Or How a Few Minutes of Your Attention is Worth its Weight in Gold
Hello and welcome to Writer Revealed – a corner of the internet where we focus on our relationship with our writing and release the binds on our creativity.
Writer Revealed – the name I’ve given my work supporting other writers – holds within it a strong belief. This is that reflection illuminates layers of identity, craft, and the opaque inner workings of our writing selves. And happily this belief is backed up by science.
The act of reflecting, which is what we go on to explore shortly, activates our old friend the Default Mode Network (DMN). We’ve looked at the DMN in previous posts, but as a quick reminder, it’s involved in drawing out and shaping memories developed from our experiences, or autobiographical memories. You’ve no doubt experienced this yourself during a moment of reflection, when an unexpected thought appears.
The DMN is also linked to how we form our identity and, perhaps most importantly for our purposes, it’s a critical part of coming up with new ideas. In short, it is a foundation of our creativity.
Reflection is a valuable resource we hold within ourselves and that is too often overlooked.
Through directed reflection the writer is revealed to herself, theirself, himself, and to others. And when we draw out those reflections, when we write them or speak them, it has a powerful effect on our brain. Naming internal states, beliefs, and other thoughts – the focus of today’s article – reduces amygdala activation (loosely, the fight-flight-freeze mechanism our brains evolved to keep us safe). Because we are no longer in ‘danger mode’, we can more easily enter the dreamier state of the imagination and memory. This is a powerful step towards mastery of the craft, and a happier, more satisfying writing life.
This is an interactive post, so have something to write with and something to drink – good hydration oils the wheels of our minds – and gift yourself a few minutes of undivided attention.
Once you are ready, I invite you to settle. For the next few minutes there is nowhere else to be and nothing else to do.
Let’s take three gentle naturally deep breaths.
It’s important not to skip this. Slowing the breath shifts our nervous system towards the parasympathetic. With this system dominant, and not our threat mechanisms, we are able to think more freely, allowing ourselves to explore new ideas without the brake of self-criticism.
Nervous system primed, here is today’s first question.
How much joy lives in your writing practice?
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Let’s go a little deeper.
How well do you know your writing self?
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You might have answered that with a ‘totally’, or ‘not at all’, or anywhere in between. However you answered, there’s always more to discover.
For the next step in this journey, we return to the energy of a brainstorm. This will be combined with a gentle review. Both stages offer opportunities for insights.
Open up a new page or take a blank piece of paper.
Put yourself as the writer in the centre. I wrote ‘Me, the Writer’, at the centre of my page. This feels a bit awkward, but it’s what came to me. You may come up with something much more elegant, or just use your name.
Begin to write around that words and phrases that pop into your mind associated with your writing self. The trick is to allow these thoughts to arise without engaging too much critical awareness or acting as gatekeeper to your thoughts. This taps into free association – the spontaneous, free-flowing ideas and thoughts we’re so good at when we give ourselves the space. It doesn’t matter which order the thoughts come, and it doesn’t matter how many or how few, or where you write them on the page.
We’ll see each other back here when you are done.
[INTERVAL]
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Now that you have your ‘raw data’, we’re going to gather our treasure.
Return to your mindmap / brainstorm. Here we make use of our natural tendency to look for patterns. Decide if any of the words and phrases group together naturally. Get coloured pens or pencils, or create a variety of borders, and begin to group what you’ve written down. This is where we transform intuition into knowledge.
When I did this, my words and phrases ended up falling into fewer categories than I expected. They were (and they were pretty broad groupings): the kind of writing I do; describes me as a writer; my relationship with other writers as mentor/teacher; doubts and limitations.
Did you have similar categories? If so, what were they?
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Were any of your categories different? If so, what were those?
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Now we go prospecting for gold.
When I looked at the balance of words in each category I was pleasantly surprised by how positive the overall picture was.
Insight 1: I had been holding on to an old (limiting) view of myself as a writer.
Articulating internal narratives this way is so useful. We often find we’ve been holding on to stories or beliefs about ourselves that we’ve outgrown.
Many of the words I wrote on my mindmap described my approach to writing.
Insight 2: Personality traits – which you can shape and hone – matter as much as craft.
I named several writing themes.
Insight 3: I prefer to write work based on landscape, that cover ‘big’ themes (currently at least).
Use the space below to write discoveries and insights from your own groupings – you may find one. You may find more.
Discovery ______________________________________
Insight _________________________________________
Discovery ______________________________________
Insight _________________________________________
Discovery ______________________________________
Insight _________________________________________
Another time, a few years ago perhaps, my mindmap would have been more biased towards doubt and uncertainty. I know this could easily happen again – this more upbeat view was my snapshot today.
When I looked back over any doubts and uncertainties that did come up, there was a further insight. Now that I’ve named them, the doubts either feel manageable or resolvable in some way, or are not a problem for right now.
Rather than remaining amorphous, energy-sapping shadows lurking in the background, bringing my doubts and uncertainties out into the daylight has allowed me to feel more in control of them. I regained a sense of agency. And research shows that naming doubts reduces the power of the emotions we surround them with.
So during this very simple process, I moved from vague anxiety to a set of actionable steps that I am (potentially at least!) in control of.
If you also came up with a group similar to my ‘doubts and uncertainties’, can you also divide them into sub categories? For example: manageable – they’re just part of every-day (creative) life; resolvable with a plan; resolvable with external help; not a problem for right now. Any others you can think of?
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Having spent a few minutes on this, do you have a clearer picture of you, the writer? Have you dispelled myths you were holding onto about yourself? Have you nailed any truths? Have you too uncovered any liberating insights?
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These are such simple exercises to do. In their simplicity they risk seeming less valuable than plugging away at a rewrite or a new draft. But wait! You may be underestimating the value of accessing your own internal wisdom in this more ordered or systematic way. So often we know far more than we consciously realise. And what we end up discovering in this way can help us navigate the creative process with more ease. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to claim it can revolutionise our writing lives.
It’s worth returning to this exercise periodically. Doing so, you’re able to see trends in your relationship with your writing; break emerging issues into manageable steps before they grow too big; and continue to learn about your particular brand of creativity. Over time, this builds further self-awareness and also help us stay flexible and open-minded about our creative process.
This simple exercise has not once failed to provide me with useful insights and, when necessary, a plan of action to resolve issues. Everything feels calmer and clearer. I know where I need to go next. I see that as a good return on a few minutes of focus. It gives me confidence in my own abilities to identify and find solutions to my writing problems.