Very informative about Mark Levy’s book “Freewriting: a modern technique for finding creative solutions. What is freewriting and how do I use it?

Six secrets of freewriting.

How I try to follow the advice of Mark Levy, author of Freewriting: A Modern Technique for Finding Creative Solutions.

Secret #1: Don't try too hard

I have already taught myself that freewriting is a daily routine procedure. Being prepared for zero results helps you relax. Or rather, I tune in to a completely different result, not a quantitative, measurable result, but a qualitative one, expressed in sensations.

This is the feeling of the game. How to go fishing. You enjoy nature, silence, unusual surroundings and at the same time hope for a catch, which you can then release. You do not hunt for income or food. It's about excitement, exploration, testing your skills and luck.

Relaxation is attention to the current state, without fear for the lack of results. You think about how you feel, look at your handwriting. You try to change it, compare how your efforts influence the text coming out of your pen. You try to predict what the next word will be, as if it doesn’t depend on you.

This is how disidentification appears and the skill of observing oneself “from the outside” is trained. For this result, you don’t need extra effort.

Secrets #2 and 3: Write quickly and continuously. Work within tight time frames

Freewriting seems to me like a fishing trawl thrown into our subconscious. When we write quickly and continuously, it is as if we are creating a network of lines, which we tow in the depth of our thoughts, ideas, and experiences. If we pause, the network breaks, and we even lose what we wrote before.

After reading The Artist's Way, I tried to write for half an hour, trying to meet the three-page limit. It turned out poorly for me. I was distracted and bored. I independently came to the decision to write in 10-minute segments. This is exactly how long I can maintain maximum concentration and writing speed. This is not a super effort, which is suggested to be abandoned in the first advice.

10 minutes for me is the optimal amount of time during which I can concentrate on writing quickly.

Secret #4: Write the way you think

Following the previous recommendation leaves you no other chances. I limit myself not only in time, but also in the volume that I have to write. It’s like you’re running down a mountain and only have time to push off and move your feet. There's no time for choosing words :)

What helped me the most was the chosen image of a sports commentator. As a child, I loved watching hockey and football broadcasts and even imitated my favorite sports commentators: Nikolai Ozerov and Kote Makharadze. I had a reel-to-reel tape recorder. I turned off the sound on the TV, turned on the tape recorder to record and transformed into a commentator :)

The commentator tries to closely monitor what is happening on the sports field, managing to voice the actions of the athletes, adding emotions and useful additional information. I try to write the same way. Only instead of the action that I comment on, there are thoughts that I pay attention to, the text that comes out of my pen, my reaction to what is written.

The beauty of freewriting is that you are an athlete, a spectator, and a commentator at the same time. You combine three observation positions that give a three-dimensional picture of understanding.

Secret #5: Develop Thought

Perhaps my favorite piece of advice is that it relates freewriting to creativity techniques. I do it as follows. Before starting my ten minutes, at the beginning of the page I write some question or problem that I would like to understand. I turn on the timer. I begin to “peer” into the words.

If I were to “peer” into the phrase “develop a thought,” I would start with the second word. A thought, as a rule, is some kind of solution, a formula into which various variables can be substituted. The signal on which our attention is focused, the description of its transformation into information, the sequence of actions and the result expressed in the resulting changes. This means you can develop a thought by alternately replacing each component.

This approach turns freewriting not into solving problems with a pre-known answer, but into research, a game. In my case, one idea based on the thought stated at the beginning of the text is accompanied and developed into three to five related ideas. Each can be a starting point for written research that reveals new possibilities.

Secret #6: Refocus your attention

A set timer, the desire to write half a page before it rings, relaxation and attitude will not save you from moments when you feel slowed down. My first car, a VAZ Chisel, used to stall while driving. I had to have time to quickly turn the ignition key so that, without falling out of the flow of traffic, I could start and drive on.

Mark Levy suggests two key questions that shift attention:

– What was I thinking here?

- How can you say this differently?

The book contains a couple dozen more similar questions. Over time, I developed my three “push” questions. When I feel that my writing pace is slowing down, I ask myself, “Which of the tasks facing me is this relevant to?”

Don’t carry it out, don’t take it on right now, but describe it. Freewriting helps you be more productive by describing your problems and tasks. The best formulation consists of describing the solutions.

The second “push” question is: what idea of mine does this describe relate to? How can what I write about help me realize one of my values? The search for an answer switches to thinking about existing intentions, projects, and values. Braking overcome :)

The third question is “Who might be interested in what is being described? Who could I help? What should I write to him about?

