Focused Free Writing

Most writers can’t finish a book mainly because they become too fixated on details like grammar, dialogue and description too early in their writing. The first step to finishing your book it to…yes you got it…just finish the book. What is the difference between a sizzling piece of work and one that is boringly concise, one is planned and with the other, the writer let the story flow from his thoughts.

If you were to concisely write your fast draft it would mean that after every sentence you go through each word to make sure the sentence is perfect. You’ll probably be able to get away with this perfection for a chapter or two but after a while believe me you’ll be bored to death because your story is just not moving out of your brain as fast as you want it to.  By free writing you’re allowing the whole story to reveal itself before you start shaping it into something beautiful.

Free writing is just write continuously for a set amount of time without worrying about spelling, grammar, dialogue or description and no corrections are made. Since you know have your plot line all detailed out and you know what’s supposed to happen in each scene, this process will be much easier. Often this first draft will not be the book but it will give your book a firm foundation. When free writing;

1.      Give yourself a time limit of 30 – 60 minutes or a minimum word count.

2.      Keep your hand moving during this whole time limit. Do not pause to read what you’ve written.

3.      Write in a way that is most comfortable for you. If you type faster than you write; type. If vice versa then you know what to do.

4.      Choose an environment that is the least distracting for you and that you know helps you concentrate. Some people love the idea of being in a coffee shop with people milling around others just want to be locked in a room all alone with nothing but their computer.  As long as it works.

5.      Switch off your internal editor. Knock yourself out with the spelling mistakes, bad grammar, adverbs, metaphors and clichés, no one cares (at least not right now).

6.      Stop the research. I’ve been a culprit of this many times i.e. using research as an excuse for writing. Believe me during your first draft you need only the information you used in creating your synopses. If you don’t know the Israeli name for that new flat Mossad agent just name him Moses, highlight it with blue or underline and move on, you can sort him out later.

7.      And for Christ sake; Stay away from facebook, twitter, yahoo or your blog

Of course this means that your first draft will be doubly messy, but at least you’ve got something on paper now. The good thing about free writing is that you’ll always find yourself with more than you need rather than less. Then we can get into the hard work.