Hello and welcome to ZineWriMo Day 7!
For today’s task we have ‘stream of consciousness writing’. If you’re not familiar, SoC writing is where you simply sit and write without stopping. No matter what comes to mind, you keep that pen (or those fingers, if you’re typing) moving.
This can be a great way to dig past all those inner editor thoughts to get to some real gems inside.
Some people use it as an exercise, setting a timer for five minutes, ten, twenty… However long you want to try.
There’s also the site 750 Words that can be a great way to dig into stream of consciousness writing as well as get you into the habit of writing every day. I love how they also give you analytics on your writing.
There is a bit of fair warning when it comes to writing like this and letting it all spill out onto the page. If you’re in a bad frame of mind at the start or get into a bad frame of mind while doing it, you should probably not do it. These sorts of exercises can make those mind spaces worse.
There is absolutely no shame in protecting your Self and your mental health.
Did you try stream of consciousness writing? How did it go? Let me know in the comments.
Definitely with you on the frame of mind warning, which is something I think should be discussed/warned for more. Not all moods are freewriting/stream of consciousness writing moods, but when in the right mood, I find that it works well and that I sometimes come up with things I hadn’t thought of before, so yay! 🙂
It never occurred to me until a few years ago when a psych told me that she actually had to stop a person from journalling because it was just fuelling the fire, so to say. I agree that it should be discussed and warned about more.
No joke: my very first thought was “Maybe somebody should write a zine about it”. 😀
Haha! True!