My writing days always start with 10 minutes or 500 words or one page of free-writing.

For me, it’s a brain clearing exercise. It’s emptying out the space where creativity happens, making room for what needs to come.

Here’s how it works: Open a document, or turn to a fresh page. I do both, at different times, depending on how I’m feeling – whichever option grabs me, that’s the one I go to.

I generally make a mental note of the time. If I’m writing on computer, I have word count in front of me – if I’m on paper, I’m aiming for about a page.

Then start. Don’t stop. Don’t edit, don’t correct, don’t revise, just write or type. Non-stop. Whatever comes to mind, let it flow out your fingers onto the page or screen. Don’t worry about sentence structure, or even making sense. Jump from topic to topic if that’s what your mind does. Coherence is not your goal here.

The goal is to exist in the now with the writing. Let associations form freely, and let them spill onto the page.

More often than not, what’s on my mind is the writing session to come, so I’ll spitball ideas, talk to myself about what I’m going to be writing, bounce ideas off the page and see what form they come back to me in. All useful.

But, the most useful, is when I’m struggling with something outside of writing.

By nature, I’m a worrier. A thought pattern loops around in my head unless I break it, I go back down well trodden paths, relive things from my past that don’t need to be revisited.

Writing it out seems to break that loop for me. It externalises the thoughts, puts them out in front of me, to where I can look at them. It puts me into the role of looking at the problem instead of dwelling inside the problem, and more often than not, that’s enough for the problem to stop being problematic.

Over the last few years, I’ve adopted the habit of free-writing when feeling stressed/upset. While most of my free-writing is, as mentioned, my way of starting a writing session, there’s value in it at other times too – externalising problems, breaking that brain-loop of angst/anger/confusion.

It helps me to find acceptance, it puts things into a more realistic perspective, helps me to get some clarity around my thoughts.

Helps me to move on. Sometimes moving on takes the form of a plan of attack, be that with the writing session I’m about to embark on, more detailed ideas for later in the story, or simply a list of things to have done.

Which is the same as my goal for the pre-writing free-writing. Clear the playing field. Make room for forward movement. Maybe (and this part is truly optional) provide some guidance as to what direction that movement should be in.

After a good session (and yes, some are better than others), I feel cleansed, emptied.

I feel ready to move forward.

And that’s the goal.