The objective is to bypass the left brain and allow the right brain, the creative side, freedom to birth the story. To assist the right brain further, he advocates using large sheets of plain white paper and a free flowing pen that allows one to write quickly. Apparently the left brain, the analytical part of our brain, likes lines. To show us the value of his technique which I’d always thought of as freewriting (except you still do your preplanning for theme, characters, character arcs, plot, point of view, and setting prior to this technique), he had us write nonstop without judgment, without editing, on plain white paper for six minutes. First, he had us visualize the setting, the character’s point of view for that scene, and what that scene should accomplish. Then we wrote. At the end of that time, he had us count up our words and then multiply the sum by 10. So if you had a 140 words in six minutes, you could have 1,400 words in an hour.
He then introduced us to an organizational notecard system he called scene cards to use following this first draft phase. He said you could use it at the end of a day’s writing or wait until you had completed the first draft. These scene cards could be labeled and color coded as action, passive, or other scenes. The scene cards allow the writer to note many things about the scene including changes that need to be made. It's much easier to do your initial editing using the scene cards rather than plowing through the first draft without their guidance. The actual revising of the draft, however, is not done until the first draft is completed. The scene cards simply allow the writer to be aware of what needs to be changed or eliminated. The scene cards provide information on type of scene, viewpoint, characters, setting, conflict, plot points, character points, other information, research topics, suspense elements, suspense resolved, and number of pages. You can find all of this in his book Revising Fiction: Making Sense of the Madness—The Comprehensive and Practical Guide to Self-Editing (See the ad on the right to order from Amazon) or from his workshops (http://www.kirthickman.com/). I'm very careful about spending money on writing books. You can go broke buying every one that comes down the pike. This one I bought. All the information is usable and presented in a way that anyone can understand. There are concrete examples throughout and exercises at the end of most of the sections.
I had been having a problem with point of view in my novel. I suppose because I’ve recently been so focused on scripts and wanted to fit too much into one scene, I kept switching point of view between characters within a scene. He clarified for me that each scene should be from one character’s point of view, preferably the main character. I now find it much easier to write my scenes and develop the characters' arcs.
I think you could do worse than to use his techniques. Imagine—a first draft of a full-length novel (a rather sloppy one, but a first draft nonetheless) in 90 days!
Happy writing and trust your right brain.