Literally any topic will do, as long as you have something to say about it – even if it doesn’t seem like much at first. Using this method, you can connect topics that seem unrelated. For example, you could begin discussing a certain character who loves roses and then immediately switch to a childhood memory of your mother’s rose bushes. This is the way thoughts often work in our heads – so it is also a great way to show how a character thinks and connects ideas in their mind.
Ignore sentence structure. You could do an entire page of adjectives, verbs, or nouns related to your topic. Or you could do short phrases, or whatever else comes to mind, as long as it illustrates the character’s thought patterns in a pointed, methodical way.
Switch tasks for a little while before coming back to your writing. It doesn’t matter if it’s a few hours or a few days as long as you come back to your writing with a fresh outlook. This type of writing can allow you to provide interesting insights or connections that people normally wouldn’t see. It’s valuable to save this work for future reference to look back over what kinds of connections you made between ideas. Even if it’s weird or bad, make sure you save your writing. You may want to come back to it at a later time or include it elsewhere in your work.
Many famous authors have implemented this strategy in their writing – including James Joyce, William Faulkner, and Virginia Woolf.
You could try reading “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf, Ulysses by James Joyce or As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner.
The main idea is to keep writing for as long as you can and never take the pen off the paper until the timer dings. This allows you to write more than you think you can and to see how your brain works connecting various thoughts and topics. This makes for great practice for stream-of-consciousness writing because it will give you a model to follow when writing the inner monologues of your characters in the stream-of-consciousness form.
Freewriting requires a kind of natural rhythm that is hard to replicate when typing on the computer. Make sure you have extra paper, a pencil sharpener if you’re using a pencil, or an extra pen. If you are on a touchscreen, then try to activate software for drawing writing and test a few actions for comfort and tool sets.
The most important thing is to find a place where you can sit comfortably and not be disturbed.
Use different colors of pen or pencil. You could change colors every letter, or every word, or in a way that makes the overall work look pleasing. This can be done at any time. Keep writing until you run out of words. But try to push yourself to keep writing until the time is up. Set a timer for the amount of time you want to write and put it somewhere where you can’t see how much time is left. Keep writing without distraction until you hear the timer go off.
Freewriting lets you track how your mind roams freely without the constraints of normal writing (thought filtering) processes. Use freewriting as a time to go on tangents and make jumps between topics.
If you are writing methodically in the freewriting practice, this is also a great way to show how surprising connections can be made between obscure or seemingly unrelated topics. Flowing between ideas allows the connections to be made clearer.