Previously, these three questions always lay in front of me, written out on a piece of paper. Now I automatically scan the text I write out in these three areas: my tasks and goals, my ideas and values, people who are dear and interesting to me. This approach allows you to maintain speed and continuity when freewriting.

Understanding is only necessary for action!

So that what you read in the book or in my note does not become useless information fat for you, try to apply the tips on yourself. It's not difficult. Set a timer, mark on a piece of paper with a pencil the end point where you should be in 10 minutes. Turn on the timer and just write. Your task is to fill the allocated volume on the sheet with lines.

We're done.

Listen to yourself. How do you feel? Do you feel better? You are alive while you are changing. Do this consciously.

Vitaly Kolesnik. The other day I bought the book “Freewriting: a modern technique for finding creative solutions” by Mark Levy. There was a reason to summarize the author’s own experience and recommendations.

The meaning of freewriting for me is to condense and record on paper my own scattered thoughts. In a special notebook I write two or three pages. Or, depending on my mood, I write using a computer. I indicate a certain point of concentration, which is not always expressed as a question or problem. Sometimes it's just a word that gets me started writing.

It is important to start and write, trying not to stop. Then the sentences seem to pull ideas out of the subconscious one after another. This method helps me “voice on paper” the voice of intuition, find solutions that are not on the surface, revive curiosity and the desire to work when the blues attack.

Levi gives 6 secrets of freewriting.

1. Don't try too hard.

For me, this expresses the absence of any specific purpose for writing. I am only confident from experience that this activity will be useful for me. It's helpful for me.

I limit myself either by time or volume. In the Write or die application I set the indicators to 700 words in 20 minutes. When I write in a notebook, I try to finish the pages. If I can’t write, I limit myself to one or two.

The process is important, not the result, so it’s easy to relax and reduce the importance of activities.

2. Write quickly and continuously.

This is a really interesting feature of freewriting. We must try not to stop. When I don’t know how to continue the previous sentence, I start writing what I feel at the moment. “It’s snowing again and it seems to be getting colder.” “Neighbor across the wall, knock yourself on the head with this hammer.” “Why the hell am I writing all this” - these are just some of the thoughts that flashed through my head now when I decided to look for examples :)

3. Work within strict time frames.

I have already mentioned the Write or die application. Sometimes I do super-hard freewriting, setting a goal of writing 1000 words in 20 minutes.

This recommendation may seem to contradict the first. This is wrong. The time limit allows you to start the process of “clinging” one sentence to another. If you take your time and take long pauses to think, the inertia that pushes ideas out of your subconscious disappears.

4. Write as you think.

Freewriting is not pure writing; it is a way of tracking your thought process.

The advice is easy to follow. To do this, it’s enough for me not to think about whether anyone will read my text.

5. Develop your thought.

Again, just cling to the previous thought. I often use the 5 Why method.

6. Refocus your attention.

Attention shifters are simple questions you ask yourself (in writing) to refocus your mind on unexamined elements of a situation.

I use this technique when I analyze an event or the day as a whole. After reading Mark's book, Levy began to compile his own list of such questions. From those given in the book I took the following:
- how can you make it exciting?
— how to increase value?
- what am I missing here?
— where did I go wrong here?
- What other problems similar to this have I encountered?
- what solutions to previous problems can be applied to this one?
- if I wanted to make a serious mistake here, what would I do?
— what necessary data do I not have here?
- How can I best use the information I already have?

Effective techniques.

I present only those that I use myself.

Use a piece of paper to consider unconventional points of view and bring together ideas that don't seem to go together.

Give some hints to your thinking.

You start the session not with whatever comes to mind, but with a specific phrase (this is called a tip), which determines the direction of the letter.

It's easier to have a hundred ideas than one

Very reminiscent of the quota of ideas from the books of Michael Mikalko and the lists of 100. We write possible solutions and ideas without criticizing or assessing their feasibility.

Have the conversation on paper

This exercise is used in coaching when the client is asked to imagine a conversation with an imaginary interlocutor. It’s the same here, you’re just taking shorthand of the conversation.

To effectively have a conversation on paper, a fictional conversation with someone in which you find out what the imaginary interlocutor thinks about your situation, you need to do two things: 1) build up "meat" on the character (visualize him clearly) and 2) make so that the interlocutor encourages you to speak (answer his short and open questions).

