Four Freewriting Tools Every Novelist Should Use

by Bill Henderson @ Write a Better Novel

Any novelist, any fiction writer, lives under the constant threat of being shut down by one form or another of writer’s block. It’s just a given of the trade.

New writers encounter it as an existential crisis. It’s frightening, because it seems to be a cosmic message that we’ve made a huge mistake. We thought we had what it takes, but suddenly, it seems, we don’t. Experienced writers have looked into the eye of the beast and realized it’s just that, a beast, and like any beast, can be successfully grappled with and defeated.

In my opinion, anyone can blow writers block out of the water by knowing when and how to use several variations of freewriting. I call them tools because they do what good tools are supposed to do: they make it easier, and in some cases possible, for anyone to build, repair, and speed their work.

Does “anyone” overstate the case? No, I mean it literally. Anyone can enrich writing they’ve already done that’s flat and uninspired. Anyone can break the ice when writer’s block freezes them in their tracks. Anyone can find new life, new richness, new authenticity in moribund material, reimagine a character that’s not coming to life, refocus a plot that seems to have lost its way, revive a bright idea that was once so promising, but now written off for dead.

So here are the the first 2 of the 4 major freewriting tools I’ve found most useful over the years. Whatever your style, whatever your genre, each one can open up a pipeline to the best writing source you have, the matrix of your creativity. You should never ever be without them:

10 Minute Clear-Out

This is a preparation tool. Set your timer for 10 minutes and sit in front of your computer. (If you don’t use a computer, translate to taste.) Close your eyes and focus your awareness on what’s happening inside your mind. Pay close attention. Observe as though you were a third person. Don’t try to stop it, just bear witness. “But it’s so distracting!” Exactly. Your everyday mind is a seething mix of replayed conversations, noisy fretting about this and that, worries about the future, about what you “should have done,” etc. There’s so much random noise it’s no surprise you feel there’s no room for the world of your story to enter and take hold.

True and normal. So don’t try to stop it, Just watch it objectively it for a minute or two, as though you were following the thought flow of someone else.

After a few minutes, let that objective observer give way to a elemental, even “mindless” action: pick a syllable–any syllable will do: “One… One… One…” or “Now… Now… Now.” The chatter in your mind will continue, but no matter. Let it go. Just keep concentrating on your syllable.

With a minute or so left on the timer, close your eyes and imagine a vast, dark theater curtain hanging right in front of you. Imagine that curtain opening to reveal the world of your story. If your story is set in New York, see any New York street. If it’s a story of France in the Middle Ages, see a cathedral, a royal banquet hall, whatever. Weak visualizers, don’t despair–modify to your own mental strengths. If your creative imagination hears better than sees, hear the soundtracks of these locations as if listening to a movie soundtrack.

When your timer goes off, it’s time to write. And you’ll be surprised how ready you are.

[By the way, are you wondering why I lead off with a "freewriting" tool that involves no writing at alll? It's because for freewriting to work, your mind should be receptive, relaxed, empty, and open, exactly what this tool is designed to achieve.]

Opening Freewrite

Writing time. But what to write? Reset your clock for 5 minutes, 10, 15–your choice. Start a freewrite. As always, the only rule is DO NOT PAUSE. Keep writing, even if, at any point, you can’t think what to write next. Remember: freewriting IS thinking. Keep writing and new thoughts will appear in the flow. Opening Freewrites can be general–about whatever comes into your mind–or targeted–focused on a particular question or concern that you’ve predetermined: a character whose motives aren’t clear to you, a point in your plot where clarity turns to fuzziness and you aren’t clear what should happen next and why. When the timer goes off, turn your attention to your day’s work and get started. With luck you’ll be encouraged by the new material you’ve turned up.

Before introducing two more freewriting tools, I have a rhetorical question: what’s the most powerful and “viral” gift freewriting can bring to your story?

Here’s my rhetorical answer: depth of character knowledge.

I don’t mean just random lists of character attributes; I mean what what I call nuggets–revelations big and small that round out your character, that give her attributes you probably wouldn’t have “thought” of, that suggest both inner and outer logic.

• Miss Scarlet is susceptible to poison ivy.
• She likes ham
• She’s a New Jersey girl but attended a southern boarding school.

Do we have real character knowledge here? Not yet. Ask yourself: do the items in this list suggest what can, even must, happen as your story moves forward into greater complexity? Are they suggestive of deep motivation? Do they point toward specific complications, plot moves, scenes? Do they reveal theme, transcend randomness?

