Poll #24: Do You Free Write?

[Shaun]

So, do you sit back and just randomly right to get the creative juices flowing or do you have other methods?

[Lykaios]

I tend to plan a little of what I'm writing before I start, or I get a good idea and go with it.

[Midnight_Moon]

I usually just start writing whatever is in my mind then do some planning. Other times I do tons of planning before I start.

[sXe_Jinxeh]

I am constantly grabbing random scraps of paper from my school binders and start scribbling random-ness. This usually leads to me not having paper for assignments, but what of it?

[jordanisonfire]

When I get a single idea, I burst out with a load of stuff, for some reason. But it'll most likely be cliché and plagiarised from whatever gave me the idea in the first place. ^^ So, yeah, I do free write. I never plan, I do that later and find it's going nowhere. :rolleyes:

[Majyk]

I usually have an idea, write it, then think of a new - and always better - idea. Right now I'm starting something, and I tried to do it without planning. It didn't work. I wrote the first ten pages, decided I had no idea what was going on, scrapped it, and have now started from the beginning, this time planning a little (at least the main plot :P).

[lango]

I have a 2 hour bus daily "travel" to my university, so I started writing random tales on the bus. They tend to work much, much better than my planned writings

[Alex]

I rarely have the natural inspiration to write, its mostly me forching myself to write giberish until something comes to me

[Simmi]

Umm... Yeah I do. Almost all my stories are just from sudden ideas. I never really plan anything out, it might explain my tendency for not finishing a story.

[random_writer]

I have so many ideas that I need to follow up on... I almost never completely give up on something. Right now I have two that could be totally awesome... one fantasy, and one sci-fi (which will be weird, since I usually only write fantasy.)

[Phantom]

You're writing sci-fi? That is weird...
I free write a lot, I mean A LOT!

[J.L.A.Montoya]

I free-write on essays after thinking on them for about fifteen minutes. But usually I just pour in sentence after sentence. It works quite well (my teachers think they're glorious, but critics have smashed them up).

I once did the same for a novel I wrote on 70-page notebooks (it ended in six notebooks at 500 pages or so). It didn't work. Well, it did, but there were things in there that shouldn't have been there, and some thing that weren't in there that should've been there, et cetera.

[Mercy]

It depends, if I have an idea, sometimes I'll run with it. Sometimes I just sit back and plan.

[JaceMT]

That's more or less all have time for anymore.

[littledreamer!]

When I get an idea, no matter how crazy, I won't stop thinking about it until i write it down. Sometimes I'll even do it in the middle of the night, just jump out of bed and scribble my thoughts down to elaborate on in the morning. Or sometimes evena song title that i love will become a short story. So yeah, i free write A LOT!

[Kyle]

My brain is a massive knot of ideas all wrapped up in a messy bundle. When something triggers another one to generate, it gets tossed into that pile... and well, they sortah sit there until they've had enough and go: "LOOK AT ME, LISTEN TO ME, DO SOMETHING WITH ME!"

Thats the point where I decide I need to write something before I explode, and so, I randomly pluck up a pen (or boot up my laptop- which is actually a more common choice) and spill the energetic little beans onto a blank canvas, of sorts.

Not everything leads to something, but I can usually take comfort in knowing I have a folder/draw full of files/scraps of paper which have random ideas, plot-lines, character concepts, poems, riddles or what not. It means I can totally grab them and sculpt something bigger and better with them all! :)

-Ky.

[JaceMT]

It's like I have a big tangle of yarn in my head, and i'm like a kitten palying with it. it's a "Cobble's Knot" When I find a bit of string coming loose...I exploit it for all it's worth.

I'm an insomniac. When I can't sleep, I write till I can't keep my eyes or mind either one focused on the page, then I pass out cold and wake up refreshed...with a page stuck to my face.

If I were to combine my little unfinished bits and peices it would be thicker than a telephone directory.

[Spacepirate]

I get a sheet of paper and start to scribble in an ink pen, and then the doodles turn into words and then there's a sentence.

Basically, my writing book is half filled with pictures.

EDIT: lol at the 2 people who don't know what free-write is.

[MackenzieLN]

Yes I do, whatever comes to mind I just write I don't finish them though.

[blue phoenix]

I ether free write of spend forever planing. My free writing is usually abstract.

[Sofiel]

EDIT: lol at the 2 people who don't know what free-write is.

Especially seeing as Shaun pretty much explains what it is in his post...

I try and carry a notebook with me at all times to jot down ideas, and whenever I get the chance I try to make a story from that... If I have time, I'll sit down and just write whatever comes to mind (these things generally end up completely random and nonsensical)... but most often I plan during the day (on the way to the bus, in class, while talking to my friends, while doing chores...) and write in any free moments. You'd be surprised how few of those moments I can actually find... :(

(Of course, when I am able to get a few hours to myself, I always procrastinate...)

[Rowenny]

Since I'm mostly writing poetry I usually do free writing. But when I write novels, I tend to plan some things. Not everything, because, if I plan everything, it gets boring to write.

[NAT says RAWR.]

I do sometimes :)

[SapphireSeaBird]

I never used to but recently I can't come up with any fully devloped plots, so I write the first thing that comes into my head until it runs out of steam

[FayGee]

If I know what I'm talking about, it means writing when you don't have to. Yes I do. That's what I do in my spare time if I don't have any good books at the moment.

[dragonheart]

I only free write so I think my book will take along time but it seems more original. I know what I'm going to write almost from the begining though.

[Clawfire]

I agree with Fay.

[bookworm]

I don't always have an idea to start with. I just wrte, and hopefully something will emerge. It doesn't always work, but it's a way to start when I'm completely brainwashed (nearly all the time).