Impulsive Writing

In a recent online conversation with an old friend of mine, he jokingly suggested a term that brilliantly captured the essence of my sudden surge of writing.  In addition to ‘creative writing’, of which I’ve been doing a fair amount of in my class, I’ve been producing a lot of ‘impulsive writing’.

impulsive – adj:
1. characterized by actions based on sudden desires, whims, or inclinations rather than careful thought an impulsive man;
2. based on emotional impulses or whims; spontaneous an impulsive kiss

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impulsive

Though he was referring to something else I had written on the spur of the moment, I realized that such a phrase spoke to the spur-of-the-moment, stream-of-consciousness ramblings I’ve been rattling off, whether in my blog, e-mails, or even in my Creative Writing assignments.  This, of course, is the fault of the latter.  At the outset of the class, we were encouraged to adopt a “First Thoughts” mentality in our writing, as outlined in Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg.

The rules of “First Thoughts”:

1. Keep your hand moving.  (Don’t pause to reread the line you have just written.  That’s stalling and trying to get control of what you’re saying.)
2. Don’t cross out.  (This is editing as you write.  Even if you write something you didn’t mean to write, leave it.)
3. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar.  (Don’t even care about staying within the margins and lines on the page.)
4. Lose control.
5. Don’t think.  Don’t get logical.
6. Go for the jugular.  (If something comes up in your writing that is scary or naked, dive right into it.  It probably has lots of energy.)

At first, I found the process difficult.  It felt completely against my nature to write freely without editing or revising, to just give way to my thoughts as they emerge, and to let the words take form on the page.  As the class progressed, however, I’ve rediscovered my love of writing, and while I’m still not sure that I have anything new and fresh to say, it has been a liberating experience.