My Twitter Writing Experiment

Writing Without Thinking

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been conducting a writing experiment on Twitter (or ‘X’, as I should call it), in which I set a time for ten minutes and wrote a short story. I then allowed myself 5 minutes to edit what I had written, but once my second timer was up that was it. The story was done. I then published whatever I had written, no matter how good or bad it was, as a thread on Twitter.

The Purpose of the Challenge

It was a challenge that I set to myself, and which I would recommend to any writer who wants to break down their personal barriers about what it worthy of publication. The purpose of this experiment was to put my work out into the public realm without overthinking or being overly critical about it. And I could do so, knowing the conditions in which it was produced, as I, and anyone else who views my profile will understand that it was under ridiculous time-pressure and without any prior planning.

The Principle Behind Timed Writing Exercises

As writers, it is crucial that we have discipline with ourselves. We have to set ourselves goals and timelines to work to in order to maintain the drive to finish (or even begin) a project or piece of writing. Of course, my ten minute experiment dialled this up to an extreme degree, but it roots back to the same principle.

I have challenged myself to timed daily writing exercises in the past, but this was usually more free writing, which usually meant I wrote about mundane aspects of my life, like what I had eaten for breakfast, or what the weather looked like outside. Or else, I used writing prompts to get myself started. But these were never shared publicly. And they were usually hand-written, which made it more difficult to edit, or even read, as my handwriting is appalling when I write quickly, to the point where even I can barely decode its meaning.

The Outcome

The writing was, naturally, not my best work. How could it have been, under the circumstances? Some of the pieces made very little sense, had no arc, and ended very abruptly. And yet, in each of one, I could find something of value: an interest line, or character, or scenario. And any one of these things could be developed at a later stage.

What I found was that every day I came up with completely different concepts and characters. If I’d allowed myself a day, or a week to write short story, I would have overthought every single detail and possibly even given up on the idea before writing a single word. Or, if had not set any deadline at all, allowing an infinite amount of time to write the piece, I may never have even made a start on it.

Breaking Old Habits

By sharing the work publicly, I am breaking my old habit of keeping my writing hidden away in files on my laptop which have never been read by anybody but myself. Of course, there are certain kinds of writing that should only be for yourself – personal, diary-entry-like writing, where we bitterly unload our grievances. Nobody needs to (or should) read these. Ever. But others, such as ideas and beginnings of stories, are wasted without ever being allowed a chance to breathe.

See the outcome of the experiment below!

Tweets by emmaemc_writer