#Freewrite

[nanowrimo]

Smash Your Word Count Goals in 3 Easy Steps

from our sponsors at Freewrite

Here at Freewrite, we help writers reach peak productivity in order to meet word count goals and create their best work yet. That’s our reason for being.

Today, we’re going to share the three easy steps proven by science to help you reach your writing goals!

1) Set A Goal & Write It Down

The psychology of goal setting is pretty clear. It’s what NaNoWriMo is all about, right? Research has proven that people who set goals experience higher motivation and are more likely to feel accomplished.

However, the type of goal you set makes a big difference to your efforts. Make sure that your goals are (a) clear and specific, (b) realistic, and (c) measurable.

Being clear about your goal will help you hone in on what you’re trying to achieve and ignore distractions. Make sure to write it down, as well. Research by psychologist Gail Matthews has revealed that people who write down goals are 33% more successful than those who simply set a goal in their head.

Next, be realistic. This means being honest with yourself about what you can and can’t achieve based on your other life obligations. Setting goals that you can’t achieve will only lead to frustration and, ultimately, a lack of motivation.

And last, make sure each goal is measurable. “Write 1,000 words each day” is much easier to measure than “Finish this book.” Because we all know it’s difficult to measure a book being “done”!

Breaking these goals down into smaller, simpler steps will help, too. If your goal is to write 20,000 words during Camp NaNo, break that down into 5,000 words a week, and then figure out how many words you’ll have to write each day to reach those smaller goals.

2) Practice Freewriting

Freewriting is thinking. It’s as simple — and as difficult — as that.

While every writer is unique, and there is no one way to be a writer, there are similarities we all share as humans — especially humans in the modern world — that create common obstacles to doing the things we love — like reading, writing, and yes, thinking. There are the obvious external obstacles: social media, email, the internet. But there are sneaky internal obstacles, too — the main culprit being the inner critic.

As humans, we are judgmental. It’s in our DNA. Our brains are constantly assessing situations, imagining outcomes, and making decisions. It’s part of survival at a very basic level. However, that means that when we do anything, including writing, we tend to automatically assess our actions — judging our own words, tweaking and editing them as we go along. That constant evaluation not only hinders progress, it can also stop us from ever getting started. And if we do manage to sit down to write, that inner critic creates an unconscious anxiety that prevents us from experimenting and writing down our most innovative and creative — and weird! — ideas.

We’ve all heard the advice to “write now, edit later.” Or perhaps you’ve heard writers reference “the sloppy/crappy/messy first draft.” Those are just fun ways of referencing the writing method in which you separate the drafting process from the editing process. Or, what we call freewriting.

Many people haven’t written this freely since childhood, but there’s a reason this method is taught in MFA programs. Getting your thoughts down first and revising later increases productivity and yields better, more creative work because it allows you to give your brain fully to each task. It means that when you’re drafting, you’re drafting, and when you’re editing, you’re editing. There’s no context-switching or multitasking.

So, what if you gave yourself permission to write badly at first? And we don’t just mean cheesy or with glaring plot holes — we mean typos, missing words, character names replaced by big Xs because you couldn’t remember them in the moment.

The next time you draft, we challenge you to give it a try. Just let yourself go and give your thoughts and feelings over to the act of creating. Because that’s when the magic happens. 

3) Track Your Stats

OK, you’ve set measurable goals, and you’ve started drafting. What’s next?

Track your efforts!

Here at Freewrite, we’ve created a tool to automatically track important writing stats, like word count, writing days, writing streak, and more! It’s called a Postbox Profile, and it gives you a unique URL that allows you to share your stats with writing friends.

Anyone with a Postbox account — that’s anyone who writes on a Freewrite OR uses our free in-browser drafting tool, Sprinter — can create a Postbox Profile and track their stats.

👉Don’t have a Freewrite yet? No problem! We have a FREE in-browser drafting experience called Sprinter that helps you shut down distractions and make progress — and gives you access to Postbox. Start writing today absolutely FREE at sprinter.getfreewrite.com.

👉Ready to grab your own Freewrite? Our entry-level device, Alpha, is $50 off this June only! Just use code STARTWITHALPHA at checkout.

[pyromotha]

Anybody wanna write a Dad!Simon & reader/oc’s kid caught playing in the snow?

