Thursday, July 9, 2009

I Should Have Known (Slow Was) Better

In yesterday's post, I mentioned what I call "trance writing." It has a fancy technical name I can't pronounce--maybe I can spell it: "proprioceptive writing." There now, but it doesn't tell you a thing does it?

It's essentially "getting into the flow" of writing. To me, it's a state of intense, but relaxed concentration, like a trance. There is a book about it, but the book is as much about psychology as about writing. Not that the two aren't related. They very much are. But that's not the subject of this post.

I find that writing slowly, deliberately, with music in the background (Irish harp music works for me) promotes writing with more depth and better quality in most cases than say, freewriting, which tends to be hurried and harried. Freewriting can help break writer's block, is great for getting something/anything down on the page, but most of it is throw-away.

If you want to try trance writing, pick your subject first. Then put on whatever instrumental music will aid your concentration. Set a timer for 20 minutes or so, and go to it. Write slowly, listening carefully to your thoughts about the subject, following them as they try to get ahead of you. Don't let them. Make them slow down. Your thoughts may backtrack or take strange turns. That's fine. Follow them.

No comments:

Post a Comment