One of the best ways to improve your writing is to actually write! It sounds simple enough, but it's often much harder in practice than people give it credit for... mostly because of the dreaded writer's block, also known as a lack of inspiration! Sometimes even if you have plenty of ideas, you may find yourself staring at your writing or a blank page and feeling like you absolutely positively can't do it—you can't write. Free writing can sometimes help you overcome that initial anxiety by developing a habit of writing!

What is Free Writing?
Free writing is writing for a defined time limit without constraining yourself to following a plot or a specific idea. Use an alarm or timer to avoid sneaking peeks at the clock! The aim is to write, no matter what, even if that means repeating "I don't know what to write about" over and over. It's all about getting words down on the page!

Why should writers try Free Writing?
Free writing helps develop focus and establish a habit of writing. It's usually fear that stops someone from writing—a fear of judgment that others might have, or fear that the writer's ideas aren't good enough, or fear that the act of writing will be difficult. It very well might, but that's not a good reason not to try! To successfully accomplish a free write, the writer needs to block out distractions and commit to putting pencil to paper or fingers to keyboard and keep going. Some writers use music to help encourage them or provide background noise (although it's easy to spend more time selecting music than it is writing... distractions are sneaky like that!)

When you free write, you have to come up with something and record it as words. This exercises your brain and gets it used to generating ideas and transcribing them. Like any exercise, this builds strength when you do it over and over again. The more you challenge yourself to try and write, even if you don't "feel like" writing, the more you will find it easier to get into the mindset of writing in the future! Plus, you might generate some really cool notes and such to use in future stories when you're jotting down anything you think of!

What's the Writing and Roleplaying Guild Challenge for September?
Commit to improving your writing habit by planning to participate in free writing for September!

How do I accept the Writing and Roleplaying Guild Challenge for September?
Decide that you are going to free write, and determine how often and for how long you are going to do it! Post in this thread with your free writing plans to accept the September challenge!

LitaLightning wrote:

In September, I'm going to free write once a week for 10 minutes each time! I know I can do it if I mark it on my calendar!

How do I complete the Writing and Roleplaying Guild Challenge for September?
Based on the commitment that you set for yourself, stick to that plan! Take that time and write! Then, review how well you did and follow up to announce your success! Post in this thread that you achieved your goals to complete the September challenge!

You don't need to share any of the free writing that you did, because sometimes that can be very intimidating, but if you think that you wrote something you are proud of or entertained by, feel free to share it as long as you place it in a Spoiler tag!

Aquamarine Submarine wrote:

I successfully achieved my goal for September of free writing every day for 5 minutes! I believe it was quite helpful in assisting me with developing a habit of taking the time to write.

I wanted to share a highlight, as well!

Spoiler:

You know what? I'm gonna try this! It's been ages since I actually wrote anything! I'm gonna try every day for five minutes as well! My only question is this-can the free write be about any topic? Like a fanfiction drabble, or a rant or just babble that comes into your head like the example you provided?

Cosmos-Hime wrote:

My only question is this-can the free write be about any topic? Like a fanfiction drabble, or a rant or just babble that comes into your head like the example you provided?

Yes, anything! Absolutely anything!

Okay, good! I WILL get back into writing this year! I swear it! 

I am going to try for a goal of five minutes of free writing every day. I will dedicate that time to mywriting contest entry shameless plug and my Harry Potter fanfiction.

And this isn't related to this particular challenge, but in terms of accountability I am also holding myself responsible to a school writing challenge, too. Once classes begin, I will post one response to both of the class discussions boards every day.

I finished a writing contest entry! But I didn't do anything with my fanfiction, sigh. And, I was ambitious about the one response a day to my school discussion boards. That's not how those discussion boards work, lol.