Free-writing: The Ultimate Cure For Stress

   As a student, the pressures of everyday life seem to be magnified by about a thousand, maybe more some days. Finding time to fit in friends, family, my job, work placement and a little bit of me time seems impossible! I have however discovered an easy way to get rid of negativity and pent up stress - free-writing. Before I had tried free-writing as a method of relaxation, I didn't have much faith in it at all. After a stressful day of lectures and reading, the last thing I would want to do is pick up a book and write but believe me, it works. It's surprisingly therapeutic picking up a pen, your favourite notebook and just letting you're thoughts run wild on paper; more often than not, ideas for my stories and other genres of writing have stemmed from free-writing.

What are the benefits of free-writing?
The main benefit of free-writing is that your writing will be honest and full of emotion. Try writing when you're feeling a strong emotion, whether it's when you're feeling heartbroken or when you're feeling so happy you could burst! It doesn't matter if what you've written doesn't make sense because it meant something to you when you wrote it. It's most important to write in the midst of these emotions because often, they are the trickiest to make realistic in fiction.

My tips:
1. Pick a notebook that you really like. This may seem like a silly starting point but it is important. If you pick a notebook that you like, without realising, you'll be more inclined to go and write in it. Try http://www.paperchase.co.uk/ they may be a bit more expensive but they make up for it in being gorgeous!

2. Write something as soon as you wake up. Keep a notebook by your bedside, that way you can record your dreams as soon as you wake from them. A lot of the time when I'm led in bed before sleeping an idea will come to me and I will write continuously for up to 10 minutes. If you put a thought on hold, you'll lose it.

3. Write without thinking. Write whatever is in your mind, it might come out completely backwards, it might be inappropriate, it might be a jumble of letters, it might be purely based on swearing (I've done this numerous times). The point is that it doesn't matter, it's for you to see and nobody else. Here are some examples of what you're free-writing might look like:

4. Do your writing exercises. A writing exercise can be anything, even if it's just recalling a childhood memory and writing as much as you can remember down. The aim is to keep your imagination active and to get yourself to draw on your personal experiences. Perhaps it will inspire you to write an autobiographical piece.

5. In a nutshell: It's point is to keep going, and that is the only point.


Beginner Guidelines

1. Give yourself a time limit (this can be anything between five to twenty minutes usually).

2. Keep your hand moving until your time is up. Don't stop to think about what your writing and don't check over as you write.

3. The grammar and neatness of your work doesn't matter, so don't worry.

4. If you run out of ideas or enthusiasm halfway through, write about what you fancy for tea, what the weather's like, how much you hate sprouts; anything.

5. If you feel annoyed because you can't think of anything to write, then write about being annoyed about it.

6. When you've used your time up, close your notebook and don't read over what you've done immediately; go back to it a few days later.