This month’s challenge uses one of my favorite writing practices; freewriting. Freewriting is how I solve problems and generate ideas — it’s like a physical portal into deep thinking.

Here’s how it works: Pick up a paper and pen, or a keyboard, and write fluidly and without judgment, until you fill a page or hit a word count. That’s it. When you get stuck, keep writing by asking yourself questions as you write.

Why does it work? Freewriting shuts down the inhibiting effect of the inner critic—giving your Muse free rein. You usually get good ideas from inside your own head, even if you don’t use the words.

Here’s my challenge for you:

Pick a topic you want to write about—for a blog series, a book, whatever. This month, try to freewrite 500 words a day, at least 5 days a week, about that topic. No outline, no order — write whatever arrives that day.

If you do this, you’ll end up with 10K words or 20 pages, which will include good ideas and fresh insights. It might be enough to get you started on a book. 

See what happens—and happy writing.

Back when microwaves were a new thing, people got sucked into the initial exuberance about how they would change cooking forever.

For example, I had a cookbook that breathlessly extolled the microwave’s time-saving virtues for nearly anything:

Scrambled eggs!

Roast beef!

Vegetable casseroles!

Alas, microwave cooking doesn’t work well for everything. In a microwave, the ingredients in a casserole or stew cook independently, without the lovely co-mingling that defines the dishes. And don’t get me started on roasting meat.

We’re seeing similar excitement about using Artificial Intelligence in writing. People are extolling AI to do nearly everything—write their emails, outline and draft books, and so on. Like those cookbook authors, they’re thrilled about how much time we will save.

Yes, you can use generative AI programs to write things for you. But should you? And do you even want to?

Understand its limits and possibilities

The New York Times carried the story of a lawyer who submitted a brief generated by AI. The brief cited related case law to support the client’s claims. Alas, the cases didn’t exist.

(The lawyer explained to the judge that he asked the AI program whether the cases were real, and it said they were.)

You can experience this issue firsthand: ask ChatGPT for quotes on a subject. It will return great quotes, but many will be mis-attributed or simply made up.

AI is not good with detailed facts and citations, just as a microwave is not good at slow simmering.

Large language models like ChatGPT are excellent at detecting patterns in language. So, consider situations where language-based pattern matching will be helpful.

For example:

• Brainstorming titles
• Getting unstuck on a word or metaphor
• Identifying the words people use to talk about a topic (great for keyword research)
• Spotting grammatical and stylistic issues

You can also use AI programs to jump-start types of writing outside your comfort zone, like marketing copy.

If, however, you let AI actually write in your place, what it creates will probably sound like the amalgam of what other people write like.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather my words represent my own voice.

Gazing into the future

To anticipate the future of AI, let’s return to the humble microwave.

People love microwaves for reheating leftovers, melting butter, and many activities in which they genuinely save time. Some people avoid them altogether, but most of us appreciate having one in the kitchen or break room.

But given a choice, few chefs would choose to cook everything in the microwave. Imagine getting this invitation: Come have Thanksgiving dinner with us—we are microwaving the whole thing!

I suspect that AI-based writing will evolve (at microwave speeds) to fill a similar valued role in a writer’s toolbox.

However, when you use AI to write for you, you may create the microwave-re-heatable frozen dinner of writing. Sure, it will satisfy someone’s hunger, but is that the kind of writing you want to do?

Experiment. Find the best time-saving uses, but don’t sacrifice quality. And don’t delegate your voice to the machine.

Related Posts

Other ways to brainstorm: Searching for Creative Inspiration

Balancing creativity and productivity: Finding Your Writing Balance

Eighty-nine. 

That’s how many times the word some appeared in my current manuscript of just over 21,000 words. And while not a huge number, 89 is far too many for a word like some.

Some isn’t a terrible word, but it’s not great, either. It represents a certain mental laziness as I get my thoughts down on paper. It’s an artifact of the drafting process.

If you’ve heard me preach against using weak words, you might think I’d be embarrassed to admit that high number. But I’m not. 

Lesson one: Everyone’s first drafts need work. That’s part of the writing process.

Because I am aware of my over-reliance on this vague word, I often seek it out and use it as an entry point in sharpening the prose.

