Freewriting: Is it a Worthwhile Exercise for Writers?

Almost every person who has striven to improve their writing has encountered the freewriting exercise. Maybe it was through a book on writing or an English teacher. Or, maybe, it was via a friend with common interests who introduced us to the concept.

The first time I was introduced to freewriting was in my eighth grade English class. The teacher handed out the assignment to the students.

"For 15 minutes, write whatever runs through your mind," she said. "It doesn't matter what it is, just write."

And so we did. It seemed an easy assignment while doing it. I wrote out a bunch of random, seemingly disconnected phrases. Things along the lines of "The cow jumped over the moon and grabbed a pile of cheese."

We were then asked to exchange papers with another. My best friend in that class was a boy who sat in front of me. He'd just transferred to our school from NYC and, since we were seated so close to one another, we swapped papers with each other. I scanned his paper and discovered that his seemed more logical than mine. His paper was an average description of a day or some adventure story. I don't remember precisely what he wrote, of course. As I listened to the other children around me read off sections of what they wrote, I fretted and worried about my own piece of writing.

'Was it too strange?' I thought. My friend chuckled as he read mine and agreed that it was a bit strange. In my opinion, that was the one mistake that that teacher made in trying to introduce us to the concept.

Don't show your freewritings to others. Some people will protest and say that they want feedback on their writing skills but that's not the point of a freewriting. Instead, the point of a freewriting is to clear out the emotional gunk of the day or to gather ideas for your 'real' writing. And ideas do come from freewriting. This article, for instance, began when I started babbling to myself about the past.

If you truly do want feedback on your writing, write something which you truly do mean to show to other human beings. Then, and only then, should you offer it to another person for criticism.

Some people want nothing to do with freewriting. It seems a pointless exercise to them and that's fine. For myself, I've found it's an easy task to accomplish and it doesn't really take that much time out of my day. In the end, it's up to you. As they say, writers write. That's the most important thing.