Questioning the authenticity of any free association write is reasonable. There’s time to think about a prompt you’ve created for yourself or a prompt you chose to write about in exercise. Holding thoughts during writing is not uncommon; it’s well implemented in poetics. Poetry in its own uniqueness requires keeping things concealed while aesthetically describing what is being held in the shadows, the arcane. Could something you are unaware of be influencing you? Sure.
How often does anyone just write freely without constraint? There are word choices to make, punctuation to consider; the audience and the impact words may have on them. Writer's want to engage readers and that takes planning just like outlining an essay or a chapter for a novel.
Free writing or steam of consciousness exercises aren't used for writing the blog post or novel, they're used more for self-exploration. To help discover things that may otherwise go unnoticed. It's about opening yourself up and letting words or phrases flow freely.
For example, the following photo was taken about seven years ago during the "golden hour" on a site where an old house was being demolished. At that time the scene triggered my creative thinking process. It still does.
It's symbolic of constraint and love and the shovel handle still reminds me of a pencil- "we've got to write ourselves out of this bind we've got ourselves into." These were some of my first thoughts, like love at first sight. Even though the blog post is intentional, a good prompt can still promote 20 minutes of "stream of consciousness writing." Don't be afraid to write or release what any given prompt brings to mind- dropping your guard opens the road to authentic free writing.
edited, 06/16/2026
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