... as a means of accessing story ideas, or memories to fuel the writing? It's something that I'm semi-drean to because I have such a terrible conscious memory, and yet I'm sure all that stuff must be in there somewhere. And yet, I do not find the idea of being hypnotised very appealing. I don't like the idea of relinquishing control. It seems a writerly dilemma perhaps. To access the subconscious you do have to let go, but to write well you have to be in control.

I think it's the presence of another person that worries me.

No, but I think free-writing can come pretty darned close, if you keep writing. I've found myself writing things I had absolutely no idea were inside me. If you pick the right anchor phrase you can be sure you'll start off in the right direction, and after that, who knows...

Emma

Thanks for that, Emma. I have never tried free-writing, not sure how to. You just start writing and see where it gets you? Actually, maybe I have done that, a long time ago.

I am particularly interested in unlocking memories that seem to be lost to me.

Btw, I think I need deep-hypnosis to find out what I meant by 'semi-drean'. Semi-drawn, perhaps, though I'm not sure that means anything!

Free-writing's really worth a try. Some writers I know do it every morning as a warm-up, and I suspect I should too. It's more-or-less guaranteed entry to the zone, for one thing.

You pick an 'anchor phrase' that seems relevant. Very short. I dunno - say you were trying to find out about the setting of the novel, you might choses 'The house is...'

And then you just write. The only rules are no stopping, no crossing out and no corrections. Grammar/spelling don't matter, nor does logic or correctness of any sort. Doesn't need to be whole sentences - strings of words are fine. If suddenly no words come you just write the anchor phrase over and over again until they do. At some point you reach a barrier - a sort of fidgety 'this is pointless I can't think of anything to say' phase (fine to write that if that's what your brain's thinking) and you absolutely must keep going through that because it's beyond that barrier that things become really interesting. That often seems to be around the ten minute mark. If you decide to write for twenty minutes that seems to be about right.

Some find it very threatening, and absolutely refuse to do it on the grounds that 'it's rubbish', which misses (or rather resists) the point completely. At the risk of sounding smug and/or tiresomely mystical, it's the things your mind argues most furiously against that it most needs. I know now that if I'm resisting free writing it's because at some level I know what would emerge is stuff I want to pretend to myself isn't there.

Emma

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If you're trying to get at specific memories you could try to think of an anchor phrase - 'the ship was' or 'my grandmother was' or whatever.

This sounds like Julia Cameron's Morning Pages with a theme. Sounds like a great way forward. I've done MPs over several months - which is basically that you make a contract with yourself to write, longhand, for three sides of A4 every morning, with the same 'rules' that Emma mentioned. Ive never tried it with a specific theme - reckon it would be fascinating to see what comes out.
Another way might be to investigate Arts Therapy (as opposed to Art Therapy). An Arts Therapist works with the unconscious through play. You can choose whether to work with writing, drama, puppets, movement, voice, or (which I think is really effective) the sandtray. This is like a wooden drawer of sand and you can choose from hundreds of little figures (people, toys, flora and fauna, animals, icons etc.) to play out scenes in the sand. I've found this has really opened up new stuff. If you contact IATE (The Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education) in Islington they can give you a list of therapists practising in your area.
Susiex

Julia Cameron's Morning Pages with a theme.

Yes, much the same, but the theme means that you can direct it rather more towards a specific purpose. I've done it for characters who refused to come alive, before now. And of course Dorothea Brande got there before any of us...

Emma

I went to a hypnotherapist a few years ago as a way to give up smoking. I never felt hypnotised and am pretty convinced I was awake throughout. I also didn't stop smoking. I suppose this chap just wasn't very good or that I'm not easily hypnotized.

That's my experience.

N

Gawd, no - as a total control freak the idea of being hypnotised really freaks me out! I sometimes wonder if it would cure me of my fear of enclosed spaces, but I'm not brave enough to find out...but I'm fitter, having to always climb the stairs and not use the lift.

There are levels of trance, but I don't think you ever feel asleep. I've been hypnotised into light trance, and I completely recognised the feeling: it's not unlike meditating. Or (does anyone else have this?) that moment when you're going to sleep, but but mind's stopped turning, and you're completely awake, just hyper-aware of the moment you're in: feel of duvet, sounds outside, light if any on your eyelids, and so on. I associate it with going to sleep in the day.

Emma

That sounds like the state I was in - only not quite that deep. Just a bit dosy (surprise surprise!).
SPeaking of meditation and me being dosy...

I found a chakra music CD I was given ages ago by a homeopath and a few Sundays ago I decided to try it. The first track was 9 mins. I put it on, closed my eyes and began.

It felt like it was going on for ages and after some time I opened my eyes. Forty minutes had passed but my stereo told me it was only a couple of minutes in to the track. It took me a little while to realise that the CD was skipping.

N

Is what you explain Emma the same as stream of conciousness writing?

I'd never be hypnotised. I wouldn't let anyone mess in my head for their own safety.

JB

Having said that, Nessie, I'm phobic about ships and water, and if it got to the point where I couldn't do something I really wanted to do because of it, in theory I'd consider hypnotism. But thinking now about what I'd be asked to visualise makes me panic. I suppose the answer is that they do it in stages...

Emma

JB, no, it's not stream of consciousness as in Joyce or Woolf or whoever, which is a very carefully crafted mimesis of how we experience life (can anyone come up with a better definition?), though since we don't craft our experience of life, done well a passage might appear completely un-crafted.

Free-writing really isn't 'writing' in the sense that we'd normally use it, because there's no judgement or editing as you go along. I've been struggling to come up with an analogy (not least to convince the doubters) and it's hard. It really is a bit like dreaming, or the trance state, where you're just hyper-aware of whatever comes along, or maybe like doodling on the piano, more-or-less randomly, only every now and again some phrase suddenly sings out. If you're using free-writing as a starter exercise for a new piece, those words and phrases are what you take from the exercise work with.

Emma

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One thing it is like is how your mind takes off (unless you're particularly stressed and fretting about something) after some minute's moderate exercise. A swimmer friend says 20 lengths, I say 15 mins brisk walk, yoga does it too, especially the breathing. It IS a trance state, the true free-writing zone.

as a means of accessing story ideas, or memories to fuel the writing?

I would be worried about false memory syndrome, roger. Where the subconcious thoughts - be they fragments of dreams or novels or films - are dragged to the surface and seem as real to the person as any other memory from their past, ie. they believe they have lived the experience.

Some great replies here. Thanks everyone. Naomi, yes, false memory syndrome. But I have that already. But it's just that my false memories are a bit hazy!

I am wary of hypnotism, but drawn to it too, fascinated I suppose.

It's probably all to do with getting old, etc.

It would be great if I believed in reincarnation and had had a previous life in tsarist Russia. Then I could simply be regressed by a hypnotist and having someone write it all down!