Free Writing Joy
At this week’s Story Club, my young writer’s workshop, we did a free writing exercise.
Free writing is a wonderful tool for unblocking the mind and getting the critical voice to quieten. It can unlock great story ideas and get creativity flowing.
We spent 5 minutes writing whatever came to mind (or pen!) without stopping or allowing the editing mind to creep in. I know writers who always start with free writing, before they write a new scene. And many writers (me included) will use free writing to explore an emotion, a character, or a world. ‘Blue sky thinking’ and ‘anything goes’ can bring up some gorgeous ideas.
I suggested we try free writing on an emotion. My Zoom group (of two) chose the emotion of joy. I found the reason interesting. Both young writers said they were more used to writing sadness or anger in stories. Joy would be challenging and new!
After the free writing exercise, one young writer Mine (pronounced Minnie) found a beautiful connection to the feeling. She said the last few sentences of this piece came directly from the free writing exercise.
I love this story. It not only has a strong voice, the joy comes across in many layers. Did anyone else’s heart melt when they read ‘the first step to becoming an author’? Normally I would say she is already an author, but this time I accepted the context — this may be a path she takes in her adult life. This might become a realised dream.
As a published author myself, I could only feel joy.
Another young writer found joy more complex. She found it laced with other emotions such as sadness. I myself could relate to this. In my own free writing exercise, I found a fear of losing happiness was coming through the warmer, more comfortable feelings of joy.
She came up with a gorgeous poetic piece where the character falls into a chasm. At the end, a rope is lowered, leading to joy. I found this a wise piece, that sometimes joy comes at the end of stress or fear. When we finally get past something.
Try it for yourself! Writer or not, I encourage you to write for 5–10 minutes with no internal editor speaking. Write for yourself, see what comes out. What does writing about the emotion ‘joy’ reveal to you?
