Free Writing (Prompt)

Have you ever heard of free writing? I hadn't until this year. I must say, it's quite the concept.

The jist of free writing is to just take about ten minutes and write. Don't think or plan, just write whatever comes to your mind.

The idea is that if you're stuck, it can help get your creative juices flowing. Or even if you aren't stuck, it can help you see something from a different point of view. And maybe if you get stuck later on in some of your writing, you can just read some of your free writing and find ideas in it.

When I do it, it's so much more than that. It let's me take all my emotions, negative or not, and put them somewhere they can't bother me anymore. They're gone. They don't tie me down. That's a lot of the reason I do it. If I'm upset or down on myself, I free write and I feel infinitely better.

I love it. It's freeing to just sit down and bleed my thoughts onto paper. So that's what today's prompt is. (I haven't done a Thursday prompt in a while. Im sorry about that.)

Rules:

-Free write for ten minutes. Just bleed onto the page (or screen) and see what happens.

-Read through your writing and see if it sparks any ideas. If it does, awesome! If not, no worries. Just file it away for future use!

-If you feel comfortable sharing, post your writing in the comments! (I sometimes end up writing some personal stuff. That's why I add that.)

-Pass this prompt along to a friend. Tweet it, share it on facebook, e-mail it. The more the merrier!

Some people say it's better to write on paper because it accesses parts of the brain that don't get used when typing.  Whether they're right or not, I like doing it on paper. But you can do it however you want!

I'm off to free write! See you in the comments! 

Writing Characters Who Are Your Opposites

How DO the bad girls think?

A few days ago, I was stuck on this question. This was my free write from that day:

"I've been stuck on this question for about 45 minutes. Im trying to write a character summary for the bad girl in my new WIP but I can't seem to empathize with her at all.

I'm a homeschooled quiet girl. (Not a "homeschoolER" mind you, just quiet.) So the brain of a rebellious girl who's always putting others down and chasing the hot boys is foreign to me.

I don't even have friends even remotely like this.

It's quite the problem. I know I need to write this summary so I can understand this character and so she isn't a boring shell of a person but I just can't get into her mindset.

I've been asking myself; "Why does she do these things?" "What are her dreams? " "What keeps her from these dreams?" But it's not working too well."

After I wrote the last sentence, my brain kind of exploded. I knew a girl who used to be a little like this. She wasn't mean or anything, just dark. She didn't chase boys either but that's beside the point. All of a sudden I had ideas. I felt like I'd just broken the surface of the water and could breathe.

The character summary isn't quite what I had hoped. It's lacking in a happy ending. I dont feel that bad for her, but I think I understand her better.

The secret was looking at WHY she's like that. (Ana's her name by the way.) Why does she chase boys? Her dad died when she was little and she's starving for male attention in her life. Why is she mean to others? No one is ever nice to her. Her mom was distant and now she's dying. Ana doesn't know what to do. She's at her wits end and the only way she knows how to deal with it is take it out on other people.

As simple as that. But I couldn't figure any of that out until I found someone I had met who I could sympathize with. If I don't have even just an inkling of sympathy for my charries, they end up flat.

And the only way I found that sympathy was free writing. So next time you're blocked,  try free writing. Maybe it'll open a new point of view for you like it did for me.

How do you write characters who are the opposite of you?