Show Notes
Filling the Blank Page w/ Freewriting, Looping, and Timers
Hey, Chad here coming to you over the digital airwaves on the 1% Better Podcast.
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00:00:12] This morning. I tried an experiment to get over my fear of the blank page or the blank audio file, so to speak. And I've been reading a lot about, uh, writing habits and techniques and experiences of many different authors. Um, Stephen King's on writing is a book that I always find myself returning to. It's just a really interesting kind of half memoir half, um, treatise on writing from one of my favorite authors and I've been trying to get into the writing chair for some time now, but um, have a hard time overcoming the blank page. And so of course, uh, I went to the place with all the answers, YouTube, uh, and lost I don't know how many, uh, hours over the past couple of days, uh, going down that rabbit hole.
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00:01:04] Two people, uh, inspired me to combine two different techniques into one which I'm trying out now. Um, and this is the end result of that. Um, Many of you may be familiar with the concept of morning pages from from the creative and writer, Julia Cameron. She suggests that one of the best things you can do as a creative is to begin every morning writing three pages of longhand free writing where it's stream of consciousness, uh, with no purpose. Um, You just write and you don't stop writing until you've finished those three pages .
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00:01:44] I have tried that in the past and I'm trying it on and off now. Um, but I was often frustrated in that I felt that that work didn't really amount to anything or it didn't directly apply to the projects that I wanted to get done.
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00:02:02] Sure there's some value in getting the head junk out of your head, uh. To clear and make way for your better ideas, but I still felt like that was not wasted time, but just not optimized time in the mornings. And so that's why it's been hard for me to stick to that habit. Um,
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00:02:21] I think I intellectually understand how and why free writing can be an effective technique to tap into creativity, but I wanted it a little more practical way of, uh, having it help me in what I'm doing. So in my rabbit hole of a YouTubing, I came across two different videos, uh, both around this idea of free writing, and then also around this idea of dictating. I think the extemporaneous and improvisational nature of these podcasts, relates to the free writing activity to some degree, and so I found this video by this woman, Lauren Joy Shishinda where she talks about combining free writing with this concept of looping.
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00:03:09] So she says that once you spent your five, 10 or 15 minutes in free writing, think back on what you've written for 30 seconds or so and choose a concept or an idea, image character ,theme, issue, challenge, et cetera. Turn to a new page or a new section, and then begin the free writing exercise again, and then you do that for five, 10, 15 minutes. And then you pick another concept and do it again.
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00:03:39]By the third or fourth time, you'll have, uh, unlocked your your brain and gotten into that flow. And that was a really interesting idea, but I wasn't quite sure how I would apply it. Well then I came across, uh, an interview with the author Christopher Downing, who wrote the book Foolproof Outlining, and he suggests that after you've done your warmup activities of which he suggests a lot almost 40 minutes of warming up before we actually get to to the actual writing. Um, but when you, when you start to write he has this interesting, uh, timed technique, and I'm a huge fan of timers, uh, go back to the time timer episode. He suggests when you sit down to write a scene or a chapter or whatever, the piece of writing you're you're working on is to begin with as short of a time. As you can to summarize it as short as concisely as you can. So, uh, you can start with a 30 second writing activity to just jot down, uh, the one sentence summary. Then you can spend two minutes to rewrite or redictate and elaborate on that one sentence summary. Then set a timer for five minutes and do the same activity and so you're not actually rereading or editing what you've written or spoken previously, you're remembering what was remarkable or interesting from what you'd previously written, and then just simply rewriting it on the fly as you go.
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00:05:17] And then he suggests you spend 10 minutes doing the same and then 20 minutes so that you'll have revised or rewritten. This material four, maybe even five times spent roughly, um, you know, 45 50 minutes doing this an hour. At most. And you'll have a piece of writing or thought that is um, more coherent, more expressive and more inclusive of of creative ideas.
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00:05:51] What you should know is that I have created this podcast in that very same method. I came in this morning and had no idea what I wanted to record. Uh, I mean, I had many ideas, but I couldn't choose any of them. I was faced with a blank recording window on my computer, and so I just told myself that I was going to hit record for 30 seconds and see what came out.
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00:06:18]Uh. It was pretty incoherent and all over the place until the very end when I remembered the free writing and looping video. And so I took that concept and then rerecorded this for two minutes, elaborating on it, and then I made the connection to Christopher Downing, and then I spent five minutes recording this episode, and so there's a there's three previous episodes that are much shorter and all over the place. And then because I want to bring all these episodes to you in 10 minutes or less. This is my 10 minutes, uh, quote unquote final, uh, take for the podcast.
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00:06:55]I think I'm onto something here, combining free writing with looping and this idea of setting longer and longer timers for yourself to go back and just rewrite what you've written.
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00:07:07]Aside from the blank page another thing I struggle with is having the editor inside of me, uh, come out a little too strongly when I'm just sitting down to put pen to paper or to type or to speak on the podcast and this idea of throwing away work, uh, and then coming at it anew as how you do the editing and revising is really fascinating to me.
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00:07:33]So I know that there's many other creatives of you listening to this. I'm curious what tips or techniques have you used or been successful at in overcoming the blank page for the blank recording window or the blank canvas. You can get in touch directly with me at 917.719.3737. I love getting your voice messages and texts.
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00:07:58]Let me know what's worked for you and, uh, we can share in our creative endeavors. Thank you so much for listening until next time.