Very sensible about Mark Levy's book “Freewriting: A Modern Technique for Finding Creative Solutions. Mark Levy

Mark Levy, founder of Levi Innovation, a consulting firm specializing in marketing strategies, introduces us to his author's technique, which he calls "freewriting" (English freewriting - free writing), which helps to extract something valuable and hidden from the subconscious. It could be a new business project, a marketing campaign, a novel idea, or a movie script.

Mark Levy's method is pretty simple: start writing as quickly and for as long as you can about a subject that you care about at the moment, ignoring the standard rules of grammar and spelling. It is necessary to write every day for at least 15 minutes without slowing down and stopping, first limiting the time, and then expanding the boundaries. It is necessary to write everything that comes into your head, freely, without thinking and without criticizing your thoughts. You need to write as you think, the main thing is to write without stopping. And then your “internal editor” will simply not be able to cope with such a flow of creativity, and as a result you will get breakthrough ideas and extraordinary solutions that you would never have come to otherwise.

The author claims that using his methodology, the reader will immediately begin to think differently than those around him, and will feel a powerful impetus to free creativity. Mark Levy studied writing at Rutgers University and then worked for the New York Times. In this book, he refers to the recommendations of other writers - Ray Bradbury (Zen and the Art of Writing), Chuck Polanik (13 Writing Tips), Ken McRury, Ron Carlson and others.

To be honest, the author did not convince me. And the book is rather watery, all its productive ideas could be presented on a dozen pages. (By the way, these Levi's recommendations are retold very briefly.) One must have a completely insecure consciousness, tormented by limitations, in order to resort to such strange methods of freeing it. A significant part of the book is occupied by the author's self-promotion. Much of the book seemed to me banal, gleaned from popular writing courses, although something was curious. But the author is trying to adapt these creative writing techniques to business. I would like to see someone who actually did it!

Mark Levy. Freewriting. Modern technique for finding creative solutions (Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content). / Translator O. Matsak. — M.: Eksmo, 2011. — 244 p. – Circulation 3000 copies. — (Series: Negotiations and presentations: best practices).

Freewriting is about recording the flow of thought without criticism. Automatic writing technique.

They say it helps

• Get into a creative state.
• Relieve stress.
• Find solutions to business problems.
• Overcome the writer's fear of a blank slate.

Let's check on me.

Practice

Practiced the method for 2 weeks.
Volume - sheet A4. It took 50 minutes a day.

Instruction: take a sheet of paper; write down thoughts without stopping until you hit the bottom edge. Everything.

It is better to limit the time, not the volume - 30 minutes is enough for freewriting.

It is important that you not only not be disturbed, but that you do not see anyone at all while recording. The brain is distracted by every rustle. Music or a movie / series from the next room will turn freewriting into a transcript of what you hear.

Freewriting Feedback

The main discovery is that I worry a lot! I realized: I think a lot about the future of this project, but this is not a process of thinking, but I'm just worried: “What will happen to him? What else to do? What will it lead to?

Every day on paper - the same questions! I give myself the answer in the afternoon, but I myself do not accept it and continue to bathe. Daily freewriting didn't help relieve that stress, but it did help bring it out - it's more important.

More conclusions:

1. Finding solutions to specific problems is difficult. You have to criticize thoughts if they deviate from the topic. And this is no longer freewriting, but, for example, brainstorming.
2. I did not experience any creative state.
3. I think faster than I write. I'm testing "Freespeaking" - voicing the flow of thoughts without criticism.
4. Using freewriting, I wrote about in 40 minutes. Improved for another 4 hours. It helped to start writing on a complex topic, but it is necessary to crystallize ideas.

I repeat: a lot of thoughts during the day - just strain, no use. I decided for myself: if you want to think, think in writing; plan - write plans on paper.

If I think about an idea for 5-10 minutes and don’t draw any interesting conclusion, it’s time to change the subject. Productive thinking - generates ideas that you want to record. Otherwise, well, you understand - I'm worried.

Personal experience transforms information about freewriting into knowledge. Practice!

Hi friends!

I confess that recently the topic of self-development has gone somewhat into the background. All remote work yes. It is necessary to correct, because ideas for articles that I really want to implement have just accumulated. Especially when such ideas were filtered by their own experience and supplemented with small nuances that are possible only with their practical application.

Today I will talk about such a tool as freewriting: what it is and how to use it. Perhaps you have already heard about it if you read my reports about the stodnevka passable a little earlier.

In short, freewriting is a writing technique of “free writing”, in which the mechanical recording of one’s own thoughts makes it possible to search for new non-standard ideas and solve some deep problems.

The concept is, of course, as old as the world! It is known that Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol resorted to such a free flow of thoughts, scribbling some nonsense on blank sheets. Something from the category “Ass is a fool, ass is a fool. I don't know what to write..." etc.

