Saturday Page Rage is a one-hour writing challenge that uses free association writing, also known as freewriting or automatic writing. You can write anything - fiction or non-fiction, explore ideas for your novel, play or screenplay, poetry or memoirs, it's up to you. You will have one hour to write as much as you can and as fast as you can without stopping. You can do it by yourself or with a group of writer friends today or any time during the week. There will be a new theme posted here every Saturday.
RULES
- WRITE AS FAST AS YOU CAN
- WRITE AS MANY PAGES AS YOU CAN
- PEN CANNOT LEAVE PAPER or
FINGERS CANNOT LEAVE KEYBOARD - WRITE FOR ONE SOLID HOUR
If your mind wanders - write it down, if you go blank - write it down, you can repeat the theme until something comes to you - do not stop! Thinks as you write and write as you think. Do not go back to read what you've written, do not even think about what you've been writing. Write as fast as you can - this is not a stroll in the park, this is a sprint - imagine a pack of vicious rottweilers running after you - yes, THAT fast!
And whatever you do, you have to have fun! Enjoy it! No one will ever read unless you want them to, the aim is to get your brain to 'loosen up' and bring out something new and surprising. Therefore you have to write as fast as you can. It's about mileage - write about anything as long as you can as many words down as possible.
It will be a fun experience with a group of writers where you can keep an eye on each other and discuss afterwards - how did it go? Was it easy? Was it hard? What did you write about? Did you write anything that surprised you? Is there anything you can use in your other projects or gave you an idea about doing something differently with some other project?
Every week a new theme will be posted here. You don't have to stick to it, you can just use it to get you started or get you back on track during writing. You can use the theme to write about anything that is on your mind, you are currently working on, or use it to write about something completely new. You can write about a a fictional character, come up with a story; about a personal experience, issues on a community level, national level, or about something universal - anything! The theme can be applied to any topic or issue - personal relationships (fictional or not), family, politics, sports, culture, etc.. Different angles and associations might come to you as you write - let it happen, don't censor yourself, relax and let everything come out.
After you've completed take a short break, have a cup of coffee and just think about the process - how it went and what you felt - did you struggle? Where did you struggle? How did you get rolling? After you've cleared your mind and relaxed go back to read what you've written, read it a couple of times and analyse it - are there any surprises? Are there any interesting thoughts? Something you can use in your other writing? Which parts were easier to write about and what were the areas where you lost the train of thought? Was the easy part something you've been writing about before or was is something new? Perhaps the harder bits are the ones worth exploring? Did you stumble upon any deeper issues you've been avoiding without being aware of it? Take your time. If this has given you new ideas to explore and write about - great!
Also, please come back to leave a comment and share your experience with other writers! We would love to hear about how it went!
Please use #satpagerage to post your responses and comments on Twitter. There will be notifications on Twitter every Saturday when a new theme goes up.
Don't stop to think, just start writing!
Good luck!
