Creative Idleness

Last night at our gathering we talked about the importance of creative idleness, a term coined by Brenda Ueland in her (awesome) book, "If You Want To Write."

Creativity finds its way out of us not through our busyness, but through our idleness. I must admit, or confess rather, that my life holds more busyness than idleness. And I can tell you, it sucks the creativity right outta me!

One form of creative idleness is to free write for about 20-30 minutes. Free writing is a fun exercise that allows you to move from the busyness of your life into a mindset of creative freedom. There are a few things to keep in mind when free writing:

• Write non-stop for a designated amount of time
• Don't worry about mistakes, grammar or punctuation. Don't make any corrections and please, no erasing
• Keep that hand moving, constantly writing even if you don't know what to write. In stead, just write "I have no idea what to say but I'll keep writing because some writerly folk tells me it's god for me. And you know, this is kinda fun!"
• Do not invite a judge and jury. Just write, no censoring your self.
• Loose control ~ be wild!

Free writing may seem silly, look like jibberish or appear very messy. If you find that to be the case, then guess what? You are doing it right! You see, if your free write is nice, neat and well thought out, then you are not really free writing which means you need to loosen up a bit.

This exercise does many good things for the writer:

• It pushes you past the fear of writing so that you become more comfy with the craft
• Amidst the random thoughts that flow from your head to your hand, you may discover something of value, a nugget, worth spending time to develop. (Maybe your future novel!)
• Heck, it's just fun.
• It gives you the freedom to bypass your "inner critic" (that nagging little voice that tells you that you can't write. That liar!)
• Actually, it will improve your overall writing
• It's a way to blow off some steam or stress
• It's a wonderful journey with an unknown destination...

So, spend some idle time being creative ~ try one free write a day and see where that practice takes you and your writing adventures.

Enjoy the journey!