4 - Free Writing Is Creative Writing

 Estimated reading time: 12 minutes 

4

Free Writing Is Creative Writing

    Free writing is the most common form of creative writing and is usually practiced in our everyday lives without our knowledge. It is a creative process that involves writing down a person's thoughts for a set time without critiquing their grammar, spelling, structure, or thoughts. Free writing is the equivalent of drawing or doodling for fun in the literary sense. Free writing can be therapeutic and is a great way to open up to new ideas and thoughts that could lead to new creative projects or one's journey of self-discovery. This method of writing also helps alleviate writer's block or procrastination.

    In this blog, we will explore several ways in which free writing is integrated into our daily lives, its connection to creative writing, and how it can help recharge our mental and imaginative capacities.

Free writing = a process

    Think of free writing as a process of how our brain is obtaining information at that moment. It encourages us to learn and acknowledge what we are feeling and thinking and how we process the world around us and ourselves. Free writing is like meditating; it is limitless. 

    Just like the word implies, free writing means we are allowed to write in any form of prose, language, and font style. We can use as many or as few punctuation marks and grammar and spelling mistakes. This form of writing can be intentional or unintentional, making the narrative unique and up to interpretation. In turn, this helps improve procrastination, or writer's block.

The yellow brick road

    Free writing is like a yellow brick road —a journey of self-discovery, growth, and achievement. This form of creative writing enables writers to generate characters, build an environment, and craft a plot. It is how we give our written thoughts meaning and purpose. Many authors free-write before they come up with an original work of art.

    Free writing symbolizes self-discovery within our thoughts, emotions, and beliefs. It is a road that we craft in every direction to learn the inner workings of our minds and the narrative of our writing. It is a creative process that can take time and consideration, leading us to a profoundly different destination than we intended.

It takes many forms

    Much like the way our brain thinks, free writing mimics this process in various forms. Free writing is generally done by providing a loose narrative or idea to a thought process, but bullet points with long written text works, too.

How to start

    Free writing starts exactly where and when you want it to. There is no right location to write, but accepting any procrastination helps justify your thoughts and improves the writing process. 

    To begin, select the utensils you prefer to write with (e.g., a pen and paper or a computer) and start writing for a set period. If it helps to scribble or doodle your thoughts, do it! If it helps to map out your thoughts with bullet points or colored markers, do it! Learn how to make free writing fun for you. This builds a positive writing habit and encourages more written content and imagination to flow, much like a clogged dam now free of clutter. Let your creativity flow without overthinking the direction, grammar, spelling, or cohesiveness. 

Short Fiction

• Short fiction encompasses a range of genres, including short stories, novellas, flash fiction, and more. This form of writing is a quick way for us to explore the inner workings of our imagination and creativity without being limited by cohesive ideas.

Plastic Me - December 15, 2022 (unedited)

• Notice that this short fiction resembles flash fiction and poetry but lacks a clear structure and distinct beginning, middle, or end. The lack of editing and grammatical corrections is a sign of free writing.

• “Plastic me, plastic you, rubber bands, and rubber hands. If we aren't Barbie or her little silent sisters, then can we pass as Ken or is he off the grid? I've been looking in the mirror and I can't see a thing. The mirror is fake and plastic. Rubber but not rubber like you and me. It doesn't glissen or mend shapes. It's dank. I feel like we're a different kind. Unknown to the world, silent, and unseen. Where do we fit in the whole world of green? Can we find ourselves in the blue oceans, reminiscing of the times we never had? I think we would blend in the blue because we're already that hue. Do you ever find it hard to breathe? We can hiccup and chew out our teeth, but i think we find ourselves drowning in the pink air we said we couldn't see. I wonder sometimes if we stopped blending in with where Barbie could be, and walked along the lines where Barbie couldnt be...then we would feel less inclined to be less than plastic. Because being fake isn't chic. It's ink.” 

A Letter 

• By conveying emotion, imagination, and creativity, the format reflects an individual's thoughts and life experiences. A letter conveys a writer's personality through language and narration. Art mediums, such as doodles and stickers, can enhance the letter's connection with the writer and its recipient (the audience).

Greeting Card - March 6, 2023

• My greeting card to my Art Museum Education classmate is an excellent example of how to incorporate creative writing and visual art in a class assignment. The letter conveys emotion and creativity, effectively utilizing text and visual art to depict self-expression and subject knowledge.

• “Dear Cassandra, I hope everything is going well and your internships are a fun break from school. My fe-mail card is about everything (I can remember doing at the SID located in Forth Worth, TX. I’m having a wonderful time being a docent!”

Diary Entries

• A collection of thoughts, emotions, and personal experiences to convey meaning and understanding creatively. Artistic mediums, such as doodling, scrapbooking, and collecting mementos, can aid in the journey and the overall understanding of an individual's thoughts and life experiences.

        My Dream Journal - April, 2025    

• This entry describes a dream I had about a couple I was trying to warn of an impending tornado. Notice that the journal entry is erratic, mimicking a dream-like state, as it jumps from one scene to another. The grammar and spelling are unedited, and the tone changes slightly. Details are added in some spots, but the writing technique is not consistently applied throughout the entire entry.

• This form of free writing relies on memory alone. The tone of voice, writing style, and detail differ for each journal entry. 

• “At my parents house, looking out the front window was a dark/gray sky and still trees. On the lawn, were 2 people sitting at an outdoor table. The table was round, white, and pretty decor. The chairs matched. The man and woman looked similar, brown hair, dark eyes, white skin. In the distance, behind the trees was a dark nearly black shape moving toward the house. The trees began to move quickly. The shape was a tornado. I pried the door open despite the sucking wind, desperate to close the door. I yelled at the couple to run and come inside because of the tornado . They looked at me confused, not noticing a change in the environment. I closed the door, locking it, feeling something bad was coming. I bent down under the window by the door before it caved in, the tornado crashing and tearing apart the house. The scene turned upside down every which way, all blurry and gray. It was chaos. Then I woke up.”

Literary Interpretation

• We are constantly processing information, experiencing, daydreaming, and interpreting the world around us. Many artists, whether visual or literary, capture singular moments of creation from the mundane. That could be an event, a discussion they experienced or witnessed, nature, or something as simple as existing.

• Literal artists can develop a unique perspective on visual artwork through interpretation. We will always view something slightly different than someone else because of our background and way of life.

                Cubist Movement - April 30, 2025

• By studying the painting, Cubist Movement, I free wrote a paragraph of what I thought, experienced, and imagined to be happening in the artwork. This method of thinking encourages a deeper, more concentrated connection with the artwork and ourselves.

• Humans are not present in this 2D world, as it is too blocky and lacks the structural comfort necessary for a creature like a human to exist. The trees, however, are creatures of their own as they stand perfectly still but sway within the painting of this 2D world - this cubist form. The mountains do not crumble as they are plastered with impasto, making failure nearly impossible. The warm and cold colors are bold to the eye, but my focus remains on the sunny warmth of the mountains and the climbing trees below.

Source: Artsper Magazine. Obessive Landscape: Paul Cezanne.

    After reading this blog, we now know that free writing is a technique of creative writing that encourages a free flow of thoughts, imagery, and emotions. Free writing is a craft of self-discovery, allowing us to explore the narrative we form within ourselves through our writing. This technique encourages us to write without fault, overthinking, and procrastination, and it boosts our comfort in writing.

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“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page” — Jodi Picoult

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Referring to either of the examples above or something else of your choice, free write for 10 minutes without editing. Writing notes or doodling can help. 

Write like no one is watching!