Following Gogol, Alexander Sergeevich also discovered a direct connection between the activation of the creative sections of the brain and the mechanical movement of the hand on paper. You probably remember his cartoons, which he drew in his own drafts.

This is how I fixed my values

It is a sin not to use the simple tools of geniuses in your daily life.

Freewriting technique

Freewriting is extremely easy to use. It is enough to open a notepad (paper or electronic), get a writing object (keyboard and pen) and just start writing whatever comes to mind. Without trying to comprehend and bring what is written into a readable form. The main principle is to write without interruption, without expectations and without trying to somehow evaluate these records.

If a stupor occurs, you can write it down like this: “I don’t know what to write about. My thoughts can't gather" or something like that. We do not write a petition or a letter to the president, we liberate the internal censor and give an opportunity to manifest even the wildest ideas.

The main thing is not to overdo it. Let everything go the way it goes... Just follow the basic guidelines and let yourself go.

Among the existing techniques, I especially liked 3 that I spied on as part of his hundred days: “disperse the dregs”, “stenographer” and “general questions”. I will describe them in a little more detail.

Disperse the haze

The goal of this technique is to get out. By analogy with the concept of "speak out." It is great to use it in the morning when you want (or need) to tune in to some activity.

Letting the mental flow take its course, we purify it, like running water, from all associated impurities, as a result of which clarity and transparency appear.

Dispersing the turbidity, we unravel the so-called. clots of experiences, describing them and pouring out everything that is happening inside on paper.

Stenographer

Some variation of the "dispersal of turbidity" technique. Its difference is quite small: technically, in fixing any thoughts that come to mind, as if they were being dictated aloud; as a result - in a spontaneous collection of ideas. If, dispersing the dregs, we simply dissolve interfering phenomena in the text, allowing clarity and transparency to appear, then in the “stenographer” we, clinging words to each other, fix spontaneous ideas.

For example, the idea to write this article came to me just during one of these sessions.

However, chasing the mandatory collection of some results is not worth it. This will only distract from the main thing: fixing the internal state, the change of which during freewriting is the main consequence.

Shorthand on the beach in Arambol

There is another technique that can be run for the purpose of self-coaching and even self-psychotherapy. I use it less often, usually to solve some deep psychological issues. Conventionally, it can be called "freewriting on the topic."

Freewriting on a topic (general questions)

Try to write down answers to questions of a more existential nature, such as “how do I feel when I complete this task”, “why did I decide to do this or that action?”, “How will I feel when I achieve this goal”.

Often during such self-therapies, very deep cause-and-effect relationships are suddenly revealed, as a result of which an understanding of certain processes of your own psyche suddenly arises. And this may not always be pleasant! Moreover, often, on the contrary, this can lead to rather painful states, which in turn can give rise to additional questions of the same existential nature.

Of course, it is not necessary to engage in self-digging. Freewriting of this nature can be applied to more innocuous questions, such as “what will change if I buy this car? How will I feel? etc. As a result, there is still the same feeling of clarity, from which there is a great chance of not achieving the goal at all.

The main goal of freewriting

There can be many goals: find a solution, generate ideas, probe for cause and effect relationships. However, in my opinion, the most important goal is to change your internal state.

In contrast to the changeable external beacons in the form of some kind of accomplishments, the internal best of all signals the truth of the direction of movement.

Because in the end it doesn't matter what you do. The main thing: do you feel sincere happiness at the same time?

In an article about, I wrote about what freewriting and the principles of a hundred days led me to.

The main thing in performing any of the techniques is not to overdo it. No need to think about what you write! On the contrary, you should write what you think. Not “about what”, but “what”. Without trying to analyze and connect what was written in some harmonious way. Let the words flow, quickly, without interruptions and attempts to find something more suitable.

And if the article seemed interesting and useful to you, please share it with your friends on social networks (the buttons for this are located on the left), subscribe to the blog newsletter and add me as a friend.

Conscious life to you and deep inner transformations!

No related articles

mind maps, creative thinking techniques or freewriting.

You will easier to focus

If you are writing for solving a complex problem

Other Freewriting Techniques

Freewriting with hints. You can find tips for daily freewriting yourself, very often tips for freewriting are offered by the evangelist of this technique in Russia Armen Petrosyan, here his Instagram account. On social media, Petrosyan often talks about a tip he personally used for freewriting recently.

visual cues. Keep visual stimuli, such as old magazines, handy for clues.

Here are some examples of exercises that combine freewriting and creative thinking.

Snakes and ladders. Open a notepad, one page will be devoted to "snakes" - problems that prevent you from reaching your goal, another page to "ladders" - opportunities that will help you. You can record in turn - one snake, one ladder, or you can first record the snakes, and then move on to the stairs.

