Up: [[Introspective Writing]] Related: [[Proprioceptive Question Example]] Created: 2021-12-08 Updated: 2025-12-23 Proprioceptive writing, called a Write, is agenda-free for the first three months. After that you can do a guided Write that begins with a question you want to answer, or an issue you want to understand. Good topics for guided Writes come from answers to question 4 in the third step below. ### Environment Work sitting at a table and away from all distractions. You’re not even supposed to drink anything while doing a Write. Work for 25 minutes while listening to Baroque music, such as Bach or Vivaldi, which roughly matches the steady rhythm of your pulse. The authors urge 5 days a week. They also want Writes done on white unlined paper so you have freedom to go in any direction with your words. ### Relax Start the music, light a candle, and take a minute to relax either through several long inhales and exhales or by closing your eyes, cupping your hands over them and waiting until a black velvety curtain or a purple field appears on the inside of your eyelids. ### Steps to Proprioceptive Writing 1. Capture moment-to-moment thoughts in writing. Think of anything you might or could say, and write it down. Don’t try to actively direct your thoughts. Just write whatever you’re thinking or feeling, whatever interests or concerns you. You don’t need to keep your pen going all the time. If you’ve got lots of thoughts all at once and you don’t know which one to pursue, you can slow down and allow time to explore, but without judgment. 2. Overhear your thoughts as if they were spoken. No judging, editing or censoring. The tool to help with this is called the Proprioceptive Question — **What do I mean by___?** Write out the question and write what you hear in response to the question. Be ready to use the question with any word or phrase you’ve written that has you sensing emotion or story or where you have a hunch there’s something juicy waiting. The question is an attention focusing tool, meant to *amplify thought, express it more accurately and reflect on it more meaningfully.* The response is never a definition. It’s about the emotional or psychological sense the word has for you. See [[Proprioceptive Question Example]] 3. Reflection is what makes this process different from [[freewriting]], morning pages or stream of consciousness writing. Each of those separates expression from reflection or sees thinking as a distraction. *We view thinking as an act of imagination and reflection an inquiry into that act.* Write down four questions and answer them in writing. This is often where revelations occur. Take the time you need for this. 1. What thoughts were heard but not written? 2. How or what do I feel now? Try to find a word or phrase for your dominant energy. 3. What larger story is the Write a part of? i.e. ‘marriage story’ or ‘self-concept story’. This might take time to emerge. 4. What ideas came up for future Writes? You can eventually organize my Writes into my various themes. ### Challenges The superstition that expressing a thought will make it come to life. But you didn’t choose your thoughts and they aren’t your considered judgement, they are just a snapshot. Nick Milo says this well — *It’s not what you believe, it’s just what you type.* Allow your emotions full expression. They might have to intensify before they subside. Write what you’re really thinking, not what you think stream of consciousness should sound like. ### Writes Next Steps Once you’re comfortable doing Writes, there are next steps you can take with one Write or a group of Writes. Start the same way as usual except you can use any instrumental music you find relaxing and focusing. Do one or more of the following in a half hour session or longer - Read all or part of a group of Writes (even one) - Riff off any words, phrases, or sentences of the text. - Mark or colour code any parts you want to study further or copy out for use later. - List the sequence of Proprioceptive Questions in one Write or several. Does a story reveal itself? - List the people who show up in a Write, and reflect on your shared history. - Explore your Writes for their [[Metaphor]]s. Do they tell a story? - List and/or draw the visual images in the Write. - List any words you want to explore but didn’t get to before. - Take note of statements in a Write that seem to contain important truths. Copy them elsewhere and start quoting yourself. > [!User] Linda Trichter Metcalf in *Writing the Mind Alive*