As a high school student, just beginning her journey into the field of writing, I was faced with a dilemma. I never knew what to write about. I always seemed to be stuck on the same few topics that I always wrote about. My junior year I started taking an Advanced Placement English class. The instructor would lead the class in a free writing exercise every morning before class started. Everyday he would give us a prompt; he would say a random word, ask a simple question, or show us an inspiring picture and we would have to write about it for any given amount of time. This free writing exercise is one of the things that I feel needs to be explored further in most writing classrooms, because of the help that it gave me as a writer.
There are many people who have arguments against free writing; they say that it does no good for the real writers in this world. I am completely against the view that free writing does not help the average writer. The in class prompts that the instructor gave us led me to write some of my best and most creative essays. Many writers have the same problem that I used to have, the problem of coming up with a topic for an essay or piece of writing. When writing on the prompts given by my instructor, my classmates and I easily took up the entire amount of given time scribbling away on the topic or whatever came to mind when the prompt was given to us.
An argument that some scholars have against free writing exercises is that there is no reason for a piece of writing, unless there is going to be an audience. In my experiences with free writing, that is what made it such a good exercise for me. In free writing you get to write with the knowledge that there will not be a judgmental person, or audience, reading it. I could say anything. I was able to write, without having to hold back, about whatever the topic brought to mind. If I thought a piece of writing that I came up with in the free writing sessions was worth being read, I could expand and edit that that essay into one that was appropriate for an audience. It was having the freedom from judgment and grading which led to my desire to be a writer. Sometimes being judged is one of the problems that many fellow writers face when beginning their own journeys toward becoming a writer.
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The argument that some scholars make against free writing about pieces of writing needing an audience as well as the argument that all writings should be directed towards an audience is something that I definitely do not believe. Granted, I agree with the question that some people ask; what good is a piece of writing if it is not written to be seen? This is a legitimate question. Writing should be seen, but not because it was written to be seen. It should be seen so that the readers can see what the writer thought, they can take it as they want to, but at least in any case as long as the writer is getting his or her thoughts out that is what truly matters. Their honest thoughts and views, not the edited versions, are what need to be shared, which I believe is the point of writing. That is why I actually do agree that writings should be seen, but I still do not believe that they should not be written for the audience. It is about the writer.
What I am saying is, when people begin writing for themselves, and writing the things that make them happy is when we get some of our best pieces of writings. Continually trying to please whatever audience you are ‘writing for,’ will lead you to long nights of editing, drafting, and fretting over making the perfect piece that no one will be able to judge. Writing for yourself will lead you to writing what your true thoughts are and when people are talking about things that they believe in, they tend to do so more easily than writing what the writer believes to be the audience’s views.
This is the problem that we see in most academic settings. Students are afraid to step on any toes, especially the toes of the ‘ultimate judge,’ the instructor. Therefore students tend to shy away from writing, especially in their own voice. Especially in classrooms where instructors make their point of view so clear that they let it get in the way of their grading of students’ works. While, I feel it unfair to stifle the opinion of the instructor completely, instructors need to realize that instead of judging the opinions of the students, they need to judge the writing instead; the grammar, organization, spelling, all of these things. They should not grade the student based upon the ideas that the student is sharing, but upon how these ideas are presented in the student’s writing.
That being said, while free writing is a great way for a writer to get ideas out, it does not necessarily help a writer grow in the grammar and organization of their writing. This is where the instructor is necessary. Grammar exercises are just as important as free writing exercises and just as helpful in the writing community. Without being able to write clearly and grammatically correct, the message that writer’s are trying to get across will not be taken as seriously as a well written essay, even if the opinion is completely opposite the opinion of the reader.
All of the arguing about what we need in the writing community is pointless. It is tearing apart the community, when all that needs to be done is to look at it from the other side. A large majority of the arguments that are had in our community seem to be arguing about different kinds of writing.
Posted by Kara on September 14, 2008
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I also like the anecdote you open with because it explains your personal connection with freewriting.
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