Freewriting vs note wrangling

Yesterday’s post was free-written. That means I had a rough idea and then started typing quickly. It took a few twists that I didn’t expect and didn’t have a neat conclusion.

But it was a rush to write like this. Even though I’ve been publishing every day, the content for many of these pieces was defined by existing notes. I have a note-taking problem and I already have notes on nearly any topic that interests me.

When I write a post from existing notes, I start with a series of statements or conclusions. These limit the flow in important ways. Instead of just writing, I’m trying to prop up existing statements. It’s like starting with 4 or 5 islands and then slowly building bridges between them.

It’s brittle. Because I’ve given the statements more solidity than they’re worth. I’ve sacrificed how I might say something now in favour of justifying how I said it then.

It feels more comfortable. There’s lots of incremental re-arranging because the notes usually have no narrative flow. It’s obvious now that this is a momentum killer. It’s jumping straight into editing, instead of writing.

And the result is often less ideal than if I’d just started writing from scratch.

Freewriting takes more courage. Generally, it’s also done at a faster pace. With a keyboard, you can type slightly faster than your internal censor functions. That makes it uncomfortable and unknowable, but also fresh and real.

I strongly resisted yesterday’s post. It felt too personal, mildly embarrassing, and like no one would relate. And yet once I started writing, it all flowed out quite naturally.

This post was also free-written. It was satisfying to start typing and see what emerged. The flow feels good and it took about 15-20 minutes total. I think trying to cobble too many posts together from existing notes has been my biggest mistake in this writing challenge.

Each time I free-write I feel energised. My confidence in writing without scaffolding grows. I wonder what else I could create from this place, where hundreds of words effortlessly stream out.

It makes me remember why I love writing.