Saw this on Pinterest and immediately thought of Ghost or Johnny or Price or Gaz or fUCKING ANYBODY CAUSE THIS IS ADORABLE

My lazy ass ain’t gonna write for this (as of now lmao) but the ideas open to any of the other simps on tumblr :>

[phoenixculpa]

bigger than your personality: unsweated wounds keep smooth pigment to your golden graced changed coordinates,

wonder what makes one move or how you undo buttons mashed on impulse,

ventricled chances clack hooves to dirt and confidence is brazen as commanding full

attention through [low-pitched] decibels, is it depth at all to know of fellow adults playing for

show or knowing what they are doing is good/evil

[moomoocowmaid]

I have made it my mission to stay active in a niche brand’s instagram comments, deterring as many people as possible from buying their product!!!

YOU WILL REGRET WHAT YOU’VE DONE TO ME!!!

HEED MY WARNING MEN, FOR THEY WILL FORSAKE YOU TOO!!!

[ashestoashis]

She humoured me like no one else. When night fell we laced our sneakers, crept out into the darkness and chased the moon down lamp-lit streets, watched it peek back at us through latticed bare branches, masking its laughter behind the thorny fingers of autumn trees. We could never catch it. But we believed. She through me, remnants of an inner child she could no longer be - though everyone said I looked so much like her, joked that she was my real mother. Maybe she saw herself in me. Maybe she gave me a future self to look forward to. 

They say 7 is the age of reason. By then we know our world’s dimensions, rules, limits. My 7 year old world was a globe bisected into two climates - the warmth and love of possibility floating above the cool reality of empty rooms and icy silences. An equator made of questions - answers fashioned by innocence. I had so many maps in my room - posters, encyclopaedias, spinning orbs - always fantasising about the world outside mine, always searching for a way, obsessed with routes out. To me, a map was a chance - a portal to new ways, new means. Mentally marching for days across the pages of my books, I’d imagine the earth beneath my feet, lose myself for hours at a time flipping through the pages of my mum’s city guides. Coordinates were always funny to me - the way humans attempted to measure everything, the need to make everything into an equation. When the answer in my child-mind was always crystal clear: we are ‘here.’

As entertaining as I found them, maps were exactly that - fun. Like a riddle or a puzzle, a way to pass the time. On our late-night treks angling for the sky, my auntie and I needed no directions. Upon reflection, she taught me more about travel than any map I’ve ever read - her playfulness and surrender to imagination helped me plot the points between my own dreams and ideas, gave me permission to overlook my fears and laugh freely in the moment. That mental map became a part of me, a way to be way before I’d ever considered it. It’s been a while since I traced those paths, and 7 was a long time ago - creased and stained and faded as this memory map might be all these years later, it  still guides my steps.

[clementinefight]

I dreamt about you. I dreamt that you lived in the moon’s cold rooms and that whenever you extended your arms, the arms of the moon, too, extended… Until every planet nearby thought the moon was an octopus challenger, but I knew she was only your lair, the place where your eyes went white and flashed like globes of glow, and you could finally be alone.

Having stars for dinner? I don’t know why, but I can always put myself wherever you are, like we are two bodies with one set of sight. And when I use your eyes to look into the dark, I see my own eyes in the far away lawns, missing you. And when I use your hands to reach into the emptiness, I feel my own heart there, my heart straining to keep loving you.  

***

Your suitcase pushes open with cobwebs and blue wood. So, I wear a dress of cobwebs and blue wood. And my eyes are hard to see because they are under your cobwebs And blue wood. There’s a pair of brown binoculars Way down there below the frosted needles. Everything smells like a tangerine birthday cake. A scalpel, some seaweed. My name among the dislocated feathers, A tale about the Mushroom Prince written by you. Blue owls. Brine in the bedrock. Grandfather clocks and our booth at the back of the diner. All this in a photograph, all this is a brief hex of words. Navy beans, sardines, tin cans, spaghetti and impossibly long combs of grass. In the attic, blue records and little gecko bones…

As you sleep on the moon’s white flowers, I’m rolling earthside, in the dog bed, smelling the black roses left in the cemetery for you, all dried up like pinecones now; I’ll do the funniest things to keep you; I press everything they left for you into an oil worth a thousand crimsons and fry my morning pancakes in it…

It’s unfair that you went first, as I would’ve liked to hunker down in Armageddon with you. But the beach is open all the time, even with the soldiers flying; And in the waves our song plays forever, So, I splash in the waves and chew on the green music, Which land in my mouth like bars of heavy salt, And that is like time travel, Like bringing you down from space.

