4 ms·

Have you tried free/automatic writing? I don't know what the term is actually, but just stream of consciousness, putting words to paper, zero filter or pause, s

Have you tried free/automatic writing? I don't know what the term is actually, but just stream of consciousness, putting words to paper, zero filter or pause, straight from the brain. I usually start with "I don't know what to write but" and then just don't let myself stop. I have to keep putting words down, only rule. It sometimes starts or turns gibberish, but eventually I hit a flow and real stuff starts to come out, and then I'm just writing. I've seen the concept applied to art/drawing as well. I highly recommend trying! Quick edit while I can: after googling this there's a lot of woo/spiritual stuff about it. I don't really subscribe to that, I just think it's a great tool to get out of your head and enter the flow state of writing, when it feels inaccessible.

borski 7mo ago
Yes, actually! (Minus the woo) Most of my best short stories were written precisely this way. For creative writing, I find that works really well. I also do a version of this now, which is simply record myself speaking extemporaneously about the ideas I want to write about. It’s all in my head, so speaking it out loud (or writing) helps me organize my thoughts. Then I take that recording, shove it into an LLM, and have it turn it into sentences with punctuation, without changing meaning. Inevitably, it sucks, but gives me a starting point.