How to Make Free-Write Practices Work for You: The Uncommon Write

A BRIEF GUIDE TO GETTING STARTED, AND FOUR WAYS TO TURBO-CHARGE IT

If you’ve taken a writing class, gone on a writing retreat or read a writing craft book, you’ve probably encountered some version of a free-write practice. Those methods guide you to a measurable outcome—minutes spent writing, pages generated. 

The Uncommon Write overlays those tried-and-true methods with mindfulness techniques that build trait mindfulness and emotional resilience. 

In this post, I give you a brief guide so you can lay the foundation and create the habit, plus give you four ways to turbo-charge it.

The Writing Down the Bones free write

Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones draws upon her Zen Buddhist training to guide writers in timed free-writes designed to transcend “monkey mind,” or the inner critic, and free the writer within.

Writings are timed. The number of words or pages doesn’t matter. You may write three pages or three se…