Free-Writing: Cage That Monkey Mind and Get Creative

I've always been a heavy experimenter; language learning, productivity-hacking, drugs, sleep deprivation (often goes hand-in-hand with drugs), but it's only recently I've begun keeping data about myself in various states. Gems like "Does it feel better to meditate at 10:37 am or at 2:10 pm?" or "How cheap can I get drunk after fasting for 16 hours?" Mostly useless, totally subjective stuff, in my opinion the root all good self-experimentation. Lots of writers have techniques or routines to get them into the zone. This 10-15 minute blitzkrieg technique that I call Free-Writing is by far the best primer I have come across in my experimentation.

Writing isn't much more than a hobby for me, and I'm no better at it than I am at squishing pimples off my own back. No piles of cocaine and ludes sitting around for me like Hunter S. Thompson, so I gotta work with the materials at hand to spin me up into a better writing space.

This technique I list below has completely killed any fear and procrastination that I used to feel before writing. Because there are no stakes. The goal is to just dump raw brain feed onto the page, and pick through it later if I feel like there is something worthwhile in there. It gets me out of my head, oils my lexical gears, quiets my internal critic, and gives my monkey mind something to do while I'm writing - this is what allows me to go on and be creative at something.

The Premise:

Give your fingers a blank canvas
Distract your "internal critic"
Sprint through 10-15 minutes of writing without looking down

The Setup:

1 - Open Evernote: I want a completely blank page to work from. Evernote is very forgiving of typing errors when I'm writing. The interface is clear and free of tools and click-bait. It is heavy handed with the autocorrect, so I don't end up with a screen full of red error marks that drive my eyes crazy and beg for my attention.

2 - Open iTunes: Use loud audio and visual stimulus to distract your monkey mind. THIS IS KEY. I use iTunes and turn on the visualizations so that I can pump deep house or some other rhythmic, progressive EDM, stare off into this little window of blinky, twisty orbs and not think about what, where or how anything is being typed out by my fingers. This is the disconnect I'm seeking from my critiquing inner voice. Sometimes I'll also stare over the top of my laptop if I'm writing at a busy coffee shop, or watching a bustling street. The key is that whatever you're looking at has to have tons of activity going on. You must resist the urge to look down at your fingers or at your page.

Evernote (left) iTunes visualization (bottom right)

3 - Sprint Typing: The key to the last piece is you must SPRINT. Type as fast as you can. Don't look down. Don't look at anything except your visual distraction. It's pretty much required that you be able to touch type (e.g. via the home-row method). But if you can't do that now, you can likely teach yourself with a few hours. (https://www.typingclub.com/). I wasn't a particularly fast typer when I started this, but I just gifted myself the room to learn, and pretty soon my typing caught up to my brain. Now it is amazing how fast I can type once I'm flowing, which usually happens within 2-3 minutes of when I start.

Sometimes it's just a good warm up for writing, and sometimes the spew of semi-cognitive alphabet jumble that comes out of my head holds little bits of fear, worry, or desire that was worthwhile to get out into existence. Ever so rarely some piece of true introspection or fictional brilliance will drop out of my subconscious and then I have it forever. This is the gem I'm looking for. This is what keeps me coming back to this writing primer.

Note from the author

This is my first post on Steem and I love what the platform provides and the decentralization and removal of censorship at it's core. I'm in the process of moving all of my blog content over to Steem and will continue to write about DIY mindsets, launching your own startup in a small town, language tools, frugal living, my international career and travel experience and tons of other things as I work to find a home here on the Steem community. I greatly appreciate any interest and support I receive here on Steem.

If you want to read my other writing while I'm the process of transferring stuff over you can read my other posts currently @ https://almostfitz.com