These phrases should be short and logically open. “Two things I could do today to make my life more interesting...”

Using assumptions to get unstuck

Provide written answers to the following 4 questions.

1. What problem am I trying to solve?
(It is advisable that the formulation be general. Specifics are unnecessary. Here are examples of good formulations of a general problem: “How can I create a permanent contingent of fans of something little-known?”, “How to sell a product to customers who mistakenly believe that they have a complete understanding of the product ?”, “How can I reduce costs while increasing coverage?”)

2. Who had to solve a similar problem?
3. How was it solved?
4. How can their solution be used in relation to my situation?

Writer's Marathon

A short freewriting session will help you find the answers. But to really get fresh thoughts, try doing a series of these sessions over a period of several hours. Make sure that each session begins in a new direction - even if it seems unnatural and difficult.

I work in a similar way on long articles when I sit down to write my book. For example, today I have planned 5 “approaches” to the book, 20 minutes each.

I liked the idea of a “talking” letter.

To create such a document, you can use one of two methods (or a combination of them): write a letter to a friend or colleague about what you are thinking about; make a collage of freewriting fragments. Make sure in advance that the person you are writing to has the desire (and time) to read your document. Tell him what kind of feedback you would like to receive.

“Stories only happen to those who know how to tell them” Lou Willetta Stanek

You can activate your brain activity, find the ideal solution, and come to the right conclusions in different ways. Each person has several ways in stock get out of creative crisis. One such technique is freewriting. Free writing translated from English means “free writing”. This method is a bit like brainstorming. His main task is to find an original solution to a problem, forming new ideas and thoughts. Freewriting is also often an effective way to relax. The essence of free writing is to write down whatever thoughts come into your head. Moreover, write down mechanically, not paying attention to style, grammar, coherence of sentences. You just have to throw out a verbal flow of ideas onto paper. You need to write for 10-20 minutes.

This technique is considered quite young, it appeared in the 70s of the last century. Freewriting has been described in detail in the works of Peter Elbow, a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts. He has published a number of books, such as “Writing With Power” and “Writing Without Teachers.” In the 90s, books became bestsellers, so many people learned about the freewriting technique. Then this technique began to gain immense popularity. Also, the popularity of freewriting was influenced by the books by Mark Levy “Freewriting: A Modern Technique for Finding Creative Solutions” and Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way”.

Benefits of freewriting

Rules for Free Writing

The effectiveness of this technique can be increased in many ways. A number of rules were described in Mark Levy's book:

Don't expect too much from yourself. If you decide to push yourself to the maximum, to immediately get an original solution to the problem, then nothing will work. There is no need to force yourself, you should relax and try to use your potential to 90%.
You need to write at a fast pace and without interruption. Every person has an analytical side of thinking that forces us to check what we have written. This is unacceptable in the freewriting technique. You must generate words and sentences without any barriers to release hidden ideas.
Remember that you are not engaged in writing, but are doing it solely for yourself. Therefore, you should never limit yourself. Write everything that comes to mind, even if the thoughts seem stupid and inappropriate to you. You also cannot correct yourself - do not cross out words, do not correct spelling and punctuation. Even if you notice a mistake, write further. There is no need to arrange sentences according to style. Just be in the flow of your thoughts and record them as accurately as possible.
Freewriting should take about 10-20 minutes. Limited time will be a good motivation. You can set a timer to keep track of time more accurately. Then you can better concentrate on the work at hand.
To simplify the task, you can ask yourself questions. Write them down, so you tune in to the right wavelength and see those aspects of the problem that were hidden.
The thoughts you have must be developed. Develop them, go a few logical steps further. As a result, incredible conclusions await you.
When you finish freewriting, you need to take a break. Then read everything you wrote. It is better to do this out loud so that the information is perceived more accurately. Highlight the parts of your writing that you can use. Be sure to write down any questions you have after reading. Also analyze the text for fresh and extraordinary ideas that will help you understand current affairs and problems.

Newcomers to freewriting should pay attention to examples from famous writers. This technique was known to Ray Bradbury, Jay Conrad Levinson, Tom Peters or Al Rice. Even Nikolai Gogol wrote about this to Vladimir Sollogub when he complained about the impossibility of finding inspiration. Gogol advised to take pen and paper and write “I can’t write something today.” And if you repeat this phrase several times, a good thought will come to mind. After all, constant inspiration is rare, which is why many people write this way.