From the future to the present. Write down what result you want and describe in detail how you can act now to achieve this result.

range of creativity. Write down the most conservative solution to your problem, then the craziest and most extreme solution. Write about how to combine both of these options in one solution.

In addition, you will find a lot of tips for creative thinking.

And through Instagram, you can often “peep” what Armen Petrosyan writes about.

Posted by WriteLight (@writelightguru) Feb 2, 2017 at 10:33 AM PST

There you will find interesting questions from the application, tips on personal development and writing practices.

The launch of the application has become a new stage of our own journey in the world of writing practices - traveling side by side with you. Therefore, it is with you that we want to share our knowledge and discoveries about the power of the written word and its ability to influence the quality of life. We send you letters about twice a month.

Let's figure out how to use the freewriting technique and why it might be needed.

Artem Anoshkin

write light

Freewriting or free writing is a writing technique in which you write down all the thoughts and ideas that come to mind without any editing.

That is, you just write down everything you think and do not specifically try to find the best wording, correctly punctuate, follow the rules of grammar or style.

It may seem that half of the users of social networks (the least literate and the most graphomaniac) do it anyway, what good is that?

Let's take a look at what happens when you freewrite and why you might want to.

If you need to write a text, an article, a chapter of a book, an essay, an essay, a term paper, but the matter does not go well, start with freewriting.

To regularly find insights and new ideas. As an ongoing habit, freewriting is a kind of personal coach that helps you determine whether you are moving towards your goals in life and career, and also constantly tells you what to do to achieve your goals.

With freewriting, you will generate useful ideas on a weekly basis for all areas of your life, but this is especially true for success in business, work or career growth, so the habit of writing regularly will help you make a lot of money.

To find a solution for a particular problem. Regardless of what we do in life, we constantly need to find a solution to some difficult problem.

Difficult problems haunt us in the family, and in work, and in personal life. Very often, such problems seem to be relegated to the background and are not actively resolved, we just wait for them to be resolved by themselves. The most successful people, however, do not wait for things to work out, but look for a solution.

However, simply thinking in the case of a really complex problem is not effective. You need to turn to more serious tools: mind maps, creative thinking techniques or freewriting.

Freewriting in this case can be used in two ways. You can just write freely about your problem, start with as clear a problem statement as possible, and then start writing down solutions.

Here I will just list three specific advantages of freewriting by hand over freewriting on a keyboard.

You will easier to focus in freewriting, what you write by hand will be deeper and more interesting than what you type on the keyboard.

If you are writing for solving a complex problem, freewriting by hand will help you better than typing on a keyboard.

The thoughts, decisions, and ideas that come up while freewriting by hand are more likely to turn into action and be implemented.

Other Freewriting Techniques

In addition to the basic freewriting technique and tips from Writelight, there are a few other useful tricks you can use.

Freewriting with hints. You can find tips for daily freewriting yourself, very often tips for freewriting are offered by the evangelist of this technique in Russia Armen Petrosyan,

There is such a great book about freewriting - “Genius to order. An easy way to find non-standard solutions "Mark Levy, it describes all the technical details, how and what. What is the best way to freeride. That's it, I read it and started working on this technique. It is not much different from keeping a diary, although there are important nuances.

There is also such an interesting person - Armen Petrosyan. A big maniac (in a good sense of the word) in self-development. It was from him that I spied a lot of useful things that I use - 100-day days (I can’t live without them for two years now), I’m just now starting to implement GTD, and other little things. And I've been eyeing freewriting for a long time. He has .

I felt that I was missing something very useful and important, and I should have started a long time ago. And so it turned out. Now my opinion is that the earlier you start freewriting, the farther you will be in a few years. For me, freewriting has become an integral part of my daily life and is very helpful in finding solutions, delving into myself, structuring everything that happens and maintaining a positive stable state of mind throughout the day. I started to deal with it and continue as part of my Stodnevok.

Freewriting can be used in different ways - as your soul asks and your brain asks.

Can unload the brain- just write, write everything that torments, endure and structure all the chaos on paper. What are the problems, is there a feeling of guilt or irritation, what are you obliged and do not want to do and all that. What plans, what ways, opportunities, where would you like to come after some time. Ask yourself leading questions like Levi teaches in the book, etc.

And you can (well, probably best of all, when all this flow came out and the body unloaded a little), write on given topics and generally come up with new solutions. It's like essays in school.

I prescribe everything in a row .. And so and so.

For example, I am currently reading the book "The Law of Attraction" by Hicks. There is good assignment about goals.

You need to write 3 goals. And for each goal, write down one page - why you want it (to be sure that it is yours and desired), and the second page - why you believe that you will achieve it.

Because when desire is combined with faith + you have positive emotions, then the chances of getting this goal are much higher. Here I recently did this with three immediate goals.