[vvatchword]

Freewrite Traveler versus Alphasmart Neo 2

So I have an Alphasmart Neo 2 and a Freewrite Traveler. One of these cost me about $300. The other cost me $30. And I'm about to give you a review because I love one of these things more than the other.

The Alphasmart Neo 2 is from the 00s and was used in classrooms to help kids practice typing without the distraction of a computer attached to the Internet. They come with some basic little functions like a calculator and are powered by three AAA batteries. They have eight files that can contain 10,000 words each, can copy, cut, and paste, and you can go back into the document to edit. There are no Undo or Redo functions. To transfer the files to your PC, you hook up a cable while the Alphasmart and your word processor of choice are turned on. That easy. The batteries last for-e-ver. I'm taking about years. I am on my second set of batteries and I've owned this dealio for five years or so with almost daily use. This thing cost me $30 plus s&h a few years ago. Word has gotten out about these, so they're more expensive than that these days, but not significantly so--maybe $50? You'll see some being sold for $100 or so but that's ridiculous tbh.

At the time I purchased the Alphasmart, i had already backed the Freewrite Traveler on Kickstarter for about $300. I felt pretty dumb and wondered if I would regret my choice.

As it turns out: yes. I do.

The Traveler uses the same kind of screen as a Kindle, has three files of infinite words each, is rechargeable, and can back up your work to the cloud and send your files to your email address. It's sleek, small, and exceptionally cute. I just like looking at it. But after getting it, I couldn't help but compare it to the Alphasmart, which kicks its ass every day.

Recharging sounds fine, but it runs out of juice FAST. A full day's work will knock it out; I ran out of juice anywhere from three days to three weeks, depending on how much I was using it. Inevitably there is a point you forget to recharge and wham bam fuck you ma'am, it's going to take four hours to charge now and you can't use it if it wound down to 0% while you were sleeping. It posts to the cloud, which you'd think is great--infinite words! Back it up anywhere you find free WiFi!--but to do this, you need to sign up for Postbox, a service through Freewrite, which means that if the company dies, so does the cloud feature. You can also transfer your files via the charging cable, so they thought of this, but it feels dangerous and a little disingenuous, not gonna lie.

Unlike the Alphasmart, you can't copy, cut, paste, or edit. When I say you can't edit, I mean that you can't arrow up to some previous point in the story and add or delete. The point of this feature--and it is a feature!--is to emulate typewriters and encourage first draft flow. Problem is, that's just not how I write. For $300, or whatever it's selling for now, I want to be able to use cut, copy, and paste, maybe even redo and undo, and I want to be able to go back and add extra bullshit. Also, the full-sized Freewrite has a backlight, but the Traveler does not. Why does my $300 machine not have a goddamn backlight.

The Traveler also has a hint of lag and it drives me fucking crazy. This may not be a problem for you if you hunt and peck or are a slower typist, but I type almost as fast as I think. I have gotten up to 190 wpm before. Long story short, Traveler can't keep up--but Alphasmart can!

The Alphasmart is also more comfortable to type on and takes up about as much room in a bag as the Traveler does--just lengthwise rather than width-wise, if it makes sense. The Traveler is better for a purse, perhaps, but it's just bulky enough that I sometimes found it troublesome to make room in my bags. It's about the size of a clutch when folded up.

At one point, I got caught in a rainstorm while my Alphasmart was in my backpack. The rain seeped into my backpack and ruined a book. Meanwhile the Alphasmart was like lol whatever do you feel like writing queen?

Anyway, I'm going to see if I can't sell my Freewrite. I'd rather have a second Alphasmart rofl

[ramblingsofnobody]

Selling my Freewrite Traveler, if anyone’s interested! Looking for £400 obo plus shipping, and comes with the felt case and a USB C charger :) Let me know if interested!

Happy to ship outside of the UK but you’d be responsible for customs/taxes etc and shipping might be a bit silly, but happy to work out a deal!

[lil-miss]

GUYS GUYS GUYS

I GOT IT!!

I’M ABOUT TO BECOME A FUCKING MENACE!!!

[supertrainstationh]

I may have a large amount of "adversarial encouragement and criticism" of the Astrohaus Freewrite Smart Typewriter...

but among those issues will never be concern for this thing failing to look DARN COOL in photographs.

