Alas, there were no gold nuggets in any of the ten free-writing exercises thus far (today included). Nuggets of coal, maybe: when I read the pages I’ve written, every single one had at least one sentence about how I hated this exercise, and another “sentence” or “phrase” that started and/or ended with “blah blah blah”.

But – and this is a big deal – I’ve kept at it and will continue to do so because of the prospect that “good stuff” would come out once the “pipe was cleared”. Lo and behold, despite all the coal, some gold is beginning to surface (albeit for other Skillshare projects I’m working on). I’m convinced free-writing has helped.

The reason I have such a hard time enjoying free-writing, or even just doing it at all, is because I was an editor for so long that correcting spelling, punctuation, and word choice is really second nature to me. I can free-write otherwise, but then it wouldn’t be free-writing, would it?

It’s been quite a lesson for me to dial back on my editorial propensities and loosen up. Who knows, maybe I’ll skip kvetching about the exercise when I do it tomorrow.

(Thank you, Ms. Prior, for such an eye-opening course!)