A few weeks back, The Red Diamond Dragon Club played at the launch of the Free University of Brighton; a community project providing free educational opportunities for all. The launch event consisted of several speeches from important figures, live music (that's where we came in), but most interestingly a speed learning session. Several individuals were spread across the venue, each with their own specialist subject, ranging from traditional academic fields such as physics and anthropology, to more quirky things like playing the ukelele and hypnosis. You would spend three minutes at each learning station, during which the expert would try to explain a facet of their chosen field, and after which a drum would be hit and you would shuffle off the next person. It proved to be both fun and informative. Educational and entertaining. Edutainment.
One of these learning stations was entitled creative writing, and I decided to mosey along to see what wisdom could be bestowed during the three minutes. What was in store was the classic creative writing technique, free writing. Regularly used as a warm-up session for creative workshops, the aim of the game is to loosen up the mind (as well as your writing hand) and just let the words flow. For a designated amount of time you have to just write, constantly, allowing whatever words pop into your head to pop out onto the page. Sometimes you have a theme or sentence to start you off, but ultimately the end product is not the important bit. The act of writing, of making creativity happen, is the aim.
Although this is a process I was already familiar with, what the learning station manager (this probably wasn't their title, but it will do for now) emphasised was the importance of constantly writing. Even if you can't think of words to follow, she said, just keep repeating things until new words come. This wasn't something I usually do, and so to have the importance of constant writing stressed was very useful. Sometimes you've got to be strict with yourself, and forcing movement is the best way to get through a mental block. One of the best things about writing is how easy it is to go back over what you've written at a later time and edit it. The hardest part is getting it down in the first place. If anyone has even a passing interest in writing, I would certainly recommend that they give free writing a go. Even if it doesn't lead on to anything, it can be great fun.
This is what I came up with during the session. The theme we were all given was 'what I want'.
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What I want is to keep this going all the way to the end so that my ink runs from hemisphere to hemisphere like a great Walter Scott or Walter Raleigh or any wall to wall superhero that has ever existed! I want this more than anything, I want it all, I want it all AND I WANT IT. NOW! And if I was to tweet that then that would have been bad "letteriquette" as it would be deemed aggressive, but this is an entirely different format and it's good to be aggressive and WANT TO REACH THE END, because when we're writing it is important to have goals because goals are what keep us going, going to the end, but also to be disciplined. The discipline of free writing is incredibly important because so many 'writers' never get the ink flowing because they don't understand that the best way to channel this want is to break free of channeling factors. Break free from the walls and turn the channel into a bloody great sea. I WANT TO BE A BLOODY GREAT SAILOR.
