Freewriting Techniques to Help Steer Your Craft

There’s more than one way to write. Learn the various freewriting processes and share your own.

What Types of Writers Are We?

Sometimes writers who decide to free write their stories do so because the act of knowing the end and all the subplots steals the joy and magic away from creating. This is totally valid. It’s okay to write for exploration and save the plotting for later.

Whether you write freely or outline, plotting is integral to the story writing process. Adding a plotting session after your freewriting session will bring more unity and congruency to your story. Even if the first story comes out in great shape, still give yourself some time and re-read it to clean it up.

How you plot is up to you. Some writers are visual thinkers and draw or create storyboards or even act out their stories to understand what the natural and satisfying flow of their story is.

That’s the thing about writing processes, though. They can be cookie-cutter or unique to you. Over the years, I’ve found that finding what works for me outside the normal advice has been the most helpful and nurturing. But to find your process takes experimenting and trying other processes to see which ones align best with you as a writer.

I included a video from writer Brandon Sanderson on writing processes and types. His distinction between chefs and cooks resonated with me greatly because I am someone who enjoys cooking and experimenting in the kitchen. I also see a lot of similarities in baking, cooking, and the chef profession and writing and being a writer.

Tips, Tricks, and Techniques

We’ll go over several ways that writers can approach freewriting their stories that go beyond sitting and writing the story out. Though that process works, experimentation is where we learn new ways of being and understanding ourselves.

Looping

Looping is a freewriting technique that laces in a little bit of editing along the way. This is a great process if you have to write something quickly and turn around close to clean or perfect copy.

To loop freewrite, begin by setting a timer or word-count restraint on yourself before you begin freewriting. 15 mins or 250 words is a great place to start. Once you reach the word or time limit, stop writing and take a short break. When you return to the page, loop back to what you wrote, making what edits you see fit.

Then restart the freewriting process with the theme or scene topic from the preceding writing in mind, stopping when you reach the limit and looping back to edit and continue the story without losing yourself in story tangents and threads.

Scene Lists

I’ve met and worked with several writers whose stories come to them out of order and in flashes. Here a scene and there a moment, maybe a line. The way they approach writing their stories is by writing those scenes and moments out of order.

Then they sort through those moments and scenes, rearranging and connecting them to make a full story. Usually, they are doing this while still writing random scenes, piecing together their stories like a monster.

Dictate

A freewriting technique that allows you to write without actually writing. Dictation only needs a voice recorder and your imagination. Let the story fly like you’re telling it to a friend. It takes some practice to stick in the mindset of speaking your story, but many writers find it to be an easier and faster way to write.

This process is great especially for people who prefer to move while they think up their stories. You can take dictation out with you on a walk and use a microphone to dictate your story while moving around.

Improv Freewriting

“Yes, and … “ is a famous rule in improv that is meant to keep the story and comedy flowing. The ‘yes’ means that you accept what happens before. The ‘and’ presses you to add to it.

In freewriting, this type of thinking has you constantly raising the stakes and pushing the story and characters further. Yes, a dragon has somehow managed to land a job as a city planning official. And now what?

This exercise is really great if you’re writing very imaginative stories like Dirk Gently and other fantastical literature, but it can also work in nonfiction, poetry, and other formats. The key to remember is to build off of where you last left the story or piece.

Expansive Freewriting

Take a real-life incident, book, article, or another piece of content that you like, admire, or even possibly hate and expand on it, using your emotions to fuel the flow and direction of the freewriting.

Once you’re done, you can go back through and decide what of the piece you want to keep, scrap, or refine. I’ve used this technique in the past to write a novel. My jumping-off point was based on a real-life moment that I needed to process deeper and further. It just so happened to also yield a book.

Freewrite a Problem

This is best done when you already have a draft or are in the process of writing one. When you hit a snag or hiccup, maybe even a block, start writing freely from the problem. For example, if there’s a scene in your fiction that doesn’t read right, write it a different way. Keep freewriting different angles until a way becomes clear to you.

Writers of nonfiction and poetry can do the same thing. When done with poetry, this tends to lead to amazing thematic connections and raw emotion. Nonfiction writers have also found that writing through their problems in articles or proposals leads to better connections, phrases, and helps them see a different angle to approach a topic they never before considered.

Use a Prompt

The reason some writers turn to freewriting has less to do with their process and more to do with their situation. They feel stuck, blocked, or drained. They can’t find a beginning or an end or a topic. That’s where prompts come in.

Maybe you’ve heard me talk before about how I hate writing prompts because all they do is get people to possibly consider writing a story. That’s why I create specialized prompts that are more detailed and help teach writers craft techniques. But there are regular prompts out there too if you’re just looking for a jumping-off point.

Further Reading

Aigner Loren Wilson is a queer Black Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer of America, Horror Writer of America, and Codex writer. Her work has appeared in Tordotcom, Fiyah, Vice, and more. She is a Hugo Award finalist for her editing and is the author of several speculative fiction books and games.