"The inner critic creates writer's block and stifles adventurous writing, hems it in with safe clichés and overthinking. Every writer has to find his or her own way to get free of that sourpuss rationalist who insists on strangling each thought with logical analysis and fitting each idea into an oppressive predetermined scheme or ideology. William S. Burroughs, one of the most adventurous writers to emerge from the mid-20th century, famously employed what he called the cut-up method."
"Developed by Burroughs and painter Brion Gysin, this literary take on the collage technique used by avant-garde artists like Georges Braque originated with Surrealist Tristan Tzara, who "proposed to create a poem on the spot by pulling words out of a hat." The suggestion was so provocative, Burroughs claims in his essay "The Cut-Up Method," that cut-ups were thereafter "grounded... on the Freudian couch.""
An internal critical voice causes creative block by enforcing safe clichés, overanalysis, and predetermined schemes that strangle ideas. The cut-up method repurposes collage and Surrealist chance procedures to disrupt habitual thought patterns and generate unpredictable juxtapositions. Practitioners cut text into segments and recombine them to produce novel associations that bypass linear logical constraints and self-censoring impulses. Musicians, poets, and novelists have used the technique to spark unexpected phrasing, renew stalled projects, and embrace serendipity. Any frustrated creative can use randomness and recombination to shake off habitual patterns and discover fresh material and directions.
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