In many ways, “control” means the familiar, the status quo. And this is the writer’s enemy. Creating, after all, means ushering in the NEW. Spontaneity is where the fire lies; it’s our route to unexpected ideas, and the ring of our own true voices. We can tap into a strong flow of inspiration once we find a way to skirt around the habitual control habits of our censor mind. One of the best ways to sneak passed the guards, I’ve found, is to devote some time each day to unstructured writing. Keep your hand moving, and write out all your thoughts without stopping to consider how good they are or where they’re taking you.
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I used a very simple technique to write this article: I started with the idea of “letting go” and then I wrote for about fifteen minutes, recording every thought that came up in relation to this concept.
Anyone recall doing contour drawings in art class? Free-flowing writing practice can be very similar. As you might remember, our teachers had us start with pure contour: drawing something that we’re seeing without looking at our hand. The writer’s analogy would be to write down every thought that passes through our heads, as fast as our pen hand can move, without judging, critiquing or inhibiting.
Then we have our equivalent of modified contour – checking back periodically to see where the hand is – which still entails writing without stopping to question, but holding to a central idea for reference. Any time our thoughts stray we just gently restate the core idea (perhaps “book promotion”, “Google Adsense” or whatever else) and keep writing.
When we let go like this we find an outlet for material that we had never considered or may even have been afraid of. We catch thoughts on the pages that normally would’ve passed right under our noses undetected. Our mental habits can structure so much of our inspiration. When we EXPECT ideas to come only from a certain quarter then we blind ourselves to anything coming to us from other directions. Writing without second-guessing our destination allows it all to spill out before our eyes – and then we can sift through later and separate the gold flecks from the mud.
Seth Mullins is the author of "Song of an Untamed Land". Visit his complete blog at
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