Meanings
- uncountableliteratureA frenzied, first-person style of writing.
... many experimental contemporaries—an unplotted, visionary, kickwriting syntax.
2011, Zahn Pesh, Cat-Cup Clones: A Fictional Memoir, →ISBN, page v4 more examples
You must and will go on at all costs including comfort & health & kicks; but keep it kickwriting at all costs too, that is, write only what kicks you and keeps you overtime awake from sheer mad joy.
1996, Jack Kerouac, Ann Charters, Selected letters, 1940-1956, →ISBN, page 242A rapid typist, Kerouac hit on the idea of typing nonstop to get the 'kickwriting' momentum he wanted.
2011, Ann Charters, On the Road (Introduction), →ISBNOnly by using his free-flow style of “kickwriting” did Kerouac believe he could capture the vibrancy of the man that inspired the book, his friend Neal Cassady.
2012, Nick Tasler, The Impulse Factor: Why Some of Us Play it Safe and Others Risk it All, →ISBNTo master this "kickwriting" style, Kerouac taped together 12-foot-long pieces of drawing paper, creating a continuous roll for his typewriter.
2016 September 16, Celia San Miguel, “22 Literary Tattoos That Book Lovers Will Appreciate”, in The Stir
Origin
From kick + writing. Coined by Jack Kerouac in a letter to Neal Cassady, describing Cassady's writing style.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
kickwriting. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kickwriting
“kickwriting.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kickwriting. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “kickwriting,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kickwriting.
Source: kickwriting on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.