Take a notebook and pen, and then ask yourself a question in writing. Or formulate an important problem. The following questions can be answered:

What are you thinking about at this moment?
Tell us about how you felt or the last thing you did.
Write down all the results obtained so far, all the efforts that have been made to achieve them. Then start describing the prospects.
Throw out all your worries on paper. They can be even the most insignificant. If you do not pay attention to them, then such little things can create serious psychological discomfort. Tell us about them, then there will be less worry.
Use your imagination. You can use children's techniques for this. For example, describe the situation in reverse, what could happen in a parallel universe. Cats are afraid of mice, dogs run away from cats, presidents choose a country, and so on. This creative and fun method will help get rid of the stupor.

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In December, it is customary to sum up the results and choose the best film or book. If I were asked to choose the best tools for development, I would give second and third place to lists and conscious reading, and the main podium to freewriting.

The best Russian-language book about freewriting, which I recommend to everyone, is “Genius to Order” by Mark Levy. I will share my experience of applying what I read.

Secret #1: Don't try too hard

This is how disidentification appears and the skill of observing oneself “from the outside” is trained. For this result, you don’t need extra effort.

Secrets #2 and 3: Write quickly and continuously. Work within tight time frames

A fashionable word nowadays and also an interesting technique have interested me for a long time. So I decided to find out what’s what, and at the same time experience the magic of free writing.

So, freewriting- writing technique and methodology that helps to find extraordinary solutions and ideas. Roughly speaking, you write on a piece of paper everything that comes to your mind regarding a given topic.

Options

Freewriting is used if the creative, work process has stalled. Then you set yourself a task (question) and for some time (for example, 15 minutes) write down all possible options for solving it. From the most seemingly stupid to the more realistic. Everything in a row. It's a bit like brainstorming. Often, among all the ideas you can find really cool and effective ones.
Also, freewriting helps in literary works when you need to write, but there is no inspiration/ideas/mood. Again, you sit down and write.
Often, the “Morning Pages” exercise (+ similar anti-stress, unloading techniques) is also classified as freewriting. Its essence is that after waking up you need to sit down and write down literally all the thoughts that come to your mind, without setting a topic. The “morning pages” do not indicate the exact time (how much to write), but the suggested volume is 3 pages of handwritten text (!).

But there is an opinion that exercises of this kind would be more correctly classified as automatic writing rather than freewriting. They are even used in psychotherapy (especially by Freudians) as a method of psychoanalysis and self-analysis.

How to freewrite?

Classic freewriting is extremely simple:

All you need is a sheet of paper/notebook, a pen and a comfortable work place.
A timer is set (choose a time convenient for yourself, depending on the goal: 10 - 30 minutes)
Write before the alarm goes off. Don’t think about what, how and how beautifully you write. Try not to stop.
If it was working on an idea, then read out loud (for yourself) what you wrote. Select the most useful, noteworthy points. Think about how they can be applied.

But Vitaly Kolesnik gives such practical advice:

When starting to master freewriting, do not immediately strive to extract the “useful remainder” from what you have written: the main thing at the first stage is the very practice of liberating yourself from self-control when writing. It is better for the first time to consciously refuse any useful result of freewriting and perceive it simply as a warm-up or unloading of the mind from garbage. When the skill is developed and self-censorship stops, you can try “useful” freewriting.
If you cannot find the right word, write the one that came to your mind at this moment - later you can easily replace it with a more accurate one.
If at any moment you feel like there is nothing to write about, write about it. You will be surprised how many interesting continuations there are for the phrase “I don’t know what to write about.”
If you can't start freewriting, start describing any nearby object - for example, the nearest red object or your own hands.
If you feel uncomfortable or bored, ask yourself what is bothering you and write about it.

My experience:

I often use freewriting as a written version of brainstorming. Especially when I plan holidays, entertainment (for example, how to organize an interesting and unusual birthday?) or write large articles/books. I don’t set a strict timetable for myself, I just sit down and write until I’m exhausted in terms of ideas.

I tested “Morning Pages” on myself, but somehow I wasn’t hooked and quickly gave up. I plan to try again soon.

I really like to literally unload my brain by writing out all my thoughts on paper. Especially when I’m tired or have a headache, I sit down and just write all sorts of nonsense, without particularly worrying about its poetry and beauty. I often find the reasons for my fatigue in it.

Verdict: try it for yourself! It's safe and fun!