Generative Writing and Brainstorming

Hi all! It’s a great fall evening, and I’m back from a great Nebraska Writers Guild fall conference. This year’s fall conference was especially informative and inspirational. I came back just ready to write, with a newfound passion I haven’t felt in a few years.

I will probably have a lot to share about what I learned from the sessions I attended, but the one I’d like to start with was a two-hour workshop presented by Lucy Adkins and Becky Breed: Generative Writing Intensive.

Lucy and Becky are the co-authors of Writing in Community: Say Goodbye to Writer’s Block and Transform Your Life, and this presentation was an intro to some of the concepts of their book. Click the link to see the book on Amazon or visit their website for more information.

So the basic gist of things was this: They give five steps (The Five Fingers of the Generative Writing Process) that will help you break out of the writer’s block mentality and push out some words.

But what is it?

Ah, a good question. From a Google Search:

Generative Writing is a term used to describe instructional strategies that provide students with parameters for their writing. These factors define boundaries for writing at the sentence level.

I wasn’t familiar with the term, but I’d say that’s a good of a definition as any.

So back to the NWG workshop, the presenters walked us through their Five Fingers of the Generative Writing Process:

1. A writing group – we formed groups in class. I was in a great group of diverse writers and met some really interesting people 🙂
2. The writing exercise or prompt – This part was worth the price of admission alone. They gave us a prompt word and directed us to list 4-5 items triggered by the word. After that, a “starter sentence” was provided to prompt us to pick one of the items from the list and go.
3. The writing – Here, we just sat in silence and wrote. A novel concept 🙂
4. The “Something that cannot be explained” – I loved this. I’ve never thought about it before, but you how when you sit down to write, you teeter around a bit, words come out slowly and painfully, but then all of a sudden “something” happens and the words just start flying? Well that “something that can’t be explained” is real.
5. Feedback – In the final part, the groups discussed what they wrote and we were instructed to only focus on the positive. For this type of exercise, that’s the best way to do it. Detail critiques can come from critique groups.

But does it work?

Well, let me tell you this. During this workshop, I work 250 words in five minutes. I’m pretty sure I have never in my life written 250 words in five minutes.

In the second half of the session, with a greater focus on writing fiction, I wrote 600 words in fifteen minutes. And that I’m not pretty sure I’ve never done before; I’m 100% certain that’s the first time I’ve ever written 600 words of fiction in less than an hour, let alone fifteen minutes.

So I would definitely call that a win. Without a doubt, you should check out Lucy and Becky’s blog and their book on the process.

Say goodbye to writer’s block and let those works fly out!

Have you tried generative writing? What was your experience like? Did you put out a ton of words, or still end up stuck with an empty page? Leave a comment and let us know!