Up at night?
What to do?
Stare at the ceiling?
Worry?
Go online?
Or try something new . . .
A stream of consciousness writing exercise
called Writing Practice.
Created by a writing teacher
for those who love to write
but don’t know what to write about.
Here’s how it works for me.
The method challenges me to write for 30 minutes without pause.
I begin with a smooth writing pen
A good one
that allows me to write really fast.
If my pen stops
I am to say
“I remember”
after which
I fill in two word sentence
and off I go again.
If that doesn’t work
then I write
“I am keeping my pen moving”
or
“I don’t know what to write….but I remember the last time that happened . . . (once again…writing!)
It can look something like this . . .
Can’t sleep for the third time this week. Such a bummer. I’m tossing and turning and I know where this goes next….into worry. I think about all of my missteps, or mistakes, or the big decisions of which I am afraid to make a mistake. Then my mind turns to missing you, honey, and the tears begin. I know it is okay to cry, but I am so tired. What I really want is to sleep soundly. And now I am just keeping my pen moving until the 30 minute timer goes off . . . I remember . . .when this happened last month and I pulled out an old notebook and started doodling. I doodled the dog, the big sage plant in the backyard, the car (that one turned out sort of wonky….even for a doodle). But tonight, I am remembering some things that upset me earlier in the day and . . . (off we go!)
Some say this practice
is quite
therapeutic.
Stream of consciousness
writing
gets out
what’s inside;
it brings things to the light
and
sometimes,
it makes you so sleepy.
Another option: doodling