, those few minutes start to pay off in the way of fresher blog content. And I don’t think I have to tell you the wonders of a regularly-updated blog with fresh content.
Do you use free writing, or have you in the past? Think you’re ready to try it out? Leave me a comment and let me know your experiences and expectations — I’m curious to know!
Image Source: Steve Mueller, Flickr