What Is Freewriting?
Have you ever experienced writer's block, that frustrating feeling of knowing what you want to say but not how to say it? Freewriting is a great way to get away from that. It's simple: You just write, and don't worry about whether or not what you're writing is good or not—you're just trying to get yourself into a natural flow.
Freewriting is a great prewriting technique. It will come in handy if you have a general topic but are not sure what you want to say about it. Get a pen and paper (or open up a blank computer document) and set yourself a time limit. Then start writing about your general topic, recording thoughts as they come into your mind. Do not edit as you go, or even look back at what you have written. Just keep moving on as thoughts occur to you. The purpose of freewriting is to develop ideas spontaneously and naturally.
Example 1: Hamlet
Consider this example, a two-minute freewrite on the topic of revenge in Hamlet:
People say Hamlet is a play about revenge, but is revenge successful if he dies at the end? Is killing Claudius enough to make Hamlet happy? Did he succeed at anything, or did he just destabilize Denmark further? Fortinbras seems like a better king—at least he is interested in government. But he isn't the rightful ruler, which is part of why Hamlet was upset with his uncle in the first place. Or was he? Is he more upset about the murder or the usurpation? Does he want to rule or just to get revenge? Is his quest for vengeance the act of a justice-seeking prince or are revenge and rulership at cross-purposes?
There are a few good things to notice about this freewrite. First, the paragraph has many more questions than observations or answers. This is perfectly fine. Freewriting is not a place to work out answers to questions, but rather to figure out exactly what question you want to ask.
The other thing to notice is the general trajectory of the paragraph. The different questions are connected to each other, albeit very loosely. Again, this is fine. Freewriting does not need to be rigidly organized as long as it stays relatively close to its general topic. Often, freewrites will end up producing a unified line of thought even without you trying to connect everything. There is a significant difference between the starting point of "Is Hamlet's revenge successful?" and the final questions of "Does Hamlet want to get revenge or become a ruler?," and "Can you seek revenge and be a ruler?" All three are different approaches to the same broader question, though. In fact, those second questions can be refined into more specific answers to the first one.
A topic from the first question might be "Hamlet does not successfully achieve his goal of vengeance." A topic from the last questions might be "Hamlet fills his stated goal of killing Claudius, but since he leaves Denmark without a king he ultimately fails at correcting the wrong he wanted to correct." Both ideas are far more focused than what you started with.
Example 2: Lolita
Now that you've seen an example of freewriting and the research topics it can point you toward, try it with this example:
Humbert Humbert is a creepy dude who basically ruins Lolita's life. But he recognizes that he's being judged by the world for his actions and he says he's full or remorse. Is he sincere or just playing it up for the "jury"? He sounds sincere, though flowery. Do his elaborate professions of guilt work to absolve him or make him seem purely theatrical? What about how he talks about Lolita? He doesn't even call her by her real name, which is Dolores. In a lot of ways, she's more of an object of his fantasy than a real person. Does that make his behavior less condemnable because he's clearly nuts? Or more condemnable because he's unempathetic to the extreme?
What research direction could this freewriting example bring you toward?