Freewriting.

When I was in high school, I took Creative Writing as one of my elective classes. One of the things I learned as a means of getting ideas for things to write about was freewriting. My teacher told us to just start writing whatever came to mind without stopping until he told us to stop. Here’s what I came up with:

So, here I am, looking out the window on this cold night. The heat trickles out weakly from the vents and it warms me as I think about my future, how to go about it in this big maze. So, if I manage to pull through this maze, there’s always another one and another one after that. It keeps coming to me that Life is not as easy as it was when I was younger. People did stuff for me, and I didn’t have to help much. Then – BINGO! Here I am, being the chief helper around the house, and it gets pretty tiring after a while, then I manage to be lazy for a time and someone comes in and asks me “What are you doing?” I say nothing and they drag me out of my room and shove me to a job that I like a little or not at all. I must think for myself and that is quite tiring. I feel myself still developing and such dramatic changes can throw me off track. So, I feel I need some kind of help to get me through this big maze of life. Once I get through this…”STOP!”

Then my teacher told us to review what we wrote so far and find something to write about in the second freewriting assignment. I noticed I mentioned a maze of life and decided to explore that further. Before I knew it, I had just found something to write about.

Obstacles are all around me as I run through this semi-dark terror. I cannot see any hope of making it through this maze, because I hope to get out of it as soon as possible. Aha! I have escaped the maze! But, unfortunately, there is another one coming up ahead and that is another hard task to carry forth and so, I begin. That last maze is a boosted grade in algebra, but this one is improving my social life. I go in, and there in front of me is a hall, branching into two. I cannot choose but one and I take it. I run through it. Ah, DEAD END! I turn around, and time is wasted. I go down the second hall, and it too is a dead end. I stop and think, I am stuck in this maze.

So the next time you’re stumped for ideas for writing, just write nonstop for a specific time frame and then review what you wrote. You might just find something to write about after all.