Green and Red Light Writing

A Green Light Writing session is as satisfying as when all the traffic lights are green on your way to work. There is a flow. You feel energized. Writing is fun. You remember what a high you get from being a truly creative word-smith.

Red Light Writing is different. You can't seem to get into a flow. You keep having to stop, to wait, not to be bothered by the impatient drivers who are beeping their horns behind you. You get to work late, stressed out and annoyed by your own bad attitude. Red Light Writing has its purpose at the end of the process.

Writer's block happens when you start with Red Light Writing.   

I applied this idea from Dale Carnegie's Leadership Course for Managers that I attended about 30 years ago. Green Light Thinking is a strategy for facilitating the design process for a new project. It relies on the notion that no idea is too absurd. Everyone is encouraged to be as imaginative as they can without regard to logistics, practicality or cost. It is only after all the ideas have been collected, shared, laughed about and considered that Red Light Thinking is applied. This is when reality meets the imagined. Green Light Thinking stretches everyone's ideas of what could be possible. Red Light Thinking refines the best ideas into doable tasks that lead to an innovative project or product.

Green Light Writing works in a similar way. No idea is too whacky. No sentence is too long, short, complicated or confusing. No editors allowed at this stage. No proofreaders, No grammarians. No outlines. Just let words out. Put on a timer.

But set a goal for the Green Light Writing. Is it to describe a character for the first time in a novel? Is it to write a hook for a persuasive article? Is it to explain a process using a metaphor? Is it to prime the writing pump for the day? 

Start the clock. Write without thinking about whether these words will make the final copy. Stop when the bell rings or keep going if you have found a flow.

You don't need to apply Red Light Writing yet. It comes after the flow stops. 

You may choose to do Green Light Writing for an entire session. You may write pages or just a few sentences. You may have three or four goals so that when you finish one, you turn the page or start a new file and Green Light another goal, and another, and another.

Red Light Writing structures the flow, applies the mechanics, rearranges the sentences, edits, revises, proofreads, perfects. It's the last phase.

Writer's block happens when you try to write final copy before the words come. The flow happens with Green Light Writing. The crafting happens with Red Light Writing. Both are essential.

By Lesley Barker c. 2026

Lesley Barker is a writer and writing coach. See her author's page at https://www.book-klatch.com/authors/lesley-barker