by Javeed Chida
I first heard about fast-writes in an Intro to Creative Writing class I took at College of DuPage some years ago. Writing can often feel like an uphill task. A fast-write is primarily intended to help a writer find their footing. The typical scenario is that you want to write about a topic but don’t know how or where to begin.
Here’s how it works. Get a stopwatch. Set it for two minutes. Sit down with fingers hovering above keyboard or your favorite pen poised over paper. Relax those writing muscles. That is to say: clear your mind and resist the urge to think, to plan, to form words.
Simply start writing. Do so with a forced urgency.
All sense is suspended. Noise becomes the norm. You write whatever comes out. No filters. No second thoughts. No backspace. No strikethroughs. No sentences recast. No word choices reconsidered. No grammar checks.
You may liken this to how stream of consciousness works. While the idea is the same, a stream of consciousness effort is an end in that it is used as a writing device to produce a complete piece of writing that can then be revised to maintain the elements that make it effective or beautiful. A fast-write is not an end, but a means.
If you have never attempted a fast-write, you may not know what to expect from it. Here is a list of those things.
Noise
Noise, noise, noise. A lot of noise. Here’s me taking a breath to give you an example.
“Okay here goes fast write my thoughts to see what I can say nothing really on my mind really annoying to see someo these words getting autocorrected as ai go about this wish life was like that but it isn;t maybe i can take a break from this and get some chinese later today…”
Let there be noise.
“That’s it!”
No! Ignore the temptation to dwell on any instantly gratifying flashes of inspiration. A perfect word. A great idea. Ignore it for now.
You see, with a fast-write, it is possible, even probable, that something better is right around the corner. Remember: you were in a vacuum before you began the exercise. So anything you discover that is good is already better than what you had.
But you resolved to do this for two minutes. See it through. DO NOT SCAN BACKWARD. DO NOT STOP. DO NOT GET UP TO PUMP YOUR FIST. DO NOT PASS GO AND DO NOT COLLECT $200. KEEP WRITING. Keep at it while the timer runs. It will all be there for you when you are done.
Lesser words…
are better out of than in the way. There will often be things that come out of a fast-write that are absolutely offensive. That’s okay. Acknowledge your humanness by giving space to the subhuman tendencies of your mind.
But also, there is no need to normalize it. Rather than honoring that unbecoming, subhuman thought, see it for what it is. Acknowledge that, just like in the real world, garbage is a reality. We don’t devour those banana peels just because they exist. We don’t frame candy wrappers just because they’re colorful. Garbage can be great, but only when compared to other garbage. Best not lower our standards. Let the fast-write get it out of the way.
Revise Forward
Everything I said above: forget it!
Wait, let me explain. You still can’t go back and change or improve what you are writing in your fast-write, but no one said you can’t keep writing about it.
For example, you find yourself writing the words “I wish I could bash his head in for every time he said…” Remorse washes over you. You want to go back and delete those words. Don’t! But do! Keep writing about how you feel. “….that’s terrible that I said that of course I don’t want to bash his head in just because he said…” Move forward. The point is to keep writing until your two minutes run out.
There’s water coming out of the spigot and through the hose of your consciousness. You’re just harnessing it for now. You can always take out the debris and filter the water when you’re ready to serve it.
Pain & Grief
In the course of a fast-write, your mind is getting a rinse cycle. As the noise begins to diminish, I’ve found pain tends to come to the forefront. This can be heavy and I am not going to ask you to ignore it, because everyone’s pain is theirs to deal with. Deal with it. God be with you.
Clear Skies
When the timer runs out, stop writing. Get up and stretch. Good chance you won’t have to go back and read any of your fast-write, but then again, it’s there if you want to. All those flashes of brilliance that you did well to ignore can now be studied. There is a good chance that your fast-write has the opening line to your topic of interest. There is also the chance that your fast-write has revealed to you that the topic you wanted to write about is really a good one to revisit later because here is something that is begging to be written now.
In conclusion, I’ve found fast-writes to be a quality device to get noise out of the way and access the idea store vaulted away from me inside my own mind. Like all great ideas, they don’t always work. It’s a good thing we humans are primed for disappointment.
And yes, if you don’t already own one, do consider buying a shredder.
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