Cause it looks DARN COOL.

This is me in my hotel room at AC 2024 lol.

[nanowrimo]

12 Tips for Drafting Forward During NaNoWriMo (And Beyond!)

To accomplish your big writing goals, you have to focus on drafting forward. The team over at Freewrite knows how to do that better than most! Freewrite, a 2023 NaNoWriMo sponsor, is a dedicated distraction-free drafting device designed just for writers to separate the drafting from the editing process and get words on the page. Today, the Freewrite team is here to share their top 12 tips for doing just that:

Here at Freewrite, we love when NaNoWriMo comes around, because we’re all about helping writers set their stories free. We’re big proponents of the “write now, edit later” method of writing to help writers reach writing flow and increase productivity. The goal of drafting forward (and NaNoWriMo!) is to get a first draft recorded and translate your thoughts into writing on the page.

We’re going to share the top tips we recommend to writers who want to try this method but don’t know where to start. Try these out during your next writing session to see how they help you ditch the distractions and make serious progress!

1. Save research for later. (Or start with it!)

Yes, research is important. But it can also quickly turn into a form of procrastination. Complete the bulk of your research before you start writing, or, if it’s a topic you know well, commit to doing any research after. When you’re drafting and come to a place where you need to fact-check or gather information, simply leave a note to yourself right there in the text and continue drafting. 

2. Plan well.

With a timed challenge like NaNoWriMo, it helps to plan out your daily benchmarks in order to finish on time. Consider setting a daily word count goal or making a schedule for the month so you know exactly where you stand each day. Make an outline if you’re a plotter, or if you’re a pantser, spend some time getting into the world of your story.

3. Decide you’re going to write a messy first draft.

We recommend stating it outright to yourself, or maybe writing it down on a Post-It where you can see it each day: My goal is to write a messy first draft. Embrace that imperfection so that you can write more freely!

4. Silence your inner critic.

As you write, revisit your messy first draft goal and resist the urge to critique or edit your work as you go along. Instead, concentrate on getting your thoughts down without judgment. This means not overanalyzing each sentence. Did that last sentence sound ridiculous? Who cares?! Anything goes in a messy first draft. You’ll refine and revise later!

5. Turn off your inner spell-check.

Freewrite devices have no spell-check or grammar checker for a reason. Every squiggly line is a distraction, a moment that your writing flow is broken and you have to resist going back to fix typos. Even if your eyes recognize a typo, train your brain to fix it later! Remember: we’re focusing on getting out thoughts and ideas in the first draft, not grammar.

6. Eliminate external distractions.

We’ve done the hard work for you by creating Freewrite. 😉 Now, put your phone in the other room, turn off the TV, and start writing.

7. Write quickly.

This is just another way to trick your brain into writing from that deep, creative place that can’t be reached when you’re overthinking. Strive for a flow state where you’re typing at the speed that your thoughts come to you.

8. Use placeholders.

If you can’t think of the right word or need to look up a source, just insert a placeholder and keep writing. Our favorite placeholder is “xx” because that can easily be searched in editing software later. Other people like the more straightforward “[INSERT SOMETHING FUNNY]” or “[CHECK SOURCE]”. You can fill in those gaps during the editing phase.

9. Keep moving forward.

If you encounter writer’s block or a difficult section, resist the temptation to stop and dwell on it. Skip to another part in your story and return to the challenging section later. We like to add a note to ourselves right there in the draft to remind us to come back to that spot when editing.

10. No back-tracking.

Often while drafting, a brilliant sentence will come to us. But it’s describing something we just described. What to do? Do not go back, delete the first sentence, and replace it. Simply keep writing the new sentence! These redundancies are easy to correct later.

11. Experiment.

Try different styles and approaches without judgement. You can compare and contrast and pick the best one later, during the editing stage.

12. Write!

Relish in the creative flow and the freedom of having one job to do: writing. Don’t worry about grammar or story structure. Focus on the joy of creating.

With a few tweaks in how you draft, we hope you’ll be surprised by how much you write, the creative ideas your imagination comes up with, and how much fun you have while writing.

And if you try the above rules of forward drafting, we’d love to hear your experience!

Reminder: NaNoWriMo 2023 participants are eligible for a special Freewrite offer. Find all the details here. 

