SALFORD ADVANTAGE: WRITING FOR PLEASURE

I decided to attend this Advantage course because I was intrigued by its title: Writing for pleasure. Writing is something I don't usually do unless I am required. The reason why, is not because I don't enjoy it, but more because I don't feel too confident with it. So I just wanted to see if attending this online seminar could have been helped me writing a bit more in my spare time.

This course started with Ebba (the lecturer), asking us to try using the free-writing technique for 10 minutes straight. This task got me a bit out of the guard, but it was relaxing somehow. I just let my mind free and started to write on a piece of paper all my thoughts and feelings. Time flew by quicker than I expected, and by the end of the timer, I had a fairly long piece of writing in my hands. This activity was mostly to help us have an idea on how it feels writing for the sake of it, without thinking of marks, or any judgment. I found this exercise extremely useful and interesting.

The next segment of the lecture was dedicated to mind maps and their function. A mind map can help you have a general idea of the concept you will have to write about. In a mind map what you need to do is to have a keyword, and from that, you need to find every possible connection you can think of. Ebba gave us 5 minutes to draw a rough map (using one of the words she provided us with). In mine, I decided to talk about family and what it means to me.

This whole lecture revolved around writing freely and without constraints. It was an extremely stimulating exercise and I am really glad I took part in it. I will most certainly use these techniques of free-writing and mind mapping in the future.