You can write using the tips that are given in the book of Levy. It is highly recommended to give yourself a well-defined time - for example, 10 minutes. Again, just like the book teaches.
For example, “what makes me happy” or “if I didn’t have to do what I do, what would I do” or something else.

In general, it helps to find the way to a happier and more peaceful life)

You can write on paper or on a computer.

On the computer, I usually write a 100-day diary or just a diary (of successes, etc.), copy quotes from books, highlight, think over in writing, mark daily movements in my goals for a given period, etc.

The computer has many pluses and many minuses. It works differently in terms of releasing the flow of the subconscious and there are other differences. On a computer, it often happens that you can’t relax - the Internet, social networks and all that is open.

But on the other hand, for example, on a computer, you can store this data forever in a structured form, select, copy pieces from books, erase, append, and much more useful. Plus I have a diary with a password, and therefore I write there 100% sincerely with myself, which is much more effective than writing for someone or knowing that there is even the slightest chance that someone will see it (Levi about this also says).

And in a large notebook, I sit down quietly in those moments when I know that they won’t interfere with me, and I write, I write what comes out of me.
My handwriting is terrible now, so it makes little sense to keep it all, I just generate ideas, I understand better what I want and what I need to do now in order to be where I need to be, I think everything over with the help of paper, some diagrams and transfer in the plans already in the computer is the most important thing.

In general, I am delighted with this process, my plans have already changed a lot in a short period and a car suddenly appeared with energy. I do not write a lot every day, only when I feel that there is a strong desire. Little by little every day. Many people, like Armen Petrosyan, make such a conscious unloading of the brain a daily morning habit. And rightly so.

Here is a good piece of other people's reflections on the topic "Why is freewriting necessary?"

1. The ability to understand yourself. Many feelings, emotions, thoughts, memories are stored in the hidden corners of our soul. And sometimes it's not easy to get them out of there. They only emerge at the most unexpected moments, crushing the resolute “never again”, “this is the last time”, “tomorrow I start life from a new leaf”. For them, such installations are not an obstacle.

But every day during a quick letter, they show up more and more, and you already see what is stored in you. It is easier to be aware of everything with which you live. See and understand your beliefs. And if they do not bring any positive result or pleasure, you just say goodbye to them, now already.

2. Liberation from mental garbage. Closely related to point #1. By writing down on paper everything that torments you every day, it gradually dissolves into non-existence. And you notice how easy it becomes for you.

Especially, I notice it in the morning. Having written out all the mental rubbish, there is lightness, freshness. Sometimes it's like an elusive breeze during the heat.

3. The ability to safely express emotions. And this point goes hand in hand with the points above.

We explode from the accumulated emotions that make adjustments to our mood, and in every possible way spur on unconscious actions and statements in the most acute situations.

Uprooting all these thickets of weeds, you become like a plowed open field, on which, it is desirable, to immediately sow the seeds you need. They will already bear their sweet and desirable fruits.

4. The emergence of new ideas. There are many ideas around us. But we do not see them because our vessel is filled to the brim. And how to pour in clean, fresh water if it is not freed from stagnant water?

By writing out all your thoughts every day, you let in freshness and a flow of clean air. You start noticing interesting things around you. Sometimes it's so amazing. It seems that there is an interesting idea right in front of the nose, but before it did not appear, and went unnoticed.

By the way, whole scenarios are born during freewriting - comics, dramas, even real action movies. 🙂 But it’s better not to re-read them so that the internal censor does not turn on. You write for yourself, for your liberation, rather than for the public.

And here is a bit from Armen Petrosyan

“Paper and pen, like a spindle, turn thoughts and feelings into a thread. Fabric is woven from threads. Circumstances turn into opportunities. Then you can and should take action.”

“In the morning, I didn’t have time to habitually stretch my consciousness with a half-hour presentation of thoughts on paper. Left home early for meetings. I threw a notepad into my backpack. He wrote his "morning" page in the afternoon, in the office.

The meaning of such an exercise during the day is to bring yourself into a familiar position. Lay out current thoughts and experiences on paper in front of you in order to discard the unnecessary and interfering, once again becoming open and relaxed.

No special questions or assignments. I started writing from the first thought that came to mind. By the middle of the page, I came up with a question that turned out to be important today. Despite the confusing first half, the day took on a wholeness and a sense of calm."

“Until the end of winter 4 days. Want to experience the benefits of freewriting? Start a timer for 15 minutes, maybe 30, and write down what changes in your life you would like to achieve by April 1st.

The beauty of writing down your thoughts freely on paper is that it is not planning with rigid deadlines and obligations. Give free rein to your imagination. Write whatever comes to your mind. Do not limit yourself to the calculation of the reality of what has been envisioned and the assessment by others.

Fantasy, create more interesting. Interest will then spread to planning, making your plans rich in emotions, and therefore more attractive.

Who prevents you from believing that March will be a good month for you?”

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