On Free Writing

Time to come up with a new novel idea. How do I do this? Usually, I put on some classical music, set a timer on my phone for five minutes and just get typing. This is my version of free writing. Oftentimes, it consists of me writing ‘I don’t know what to write’ or ‘What should go next?’. The result is not usable text for a novel or short story. Instead, it’s a way of looking at my thoughts face to face. Hopefully, something new will come up. 

Here is my free writing from today:

I want to write a horror novel. It might not include any supernatural elements, more like a slasher. Something on the fine line between horror and thriller. The main character is a woman. I don’t know anything about her right now. She is investigating the death of another woman – a series of women – and believes the killer is a high-profile man. I don’t know how to make this horror story right now. It’s more than just crime though.

I don’t know what to write next… I’m seeing a distance in time. Maybe our heroine is investigating a historical crime like the Black Dahlia or something similar. I haven’t got a hook yet. I haven’t got something to make this story idea special. I know what the theme is: the developing relationship between the living woman and the memory of the dead woman. Not a ghost. Just the memory.

Obviously, the difference in time cannot go back to the 1940s, as in the Black Dahlia case. There need to be witnesses. More than one person who is alive and can tell our main character about the victim. This is becoming less and less a horror story and more a story about a tender, impossible relationship. A relationship with someone you don’t know. I could take out the murder element altogether.

Is there anything useful I can take from this? Yes, there is a theme. The theme of loving someone you don’t know. An impossible love story. This can be carried over to all sorts of genres. I have the sense that this will be the nub at the centre of my novel. That said, I do not have a hook yet. I don’t have that something special that differentiates my novel from all others. I have nothing to make it specific. And that’s important.

The next step is to read for inspiration. My free writing includes references to the Black Dahlia, so perhaps I could read a non-fiction book about that infamous murder case.

From having no ideas at all, I have a vague shadow of an idea. All it took was a little free writing. Now, all I have to do is develop it. And, if it doesn’t turn into a specific idea, I can always use the free writing technique again to come up with something new.