Logorrhea Finds its Following February 17, 2009

Dilettante. Defenestrations. Perturbed. Loquacious. Brobdingnagian and Lilliputian. Indubitably. Biscuit; These are just a sampling of some of my favorite words in the English language.

But my absolute favorite? Logorrhea.

Logorrhea is precisely what it sounds like: word vomit. It is the act of spilling out whatever comes to mind, letting the words flow without any thought or care of the jumbled mess they land in.

And finally, I have found someone who agrees with me about the importance of logorrhea.

These emotions are WAY better out than in

Several years ago I discovered the joys of what I called free-flow writing; I would simply grab a pen and write. Emotions, epiphanies, ideas I didn’t even know I had stored in my brain would suddenly sit before my on paper, scrawled without my hardly even knowing it. The result would be some backlash-less venting, a bit of wholesome verbal practice, and a sigh of relief.

There are indeed benefits to throwing whatever emotions or thoughts you might be having onto paper. It’s the only release I have ever known to be consistently effective, and it has virtually no negative side effects.

To share a snippet of Sonia Simone’s post:

“Embrace the horrible. You’re de-gunking, remember? There’s going to be yukky stuff in there. Racist, homophobic, heterophobic, boring, immature, petty, mean-spirited, cruel, violent, bitter, self-pitying. downright evil. Name any quality you don’t want to have, it’s gonna come out.

What you find out when you do this is that you can write the words

I wish a nuclear bomb would destroy all life on earth so my assbag neighbor would melt and die

and nothing bad happens. No nuclear bombs. No destruction. No lightning bolt smiting you dead.

Plus, the feeling goes away. Or at least it eases up a little. You may find yourself starting to laugh about how out of proportion it all is.”

This is a practice that I highly recommend to everyone. Not only does it provide that breath of fresh air from any pent up emotions or stress that only a punching bag could offer, but there is no better way to get used to thinking and writing than by actually doing it. The words don’t have to be thought out, the ideas don’t have to be coherent, you just have to be used to having your own ideas and being comfortable with knowing and writing down what you’re thinking.

So with that all said, I hereby give you:

4 Tips for Successful Logorrhea:

I couldn't leave Austria without it

1: Love what you do; Love what you do it in: I never feel comfortable disclosing such deep thoughts and emotions in a journal unless it is a book or spiral that I specifically picked out for that purpose. I have to flat out adore it. I’ve used everything from moleskin notebooks, spiral notebooks, elegant journals, even a sketch books I paid an exorbitant amount for and carried back from Vienna just because it depicted my favorite painting on the cover (if you’re looking for a particularly high quality spiral, this is my personal favorite ). Whatever you use, it ought to have some sort of significance to you; this practice is actually how I became so neurotic about office supplies. Doing so not only helps you feel more comfortable revealing your inner thoughts on paper, but you’ll be more like to develop a habit. It’s simply one way of personalize and owning your work.

2: Don’t think, just write: this is one of the times in your life where the less thought you put into it, the better. Diving for the right thoughts is far less useful than allowing the thoughts and emotions to come as they choose. Prod them out with your pen, not with the desire to write something deep, elegant, or meaningful.

3: Be careful when using pencil: I can’t tell you how many pieces of writing I have lost because I used pencil. Pencil lead (at least the type I use) smudges. I’ve had everything from fictional writing to journals to class notes become utterly illegible because I wrote in pencil, and the simple rubbing of the pages against one another caused the sheets to become an indecipherable shade of gray. If you want anything you write to be preserved and remain legible, use pen.

4: “Keep it secret, keep it safe”: Pardon my use of a Lord of the Rings quote, but this especially true in this case; like anything that may contain private, potentially harmful or damaging information, do NOT allow the wrong people to get their hands on it. I do not need to tell you the havoc created when my significant other found a small section in my writing journal; it’s been almost a year and he will still give me flak for it. The worst part: since that happened, I have never felt comfortable writing in a book, and I assure you my stress level has risen greatly since losing my most effective venting tool. So please, let that cautionary tale be enough for you: these things are better left private and unshared.

Do any of you routinely practice this style of free-flow writing? Has it helped you in any way?