My reflection on MarianneWest's #freewrite
Hi Everyone!!
41 days ago I started on a journey that has brought joy to my life. @mariannewest's #freewrite.
I have made friends, learned about myself and others by joining in.
I love to go read other people's #freewrites after I do mine.
Why not before?
For me, I don't want my perception altered by reading someone else's post and their take on the prompt. Even if I have to wait until nighttime to write or I miss a day, I will wait to read other #freewrites until mine is done.
While reading others people's posts I come across a lot of the same feelings that I had when I started.
One of those feelings was, what if I do it wrong?
The way I interpreted everything I had read from @mariannewest was that there was NOT a wrong or right way to do it.
The whole point of it was to GET you writing......flowing, with your words.
Easier said than done!
As you can see I can not type or spell!
I had found Grammarly way before I started on Steemit. It helps relieve the pressure, for me, of worrying about spelling and typo's and just write my thoughts down without worry. I can go back after I'm done and make my thoughts legible to others trying to read what I have written.
Now other's will use the #freewrite to challenge themselves in other ways. Be it leaving typo's in or however they feel they need to be challenged and that is right too!
I was trying to post something on Steemit every day but I was running out of idea's to write about.
In comes @mariannewest's #freewrites to save the day!
Freewrites make me happy, very happy, and sometimes sad. I think they get out feelings on that day, at that time, that NEED to come out of you, so in the end, #freewrites have helped me more than I ever thought they could.
Now it's more about doing it for me then it is so I can post something, in hopes, that someone will read it and like it, tho I still DO hope that every day!
As I tend to ramble, here are my rules all nice and neat.
- There is NO right or wrong way to do a free write as long as you have fun doing it.
- If you need to, fix your typo's after you are done.
- If you feel the need to follow the official rules to a T then don't fix your typo's.
- Relax!
- Have FUN! ALWAYS!
- Don't over think it.
- Timer always at 5 minutes, try and not look at it!
- If you feel the need to finish the story after your 5 minutes are up, finish it! as long as it's FUN and not WORK for you.
- Don't stress about what comes into your head, just write what comes in down and post it.
- There is no right or wrong unless it's not fun. If it stops being fun. stop and wait a few days.
**The official rules are found here: Writers or wanna be Writers Wanted!!!! Be Free! Freewrite!
My advice to anyone is to try doing a #freewrite. You will be very surprised in many ways you never thought of!!
Here is today's prompt to get you started if you would like: Day 49: 5 Minute Freewrite - Prompt: mosquitos
Always remember and never forget "there is no right way" to do a #freewrite, for me. This is not school, this is Steemit! and fun should always be had!
What are your rules? I would really love to know!
Am I the only one that feels this way? I would love to know that also!
Happy writing!
Snook
Good article! Its nice to hear you talk about your process. I was wondering where all the typo's went ;p
I have been posting a few different types of articles on steemit. Recently, with #decemberphotochallenge and #blacknwhitephotography, these are shorter posts with one or two pictures.
I also write something and then go search for pictures, these are usually articles that I write for a contest or other reasons to try and win crypto monies!
I also do documentation, where I start with a serious of photographs that we have taken and I try to write a paragraph at least in between each one of them.
The last type is for utopian, where we are dealing with open source software, and it kind of depends what we are doing, but my pictures are usually screen shots of what is happening or what was done.
Just some of my thoughts!
Love,
Alex
I love your thoughts and I love you!!
Thank you for bringing me along to Steemit with you and Ledis!
I love the freewrites too!!! I am so glad that so many new writers are finding it, and adding their stories. I try my best to read them all.
I AM too :D it makes me happy to see it growing!
I set my timer for 4 minutes 50 seconds. That way I have 10 seconds to wrap it up with a bow.
Ohhhhhhhh THAT is a great idea!!!!!!!!!
Thank you for sharing!! :D
You said it perfectly!! What a great post!! And I think I have to write up a new introduction if it sounds like that you are not allowed to fix typos. The point is to do it after and keep the flow going - just like you said!!
Resteemed and I am coming back with an upvote tomorrow!
I'm SO happy you liked it!! :D
Thank YOU!
I agree. Sometimes a single prompt can lead to multiple directions with different writers. Fun to see how diverse the freewriters are with a single prompt!
yes! and I think the fun of it also is reading others after you are done! I agree!
Came back with a vote and gave you a double feature in today's prompt post lol
Thank YOU!! for all you do for us!!
The #freewrite curriculum is indeed great. I have been missing out on it for some time, but will hopefully be doing a few freewrites over the weekend. So glad that @mariannewest and @improv started this initiative and brought so many people closer.
so am I!!
I found the freewrites first thing when I got here and they have been wonderful! I like your list of rules (I always try to fix my typos after I write!) and have found it to be such a freeing exercise. It's motivating me to write so much more than I was before.
I've found that I write a lot of horror-morbid themed stuff, even though that's stuff I avoid reading (and especially avoid watching anything like that!), so sometimes I challenge myself to write something "light' or happy :) That's about all of the 'rules' that I apply to myself, although I DO sometimes break the 'only 5 minutes' I do try to stick with it as much as I can.
it IS freeing for me too!!
and that's very funny that in don't read horror and you write it very, very well!!!!! :D
I wonder what that says about us? :D
and yeah, I try not to break the 5 minutes too, I think just once or twice I have
I have only broken the 5 minute rules I think twice, because both times I had to know what happened next! :) I'm really lucky I can type so fast, I suppose, or I'd always have to go over. Of course I used to say that I could never write short stories, so this challenge has really helped me with that!
@mariannewest and all of the rest of us should post these rules on all of our freewrites! I love having the freedom to do it my way, the way that makes me happy and able to get into writing and that is what I was told to do right from the start. but having it put into words in the form of rules makes me feel better about it. 🙂
Thanks!! and I think the "rules" are what people are afraid of.......that there really isn't any loll
:D