[phoenixculpa]

indigone

loud to switch up unsprung tubi peacock tv for free deviance to watch warden

in love, what’s a monetary grievance in compar-

ison to shove all feeling down or find new spect-

acles (in/of) one telltale: living [‘together’] in mom’s

basement, domestic bliss alt. meant

springing from rock bottom, cut by jagg-

ed limestone, friend used a log to balance a

foot down swirled enclave to encroach maj-

esty like icarus’ innocence to merely want

without taking but a daring leap of faith

as if watered eyes could grow a forest

alone, canyon new malaise and

are you happy is not one’s concern

to mismatched burner calls from deep

within city walls, expounding upon sheer

annoyance to be reached, dumbfounded

like a silent pact strengthens dried sweat

to continue ever heartless as sandtombed

dungeons, maverick [m]alliance, show some

3% raise with gf […] like was it worth it, could

analysis smoothen switchblade grooves

hidden up sleeve to ultimately trifle with

fire, phoenix wings spur ash senseless,

[lie] sentient in trotted pavement, sweat,

choke up jawline etched cinnamon

[rachtiouspalmer]

Where is it, the fire within you? Is it doused by a damp self contempt? Do you leave it ragged at the station alone before dawn? Have you caged its fury, clipped its wings? Does your star burn too bright for you to sleep? Do you worship your pillow in sloth? Where are your teeth? How do you sleep? Do you draw your curtains and blame the window for not being a silver serving platter? Where is the fire in you, you harvester of the low hanging fruit? Must we follow you to the grave? Must we believe as you in lower bars and easier time? Do you rise from bed only to hunt soft landings? Is this your fate? So it may be for you. It shall not be so as mine.

[dyllard]

A refugee in

Strange hearts

Backpacking

A forest of

Drifting souls

In search of

A “one”

Yet doesn’t count

His own value

Never knowing

He’d always

Be just

A half

And a void

Chasing a

Modern

Starved romance

Through the

End of economy

Where no mortgage

Fits the check

And despair

His dreams of

Youth faded

To cracked

Terracotta

Just thirsty roots

Stretching for

Wine, never finding

The truth

Only inebriated

Visions of

A slivered dream

But I travel

Alone into the dawn

I’ve caffeinated

My pain to

A jittering halt

The undeniable

Fact is

Every ugly

Broken

Bitter piece

Of a shattered

Childhood

Lives inside

This 32 year old

Frame going

Through the motions

Spending time

Chasing payments

Wearing credit like

A badge of honor

Observing outcomes

Losing fire

Desire to

Witness something real

Unapologetic life

In all it’s raw glory

Let it be present

Let it be imperfect

Let me sink into it’s

Earth like the

Molecules of a

Dying tree

Let my feet ache

Knees press on

So this spine will

Rise again

As a mountain

A ridge line

Of vertebrae

Steaming

In the morning sun

A place where

A tired wanderer

May lay

Between a crook

Of granite marrow to gaze

Upon the beauty

Of living as

It was meant

To be shared

Unyielding wonder

For the beauty

That bore us

And I will

Hold us there

In a place

We’ll think

Of often

A precipice

Against sky

Two eyes

And a full heart

One

“One” - poetry by dyllard

[ramyeonpng]

It’s like when your computer somehow downloads a virus and it’s slowing processes in the background but you’re just trying to watch a Youtube video in the front and it’s not buffering because your computer is about to die.

#quotes

[be-still-batia]

The Head & The Heart

To know the truth and to believe the truth seem to be two different things. In a small group I attend on Thursdays, we have been discussing the necessity to release control, especially in a relationship with God. There are so many aspects of our lives in which we hold tightly onto our control- our plans, our thoughts, our decisions, our timelines... While it takes a certain amount of faith to move in obedience, it also takes faith to wait and trust in the Lord. This doesn't mean do nothing. But while you are waiting, are you praying? In the midst of trial, are you praising? When your expectations are not met, do you still believe in a sovereign God who is ultimately good? When your way is not working, are you willing to stop and let His will be done? When disappointment inevitably knocks at your door, do you continue to follow God, shedding tears at His feet? Do you put your hope in Him or in what you want?

I understand this is a delicate balance to maintain. We were created in His image, and with that comes thoughts, creativity, and free will. I am believing for a divine partnership with my Creator. I am asking for my pride and stubborn attitude to be illuminated, so that we can work in tandem. I am praying to have a softened heart that trusts the knowledge my head possess. I encourage you to invite that into your life with Jesus too.

Selah.