In the few minutes I spent writing this, I realized that the improv ethic—go with what you’re given—isn’t the cumbersome, rain-soaked woolen overcoat I thought it was. Rather, this philosophy liberates the mind by giving it a specific ground zero to begin thinking. Throughout my subsequent freewriting, I referred to this improv strategy again and a

Bradbury, Ray. Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius within You. New York: Bantam Books, 1990. p. 13.

leave out the second time? What did you inadvertently add?

• Vary the session lengths and specific techniques you use during your bouts of freewriting. • Talk to yourself, on paper, about any resistance you’re feeling about your problem or about the freewriting method itself. (“I don’t feel like doing this.”) • Dumping a lot of details and information on the page often in and of itself suggests a solution.

When twenty minutes is up and your timer rings, stop. Again, read through your twenty minutes of writing, and underline or bold the notions that grab you. Find a new starter thought. Repeat.

As you go about your day, then, keep your eyes open for stories and other kinds of material to use in your writing. At first you may not recognize something as worthy of writing about. But remember: If a story or a detail or an observation is interesting to you, then it’ll probably be interesting to members of your audience. We are more alike than

One of my prose rules has to do with keeping the writing step and the revising step separate. When you try to write and edit at the same time, you overwhelm yourself.

• When you hold a paper conversation, you engage in a make-believe discussion with someone and get their viewpoint on your situation. • To hold a powerful paper discussion, you need to do two things: (1) Put meat on the character (vividly experience them in front of you), and (2) get the character to make you speak (respond to the character’s brief

2. I kept quiet about those things that needed no explanation.