Top Highlights

• THE most effective way I know to improve your writing is to do freewriting exercises regularly. At least three times a week. They are sometimes called “automatic writing,” “babbling,” or “jabbering” exercises. The idea is simply to write for ten minutes (later on, perhaps fifteen or twenty). Don’t stop for anything. Go quickly without rushing. Neve...
• The teacherless class helps your writing by providing maximum feedback. Freewritings help you by providing no feedback at all.
• The main thing is that a freewriting must never be evaluated in any way; in fact there must be no discussion or comment at all.
• Freewriting may seem crazy but actually it makes simple sense. Think of the difference between speaking and writing. Writing has the advantage of permitting more editing. But that’s its downfall too.
• Editing, in itself, is not the problem. Editing is usually necessary if we want to end up with something satisfactory. The problem is that editing goes on at the same time as producing.