Freewriting • Philosophy and the notebooks • • 8 min read

Five Pages in Forty Minutes

A timed freewriting run: can I fill a page in five minutes, or five pages in forty? Clock times in the margins, notes on breath, posture and margins, and what speed does to the writing.

Spiral notebook page dated 1-13-2025 that opens with Hello World, a full page of slanted black cursive on lined paper

1-13-2025

Hello World. Two simple words that directed so much in the world. Breathe always good advice and keep body loose and moving. Take a good look at how you are feeling in each part of your body. Release any unrest. Get enough exercise. Get out when you can. The more you feel free, the better you feel. Let yourself be free.

Now quickly as minutes are fleeting let's return to our subject. What would be some ways to make things more useful. The same thoughts for my daily notes (like summaries and what would make them better overall). They are the place to check-in and mine and they are getting broken up, they are merely the input vector and it is up to me to ponder, collect, gather or leave as pure abstraction that can itself[?] be left to it's own! Ok, great use of a few minutes.

Once you start writing into time and focusing on easy posture, smooth and long breath the vector of time as something more mutable like putty over those hands which constrain the clock to its single purposed pace and when time matches flow and even work the changing characteristics are to be noted. But importantly the basic notion of writing organization versus motivation and give a damn will also influence any system of analysis that I might impose on my freewriting efforts. What is more I rather enjoy far too much that is the lean of my pen and swift application of ink to page from idea bubble to roller ball jubilance. Deep breathe, that was a climb to the end of this page.

Can I do a page of freewriting. In 5 minutes?! 1 whole page! This is no easy task. First I will ensure my writing is appropriately sized. Then I have to write comfortably but also loosely conserving ink and arm and introduce the cursive lean which somehow makes things even that much more beautiful. And margins have been on my mind, we are more than one [?] in and I both have to relax my hand and while reaching margins I definitely don't have to overreach them and while fast thinking and equally fast capture are nice I do wonder about the speed one operates at and general comfort and also how close or closer are those thoughts to pure thought and if more time is taken what is the right balance. And does it matter based on the writing type and quality of desired results.

Speed wise my hand + time is just not there but ten minutes should then be no problem with time to spare. So for 5 page you might be able to do that in 30 at 6 min a page although that is tough, but still a good challenge and wow that would be some amazing freewriting especially if you could read the entire five pages! Even research suggest writing by long hand to be more cathartic and effective at managing one's mental processes. But at cost of efficiency so we have to come back to between what time can one [?] write a page of entry without difficulty margin to margin and with effortlessness and an outflowing with. Again thinking of intent. Intent and the notion of time and of hunger. Sometimes you just have to ride it out wherever you end up and that is how it goes when your moving fast.

And I should have started the timer, let's say we started 2:34 and as time marches one way we try to make it go the other. Now catching up with the thoughts should be no problem and you might be slowing up a bit too much. Why don't I just ask all my problems to AI. If you're willing to keep give it up for Jesus well might as well give it up for AI. As a planning tool it is quite capable. [redacted] This is all about capturing documents and entering them into a system. [redacted] And what do I do to ensure I remain feeling fulfilled and valuable. Well first you gotta make it and then you gotta work a little everyday to keep things from slipping. Practical and pragmatic! Pragmatism in one's efforts to go forth and prosper. Before taking on another huge project see what can be done to further organize and improve existing processes. That is safe design. That is the way of the scribe!

11 min. 2:45

2:50

Once a race is started what matters is you finish. Try not to let the intruding thoughts of others [?]. What is 5 pages in 40 minutes? 8 min per page. I think I can do 8 minutes, let's see. I don't want to try too hard, interrupt the flow. And beyond that it is about showing up. And you show up when you do the work. When you are doing the work. When living becomes fun what then, has become is that the purpose. Also the beauty of the sunshine in the day, the planets at night, it is exquisite and every moment in between, all those beautiful glimpses of pure goodness are worth enduring even if it is merely to make it to the next hour or survive one disaster to only be beset by another.

Imagine not one disaster but multiple affecting not just you but your entire family and what would it take to build multidimensional[?] resilience and bottomless love to encounter these opportunities life presents and to never forget the beauty in the ugly and it is much about how we play the game of life as it also plays us and true it's best to derail focus and command attention in sneaky ways where we have to think about things like unlearning our ways, breath control and meditation. Like really and what the french fry, why aren't the other animals complicated like us and instead seemed hard wired by nature I suppose into that magical state of heightened awareness where we may have as well cut off our senses as [?] or at least given over to them and fed them a steady diet of Burger King and Stephen King.

2:59

3:0[?]

Wow the tracking of time and setting goals can change output but it might not change the actual activity [?] of just tweaking things a little and then get out of the way so things can flow again and at a certain speed there is incredible synergy between creativity, the mining of raw thought but also perhaps utilizing the mind in a slightly different way. Wonder about handwriting, why would my writing be different than what it might look like 100s of years ago. And what of before it had been learned and yet a child now can learn cursive and become proficient at writing however even those feats are becoming less as the human brain for typical among the species has begun shrinking in what we can call the fight between creators and consumers.

And yet as with the balance of all things matter imploded and the laws of all physical things you cannot have one without the other and things must not find yourself trapped into one or the other. Without any consumption how would you even know what things are among the same class but without creation can one have been said to have partaken at all with life? There is a balance and perhaps one should be adept on flowing in and out of the worlds which the fun and mystery which the creator brings but like all things of beauty the work itself often shines as what is beautiful resulting in something so simple and elegant its complexity is often belied by its beauty.

3:09

3:10

We have but another segment with every a moment to have a breath or reflection. Yet typically those are taken for granted and only when we are uncomfortably squeezed or placed in situations of stress does our true greatness have presence to take shape in manners we might not have expected and with contained beauty in the expression of the creator who shows a command for the medium but a looseness in technique allowing for originality and flow and simply mining that material. If you keep turning over rocks you will eventually find some jewels and they make you rich but it might have been flipping those rocks that kept you happy. That sunshine on your face kind of feeling. The ultimate high of a perfect run on a perfect day when things feel fine. And then we have nuclear fallout. Then what. Or we get into it with our spouse. Or are annoyed with the kids. What then and how does the work get done in the face of challenges all of which also seem so much doable.

You still have to do the work and show up and stay alive but the rest takes care of itself. And sometimes when you get a little comfortable you have to push yourself to be better, to accept challenge, to overcome defeat. And in most cases it is not being the cause of your greatest pain and getting out of the way for the learning process when you misstype and getting back to gratitude and

3:20 am falling asleep! Hand is tired.

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