I wouldn’t say yes to any of those questions. Compare with the following:

• Scarlett has never gotten over being the only “Yankee” girl in her school, a situation that caused her to be ostracized and lonely.
• Her love for ham sandwiches runs afoul of her Orthodox Jewish future in-laws.
• A bad case of poison ivy forces her her to postpone her wedding and she spends a week soaking in lukewarm baths of bicarbonate of soda.

Those are nuggets. Provisional, of course–they may very well be superceded by better nuggets as the story development process moves forward–but we have something to run with.

The following two freewriting tools are perfect for unearthing nuggets when you need them most. Both are targeted (aka “directed”) freewrites–that is, you have a predetermined the subject (your target) you need to explore. Both take a familiar form, the Q & A:

Self-Interrogation

Hold on a minute: isn’t it contradictory, even silly, to ask questions of yourself? Don’t you already know the answers? By definition? All I can say is, no, resoundingly NO.

Yes, the answers are inside you, but not consciously available to you.

They reside in the place beyond your awareness that we call your unconscious. You are not conscious of them, nor of the raw stew of creativity that produces them–not until something opens a gate to that place and allows them to enter consciousness.

Freewriting opens that gate. It gains you access to your most creative thinking. So why not call it “freethinking?” Because, as a mode of thought, it’s inseparable from the act of continuous, nonstop writing. Remember the only rule of freewriting: TO KEEP WRITING. Should you attempt to storm your unconscious directly, leaving out the writing component, you’ll almost surely end up staring slack-jawed into space and wondering why the hell you ever thought you could do this thing.

So when would you need it? Anytime you find yourself short of vital character or plot information without which you can’t move forward.

Example: Let’s say that for plot reasons, Ray, your main character, has to marry a girl named Sissy, the daughter of a Mafia don. You’ve already established that Ray is a good guy, attractive and emotionally honest. He’s working on a novel about the mob, but it doesn’t make sense that he’d marry into such a risky world just for material. You need a better reason. You’ve stared out the window and come up empty. Time to freewrite.

So here’s your target: Why would he marry this girl.

What compells Ray to send himself off a cliff into this perilous marriage Sissy?
It’ll give him inside material to write his Mafia story.

Sure, but that’s all? Don’t tell me that’s the sole reason. What else?
More… Okay, maybe he’s attracted to her. She’s hot.

Okay, he’s a guy, he finds her hot, but marry her? He’s not not impulsive, he might be physically attracted, but where does the serious interest in this girl come from. A reader will need to see that.
Maybe he just drifts into it. Let’s it happen. Serendipity…

Serendipity. Get serious! He’s the main character. He’s got to be active! What’s driving him?
Maybe she reminds him of somebody. His mother? No, forget that. Maybe it’s an un-lived high school fantasy. She reminds him of an old crush–a cheerleader he was infatuated with for two whole years, but she’d never talk to him–

And so on. We’re getting there–but not there yet. Keep it up, keep probing. Show yourself no mercy. Role play the ruthless inquisitor who refuses to put up with vague or non-specific responses. Be nosy, even prurient. When necessary, feel free to probe in places that would make even Barbara Walters tremble. In reality it’s only you who’s asking the questions, only you giving the answers, so there’s no reason to be anything but shameless.

You have only job at this stage and it’s crucial: to generate as many plausibilities as you can

Character Interrogation

A similar process, only now your questions are going right to the source, a character.

Because you’re answering for that character, a little internal role-playing is called for. Should that prove a challenge for you, just do it. Don’t worry if, say, you have trouble with a character voice. This is not about performing a stunning act of mimicry, but about generating information

Situation: Jenn is poised for a climactic scene with her boyfriend, Mark. But something feels murky and vague about the moment. You don’t actually know what Jenn ought to do or why. You have a few arbitrary notions, but none of them feel right.

What to do? Interrogate her:

What do you want from Mark?
I want him to love me, I guess.

Why? Specifically? Do you love him?
I don’t know, I’m not sure. Isn’t it enough to just…want love?

No, not enough. This is a big scene, a major face-off. You need something that’s specific. What would that be?
Okay, well, maybe he’s got somethin of mine.

Hm. Like what?
Like… Okay, I just sold my old car that he oved so much. Maybe he turned around and bought it back for himself. I’d find that very upsetting.

Good. But what do you want?
My car. I want my car back.

See how quickly we found real meat? Now we know what the fight is about, and by virtue of that, we have an inner logic for this very important scene.