In my book manuscript, I replaced several occurrences of some (or its relatives someone and something) with specifics.

For example, I changed:

We speak tenderly to someone ailing …

To 

We speak tenderly to an ailing child.

One of those is better, don’t you think?

For others, I rephrased the sentence altogether. I got those 89 occurrences down to 25—a much more reasonable number.

Lesson two: Treat weak or repetitive words as an invitation to improve.

Entry points to revision

When you know which dull words clutter your first drafts, you have a great opportunity to jump in and tighten the work.

What are your overused words?

We all have them, and you’ll benefit from learning yours. A grammar checker may help you find your overused words. If you suspect you’re using a word too much, do a global search online and see how many occurrences pop up.

Here are a few weak words that clutter up my early drafts:

• Dull adjectives: big, new, different
• Dull verbs when overused: look, see, change, different forms of to be
• Weakening or vague words: some, just, a bit

Your list will look different than mine, but you’ve got them.

When you write in the workplace, you may adopt too readily the words that everyone else uses, like solution, engagement, and other abstractions. How much more interesting would your writing be if you replaced half of those with sharper or more specific options?

Don’t be upset if your first drafts swim in those go-to, repeated words. Welcome them as entry points into revision. Grab a thesaurus and go word shopping for better alternatives. It’s fun.

Related Writing

Simplify Sentences to Spare the Reader’s Brain

Getting Bogged Down in Revision

Welcome to May! 

This month, let’s focus on the name of the month, which can also be a verb: May.

The word suggests possibility: “I may choose to start a new writing project.” 

It also implies permission, as in: “Yes, you may take time to relax.” 

So, let’s treat May as a month of both possibility and permission in our writing.

Embracing possibility in May

Every week this month, pick one kind of writing that you’d like to explore, even for fun. 

• Write a song lyric or a poem
• Try humor writing
• Write a story from your childhood

Don’t worry about whether it will be any good. Just give it a shot and see what you learn from it.

Does it feel self-indulgent? Frivolous? That’s where we get to the permission part.

Yes, you may write

Exploring your writing and trying new things—that’s how you grow as a writer. If you cannot easily grant yourself that permission, you officially have mine.

You may write. Write what you may.

A blessing

Sometimes we use the word may as a kind of benediction. So, I’ll close with that.

May you flourish as a writer. 

Did you miss the last monthly challenges?

Here are the months so far:

April: Lighten Up!

March: Sowing Seeds

February: Brevity

January: Beginnings

You know the joy of writing when the ideas flow freely? When your Muse shows up, supplying words and images as you draft? Set yourself up for that delightful state by embracing a sense of fun.

Putting yourself in a positive mood before you write pays off in creativity. Today, I’ll share scientific support for the idea that writing should be fun.

Positive moods enhance creativity

A significant body of research shows that positive moods boost creativity.

In one study, researchers asked hundreds of young adults to report on their moods and their perceived creativity each day. In the results, positive moods correlated with creativity. The more energetic the mood (excited, energetic, and enthusiastic), the stronger the link with feeling creative.

Negative states didn’t work the same magic.

What does this mean for you in your writing?

• Experiment with setting your mood before your work. One friend told me he played positive music before he started writing. Our emotions often leak through into our writing, so pay attention to how you approach your work.
• Don’t give up on writing if you’re in a bad mood! Showing up on the tough days builds resilience and maintains progress.

However, it’s not as simple as “Happiness breeds creativity.”

First, researchers in that study found that the emotion/creativity link was stronger for people who have more open-minded personalities. (Openness is one of the standard personality traits.)

Second, the correlation isn’t perfect, because we are complex creatures. Other factors affect our creativity—including motivation. Oddly, too much motivation can work against us.

Cute cats or delectable desserts?

According to a series of studies led by Professor Eddie Harmon-Jones at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, another factor contributes to creative moods: motivational intensity.

This report measures productivity by “cognitive scope” — how narrowly we focus our attention. Of course, creativity flourishes with a wider cognitive scope.

To wildly oversimplify the findings, the more intensely you want something, the more attention narrows around that thing.

