Lately I have been stretching for ideas. I've felt uncreative and unable to write anything. A friend on the WD board that I suggested last post suggested that if that's my problem I stop working on my novel for awhile and start doing some free writes.
Free writes are interesting things, I've mentioned them before in my blog but never really in depth. Generally you want to find somewhere quiet or with a bit of music if that helps, and you want to just write. No censoring, no going back to edit, nothing that would hinder the process of writing. You literally write everything that comes into your head during this write. Set an alarm so you're not constantly looking at the clock and keep writing.
One of the first free writes that I ever did in my life started like this: "I have no idea what to type so I'm going to just type whatever I'm thinking." It was a peculiar way to start writing in my opinion but oddly enough it worked, I kept writing and writing and eventually I started thinking of random scenes that popped into my head, I started thinking about new characters and about where my novel was going. In the end I actually found it very useful.
So now to this time around when I'm feeling drained and uncreative. I know the things I usually do in order to de-stress and get some creativity back but this time I keep letting myself feel overwhelmed, often with things that have nothing to do with writing, but more often by the novels that used to help me relax and let my brain work for me instead of against me. I'm intimidated by the wonderful words I read by other authors and find my own words just not quite good enough. I think I will be trying some free writes and set myself adrift so that I can just write for awhile. Since that's what I've been so hesitant to do it seems the perfect way to get over that fear this time around.
Enjoy being adrift on that Sea, there's moments of brilliance there and it can gently lure you into relaxation to allow your brain to think of something brilliant. If you need some starter ideas you can check out my earlier blog post with those here.
