Journaling
Free writing
Free writing is a way of writing where you set a timer, often for ten minutes, and write without stopping until it rings. You do not fix your spelling, cross words out or go back to read what you wrote. It is also spelled freewriting, and some people call it stream of consciousness writing.
Last updated
Reviewed by Mohammed Raqeeb
The steps
How to do free writing
Free writing takes a pen and paper, or a keyboard, and ten minutes. There are four steps.
- Set a timer for ten minutes. If ten feels like a lot, start with five. You stop when the timer rings, so you never have to decide whether you have written enough.
- Start writing, and do not stop. Write whatever comes into your head, in the order it comes. You can pick a topic first, or have none. If nothing comes, write “I do not know what to write” again and again until a new thought shows up.
- Do not fix anything. Leave the spelling mistakes in. Do not cross words out, and do not go back to read what you wrote. Fixing comes later, if at all.
- Stop when the timer rings. Read the page through once. If one line is worth keeping, underline it. You can throw the rest away.
Nobody else has to read the page. That is why you can write badly on it, and say what you really think.
An example
What does free writing look like?
Free writing looks messy, and that is fine. We made up this example. A man called Omar has to give a speech at his sister Sara’s wedding, and he cannot start it. He sets a timer for ten minutes and types.
Ok. Ten minutes. I do not know what to write. I do not know what to write. The speech. I have to say something nice about Sara, and all I can think of is the time she drove us to the wrong airport. Is that nice? Maybe it is. She laughed the whole way back. I am hungry. Why did I say yes to this. Evryone will be looking at me. I do not know what to write. Ok, the airport. She did not get angry. She bought us all fries and said we would tell this story one day. And now I am telling it. Maybe that is the speech. She makes bad days funny.
Omar started with nothing to say. After 116 words, he had the story for his speech, and one line he wanted to keep: “She makes bad days funny.” He threw the rest away.
Most of what you write this way is not worth keeping. You are looking for the one or two lines that are.
Try it
Try free writing right here
The box below is a place to try free writing now. Choose how many minutes, and start typing. The box counts your words, and it tells you when you have stopped.
Time left
10:00
- Words so far
- 0
The timer starts when you start typing.
Nothing you type here is saved or sent anywhere. It stays on this page, and it is gone when you close or reload the tab.
Three methods
How is free writing different from morning pages and a brain dump?
Free writing is different from morning pages and a brain dump in two ways: when you stop, and what you do with the page afterward.
| Method | What you write | When you stop | What you do after |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free writing | Full sentences, whatever comes | When the timer rings | Read it once, keep a line or throw it all away |
| Morning pages | Full sentences, whatever comes, by hand | At the end of the third page | Close the notebook |
| Brain dump | A list, one thing on each line | When nothing more comes | Sort the list, and give each task a day |
Choose a brain dump when your head is full of things to do. Choose free writing when there is one thing you cannot find the words for, like Omar’s speech. More ways to write are on the page about journaling techniques.
Another name
What is stream of consciousness writing?
Stream of consciousness writing means writing your thoughts down in the order they come, without sorting them. In a notebook or a journal, that is free writing, and the steps are the same.
The name is older than the method. A psychologist called William James first used it in a book in 1890. Later it became the name for a way of writing novels, in which the story follows a character’s thoughts from one moment to the next (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
The idea
What is the idea behind free writing?
Free writing is meant to keep two jobs apart: getting words onto the page, and fixing them. Many people do both at once. They write a sentence, judge it, change it, and lose the next thought.
That was the idea of Peter Elbow, the writing teacher who gave the method its name in his book Writing Without Teachers (Elbow, 1973). One newer study fits his idea. It did not test free writing itself, so it is a hint and not proof.
Students who kept typing said they understood their topic better.
In one experiment, university students each wrote an article for half an hour. Some planned it with an outline first, and the others did not. Among the students with no outline, the ones who kept typing with only short pauses were the ones who said they understood the topic better after writing (Baaijen and Galbraith, 2018).
Their articles got lower marks, though. So writing this way may help you find out what you think. It does not give you a finished text.
The test
How do you know free writing is working?
The test
You did your ten minutes of free writing on at least three days of the week
for four weeks in a row.
Ten minutes of free writing is easy to plan and easy to skip. After a few weeks, it is hard to say on how many days you really wrote.
A good way to check is to count the minutes from what you write or say about your day. Most journaling apps keep the words you wrote. They do not show on how many days you sat down to write.
One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in.
You write or say your day in your own words, as it happens or all at once. The app reads what you wrote and counts the hours that went to each part of it: your writing, work, sleep, your phone, and the time you never mentioned (shown as unaccounted). Then it shows those hours over days and weeks. So you can see on how many days your ten minutes of free writing really happened. Add your ten minutes as a habit for three days a week. On each day your words show them, the app ticks it off.
1. You write your day
2. It counts the hours
- Free writing0m
- Work0m
- Sleep0m
- Unaccounted24h
3. It shows your week
Free writing this week: 0m
On 6 of 7 days. The gap is the day without it.
An example day and week.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.
Sources
Where do the facts on this page come from?
The finding links to the study below, which we read in full for this page. The book and the encyclopedia only show where two names come from. Of the book, we read the opening pages. The example is our own.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica (read ). Stream of consciousness.
- Elbow, P. (1973). Writing Without Teachers. Oxford University Press, New York (pages 1 to 7, as excerpted by the University of California, Santa Barbara).
- Baaijen, V. M. and Galbraith, D. (2018). Discovery through writing: Relationships with writing processes and text quality. Cognition and Instruction, 36(3), 199 to 223.
Keep reading.
- LearnAnswers about sleep, habits, study, people and work, in hours.
- Diary entryThe date, what happened and how you felt. How to write one in five steps, four examples, and a starter with today’s date.
- Morning pagesWrite three pages by hand every morning. How to do it, how long it takes, and what studies say.
- Brain dumpWrite down everything on your mind, then sort it into three piles. The steps, an example, prompts, and a box to try one in.
- Where did my week go? calculatorEnter a typical day and see your week accounted and unaccounted.
- Time journalingThe method: write or say your day in your own words, then see it as hours.
Questions
Questions people ask.
What is free writing?
Free writing is a way of writing where you set a timer, often for ten minutes, and write without stopping until it rings. You do not fix your spelling, cross words out or go back to read what you wrote. It is also spelled freewriting.
What is an example of free writing?
An example of free writing is a page like this, typed without stopping: “I do not know what to write. The speech. All I can think of is the time she drove us to the wrong airport. Maybe that is the speech.”
How long should free writing take?
Ten minutes is the usual length for free writing, and five is fine to start with. The length matters less than the rule: you keep writing until the timer rings.
Is free writing the same as morning pages?
No. Morning pages are a kind of free writing with fixed rules: three pages, by hand, soon after you wake up. Plain free writing has one rule, which is to keep writing until a timer rings, at any time of day.
How do I keep track of a free writing habit?
A tick on a paper calendar for each day you wrote is enough. If you want an app, look for one that counts the minutes without a timer you have to start. One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in. Think in Numbers counts the minutes you spent writing from what you write or say about your day. In the app, those ten minutes can be a habit with a streak, ticked off the same way.
Try it on my day.
Write today down in your own words, and see where the hours went.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.