THE MAGIC OF FREESTYLE WRITING
By Robin Postell
Freestyle writing is my secret recipe for keeping and sustaining creative flow. You might ask, what is freestyle writing?
I just know it is what I do and have always done. Sitting down to create an outline is not my methodology. My mind must and does bloom and swirl and explode and dive into valleys of my dolls.
My writing and me? We go everywhere.
Like a good rapper knows, free styling your craft, whatever it is, creates a comfort zone for the Muse.
THE MUSE
The Muse, she’s mighty hard to get. But do what you can’t help doing that makes you feel like a genius, or a wizard, at the very least. Freestyle your talent with words and dare to say what others cannot.
The Muse will stick around for a while, fickle as she is. She loves a flourishing artist in the throes of the madness that is creation.
Writing about what I’m interested in serves me well and fuels my creativity.
When I first began freelancing I would seek ideas I knew editors would want. I had studied magazine markets that interested me most and matched them to my pet subjects.
A freestyle lifestyle goes hand-in-hand with a flowing state of creative writing. Crafting my career in the same way came natural.
I write because I can’t imagine not writing. Everywhere I go I have a big batch of my favorite ink pens and at least a small journal tucked away within reach in case I need a fix. If that fails, I break out my iPhone and journal in my Notes or in Microsoft Word.
The more tools the better!
It’s just what I do.
READ THE ROOM FOR OPTIMAL FREESTYLE FLOW
My experiences teach me that knowing your audience is critical for engaging interest. Seems fundamental enough, but reading the room will make you a star instead of a bureaucrat.
Being a garden variety pencil pusher is not what real writing is about.
Storytelling feeds off flow state energy and your readers sense when you have it and when you don’t. Avoid spinning yarns when uninspired.
Save up for the next visit from the Muse.
Writing short stories for my seventh grade English class kept my fellow chums all stitched up, as I would always insert them into the plot. Engaging people personally, and listening, will make a good reader audience, remember that.
Honestly, I feel like I have a Ph.D in journalism from hanging out with my UGA Grady Journalism alum father, an investigative reporter and inky-veined muck raker.
You’ve been conditioned in a very special way.
Investigative Journalist, State Editor, Author, and Do Right Daddy, Charles Postell
And yes, my freestyle writer daddy groomed me from the ground up.
Riding shotgun with him on his beats, I watched the adult world wrangle with its mortal coil.
Never underestimate the child’s ability to process “adult” information.
They do it all the time, if given the opportunity.
This was how I learned to interview: freestyle, all the way.
Today I am an expert interviewer – able to talk to someone and get what I need in conversations without them even thinking they’re being interviewed.
GOING PRO: FREESTYLE CREATIVE
I had never considered growing up to be a writer because I already was one.
The handful of college-era jobs I had never sent a thrill through me, but my writing almost always did when I did it just right.
Writing as a career…?
Jobs equalled boring hours of being anything but freestyle, right? Jobs that I’d had were definitely lacking in creativity.
Fast forward to age 21 and voila.
My last clock-puncher was working the desk of a 24-hour tanning salon.
Someone said Oppenheimer couldn’t run a hamburger stand, and he agreed.
I can’t run a tanning salon. That is ok by me. There are worse things at which to fail.
Nevertheless, I had to do something, and fast.
So, I went pro to avoid ever having to punch a clock, ride a clock, or watch a clock.
Ever.
Again.
NO MORE CLOCK-PUNCHING
Writing was more than a hobby when I got my first check for an article in an Atlanta lifestyle magazine.
And suddenly it all made sense.
Writing and photography were the easiest things I knew how to do and had been doing as long as I had been alive.
The thought crossed my mind that I was cheating the system – what if everyone found out that I wasn’t working at all?
That essentially I was playing while on the clock?
THE GIFT
Six continents and six years later, I managed to contribute to world-renowned magazines, build a fat and sassy portfolio, and became a hotrod, jet-setting anti-superstar of journalism.
I didn’t stop.
Collecting features as trophies for my portfolio became a preoccupation. I started to lose sight of how blessed I was to be able to freelance full-time and see my bylines in magazines.
Burned out, it was time for a long reckoning. That’s what happens when you lose your grace and subsist on pride alone.
Lessons came fast and steady as magazines suffered from the boom of digital platforms and content.
The world was changing and so was I.
The gift my father gave me is one that keeps giving, but I had to be reminded.
Never take for granted seeing your byline. It is a special achievement.
PROJECT NEW WORD ORDER
Sporting a slimmer trimmer ego these days makes me a happy girl. I want to play and enjoy everything I do – get back to my freestyle roots.
That goes for writing, too.
Somewhere along the way I began taking my experience for granted and the “pro” in me overtook my childlike creativity.
In a nutshell, this website is a project, not just a portfolio to show off.
(By the way, Project New Word Order is the name of my Substack, which you can find here. If you dig it, consider subscribing.)
This is a realtime work in progress, a reinvention of creative spirit, with lots of new and improved character building.
You can watch me blunder, stumble, and grope around with WordPress themes, fonts, menus, colors, glaring typos, and ill-sized photos. Learn from my mistakes! I’m not going to hide my gaffs.
There is no shame in my game!
That’s just the way I’m going to roll round here, hoss.
My goal is to do whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it.
Frankly, like writing, it’s the other thing I do best.
R
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