Automatic Writing
Automatic writing is writing which the writer claims to be produced from a subconscious, external or spiritual source without conscious awareness of the content. Or all three.
In spiritualism, spirits are claimed to take control of the hand of a medium to write messages, letters, and even entire books. I’m hoping that some kind of spirit turns up and writes mine for me – I may start going to bed with a pencil and notepad strapped to my arm. Would be great if I could get good at Automatic Typing too, and Automatic Editing.
I’m writing a book about being possessed, so it’d be entirely appropriate, surely?
If you want to have a go at some automatic writing yourself, try this link, or see below for more info. You’ll probably creep yourself out. Don’t blame me if you realise you’re channeling Damien.
Bri
January 30, 2013 at 2:56 pmAndre Breton defined surrealism as “psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express—verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner—the actual functioning of thought”. True surrealism had much more to do with automatic writing than Dali dreamscapes and Breton outlined this in the early manifestos. It was removed from spiritualism though and placed in the realm of games. There’s a book I’ve got called Little Book of Surrealist Games that contains many exercises that can be played throughout the day.
Bev – are you a fan of the situationists at all?