As an example, the research suggests that watching adorable cat videos might put you in a good mood without motivating you to take any action. Watching videos of delectable desserts, however, focuses your attention on food, leaving less for creative ramblings. Stop watching the Food Network before writing!

Intense desire can narrow, rather than expand, our focus. And a narrow focus shuts down creativity.

This might explain why working for a much-needed payment may take some of the creative joy out of a project, or why it’s harder to do wonderful work when the stakes seem high.

How do we bring this to our writing practice? Watching a few funny cat videos doesn’t hurt, as long as you put on a timer.

More importantly, lighten up on your attachment to the outcome as you write. Trust in your future self to fix whatever comes out as you draft.

The more you focus on finding the perfect word as you draft, the narrower your overall focus becomes. The focused attention of the Scribe shuts out the creative contributions of the Muse.

Adding these ideas to your writing practice

How can you implement this research in your writing?

• Experiment with setting your mood before your work. One friend told me he played positive music before he started writing to inspire creativity. Having a pre-writing ritual may help you clear out the negative stuff.
• Don’t give up on writing if you’re in a bad mood! Showing up on the tough days builds resilience and maintains progress.

As for attachment, it’s okay to be excited about your creative project. As you work on it, give yourself permission to do something less than perfect. Trust that you can fix it later. You may find that creativity shows up.

More on this theme

Watch the April Writing Challenge: Lighten Up

Lighten up with details

“This doesn’t seem as light as the earlier chapters,” said my coaching client as she showed me the first draft of a chapter. She has a wise, witty voice that she captures well in her writing. But for this chapter, she wasn’t feeling the fun yet.

Being fun and light consistently is a challenge, especially when you’re writing about topics that aren’t inherently entertaining.

She’s not alone in craving a lighter tone. In a survey of over 250 writers about writing voice, nearly a third said that they wished their voice was “funnier or lighter.”

That’s my wish, too! So, how do we get there? How do we go from merely wishing to be funnier to actually making our readers smile, at least inwardly?

Here’s one idea that I share with her, and now you.

Delight in the details

You know the saying “the devil’s in the details?” Delight lives in the details as well.

Too often, we load up our writing with abstractions. Nonfiction and business writers struggle with abstractions, and even fiction writers can fall prey to over-generalizing. Too many abstract concepts lead to heavy, dull writing.

Our readers’ brains want to visualize or imagine something as they read. Details give them something to work with.

For example, you might write: They had dinner together last weekend.

Or this: They braved the Friday night crowd downtown to share a platter of tacos.

Which one is more interesting? Which one seems “lighter”?

Adding specific details magically makes abstraction-heavy writing lighter. And it’s easy enough to do in revision.

Your lens on the world

The details you choose show the reader something about how you view the world. They contribute to your writing voice.

Ellen Cassidy is a great example of a writer with a unique lens. I met her when researching Writing to Be Understood. She was working on a teaching guide for the logical reasoning section of the LSAT text. That book became The Loophole in LSAT Logical Reasoning.

That sounds dry as dust, right? But not on Ellen’s watch.

Rather than loading up with legal terminology, she created sample questions about pretzels that eat people, or microphones that drink coffee. Using crazy scenarios prevented people from relying on prior knowledge rather than sheer logic, and made the book more fun.

Details are a great place to express your personality or have fun.

Do try this at home

Lightness of tone doesn’t always arrive in the very first pass at something. Try taking this simple action when revising.

Look for any bland abstractions or dull verbs. (Having dinner. Going for a walk. Talking to customers.) See if you can add details, or replace the abstraction altogether.

This works in anything—a book chapter, a report, even an email. For example, you might send an email with: I met with a major customer this week.

Add the details to make it more interesting and memorable: I visited our customer Acme, which accounts for a whopping ten percent of our revenues.

Choose a detail that conveys the mood or tone you hope to set. (The word whopping above shifts the sentence toward lightness.)

Don’t go overboard—too many extraneous details will make your writing long-winded. A few well-placed specifics can make the work sing.

Want to Dive Deeper?

Here’s a related blog post: Writing in the Workplace: Abstract Concepts

Read about Ellen Cassidy in Writing to Be Understood.