One of my many goals is to become a better writer. To do so requires reading good writing, reading about how to write, being in contact with good writers, practising the craft of writing to get better at it, and taking writing workshops.
Like any task, it’s not always easy or natural to get started. You have to get started to get going. There’s a certain momentum you need to keep going. After you’ve written your first draft, you need to rewrite and get feedback.
Free writing is a way to get you started. It’s like sitting at the piano and warming up before actually tackling the piece you want to play.
You sit there with a blank sheet of paper. You start with a prompt. You write nonstop for thirty minutes. You don’t bother to correct your grammar or go back and revise. You just keep writing. Pretty soon, you are completely lost in your writing. Often it’s hard to stop when the time is up.
Dad and me at the River Seine in Paris, 1998
I decided to try free writing with my father on my last visit in March 2014. We sat on his covered sofa in the living room of his twelfth-floor condo in Taichung, Taiwan, trying to get as close to the natural sunlight from the French doors of his unused balcony as possible.
I explained the rules and gave the first prompt: chocolate.
While I wrote furiously and covered an entire page of a hotel stationery, my father wrote slowly and deliberately, as follows.
Chocolate. Wow, this was the first time in my life to taste such a nice candy. I didn’t know how, when, and where it was from, when it was invented and how it was made. Anyway, is it expensive? I’d like to buy it and let my friends all have and enjoy it.
We read each other’s writing, and I declared enthusiastically that we should try another prompt. How about “I hate” ?
I immediately poured out all that bothered me about living in a crowded and busy urban space.
I hate the inefficiencies and illogical inconveniences of the real world. Traffic noise. Visual ugliness. Unpleasant odors. Crowded and dense areas where I lose myself in anonymity.
Meanwhile, my dad who denied that he had trouble hearing, wrote the following.
To be prompt, that does mean you have to do anything promptly. It means you have got fully prepared and you’ll do it without hesitation and do it accurately, appropriately. Besides, you’d do it with interest and worthwhile.
