I’ve been reading recent research on the interaction between different brain networks that occur during the process of creativity. It’s fascinating. The aim of today’s post is to take a brief look what a couple of these ‘mind modes’ feel like to us, to get to know them a bit better.
This work is fuelled by a belief I hold passionately, developed through my own writing process and that of the many writers I’ve worked with in nearly two decades and most recently form my Master’s studies. That is, the more we understand our physiology, from our brains to our senses and including our emotions, the better equipped we are to understand and therefore to open up our writing practice.
When we take time to explore our relationship with writing, we’re developing strong foundations and a kinder, more compassionate approach. That last point is the bit that gets me almost every time I start working with a writer, how hard we are on ourselves!
But back to today’s meander through science and creativity.
As Individual As A Finger Print
As always with Writer Revealed, this is a gently interactive post, so get something to write with, and a drink to make sure you’re hydrated – a dehydrated brain just doesn’t work as well – and gift yourself a few minutes of attention. You will reap the rewards.
Let’s begin.
I invite you to arrive, to gather yourself in from your day thus far. Then take three naturally deep, slow breaths in and out, for no other reason than that it feels nice.
Today we’ll be exploring creative states that map onto a couple of networks in the brain that perform different, but overlapping, functions during the creative process.
We’ve already started to look at the DMN – the Default Mode Network. We looked at the synergy between nature and the DMN in a previous post [read that here]. This post is mainly a sequel to a brief introduction to the DMN I wrote some weeks back [read that here], with a hint at its partner – the ECN, the Executive Control Network. That’s where we’re going next.
The Creation State
I find it most helpful to translate this into first-hand experience.
First, drop into a moment when you were totally absorbed in your writing (or other creative activity), creating new ideas and new word combinations – the ‘mode’ when you are recruiting your imagination-friendly DMN.
What does it feel like?
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Imagine you are a river. What does this river look like?
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What we feel, that immersion and creative outflow, is called the Default Mode Network (DMN). The DMN is a hugely sophisticated space of possibility, for putting two and two together and coming up with something unexpected and new. It’s about memory, emotional resonance, and associations. (Outside of direct creativity, the DMN is also associated with day-dreaming, thinking about the self, remembering the past and imagining the future.)
But the DMN doesn’t work alone.
Planning Control
For this next awareness exercise, pick a short piece of your writing and review it with a focus on improving it.
When you’re done, here are a couple of questions.
What did that review process feel like?
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Can you think of an analogy for it?
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What we are experiencing is the second of our two modes. When we review what we’ve written during our ‘DMN state’ we recruit mainly the Executive Control Network (ECN).
When I did this exercise, the switch from DMN to ECN came in like a loud, green woodpecker flying across my line of sight in a peaceful woodland. It felt like breaking a magical spell of blissful immersion.
Take a moment to notice how these two modes feel for you when viewed together – your experience may be quite different from mine. How does the switch feel for you?
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The Blossom and the Wind
The review process brings to the fore my doubts and uncertainties. I’m working from a much narrower field of vision. I acquire an awareness of errors and poorly phrased ideas that suddenly flash like big red lights.
I can often feel frustration at this point. It was so good being in the flow, while I was creating. Now I’m out of it, I see how much work I need to do to bring the writing up to a level where I’m happy to send it off to be read by someone else.
The editing has disrupted a delicate blossoming of ideas, like a gust of wind blowing the petals off the cherry tree – if that’s not stretching the analogies too far!
So far so undermining of the delicate scaffold I’ve built around myself. But, while it can feel uncomfortable, this is in fact a sign of a healthy, creative mind, toggling between modes. This turbulence isn’t a sign there’s anything wrong, quite the opposite.
I read up on the ECN. Like the DMN it’s a hugely sophisticated bit of brain connectivity. With the ECN we’re evaluating, reworking structure, checking out the craft of writing, making use of storytelling skills we’ve been acquiring since we wrote our first stories. And it’s not just about ‘being critical’, the ECN helps to support our decision-making, choose what is relevant, keep our working memory ticking over and so on.
I can let go of my noisy woodpecker. I now understand the ECN as being closer to a sculptor. My writing is being shaped and honed into something more aesthetically pleasing, like a figure emerging from a block of marble.
A Bicycle Made for Two
A further insight from my reading on this subject is helpful. The DMN and ECN centre on different ‘hubs’ but they overlap in significant ways. These networks should properly be understood as patterns of connectivity rather than specific physical structures. And contrary to what used to be believed, they are not fighting each other for dominance. The relationship is much more subtle than that. During the writing process, these networks are working in tandem (no apologies for my bad pun).
As we switch from one mode to the other, we’re actually dancing between the flow of immersion and the more controlled implementation of our writing skills.
The trick lies in allowing ideas time and space to flourish before we implement the control.
At the end of this, what can we take away? For me, a better understanding of what is going on during the writing process is illuminating. The knowledge helps me feel more in control of a process that at times can feel baffling, even disconcerting. My aim as always in my explorations is to make my own writing process more comfortable. I hope that what we’ve explored today has a similar effect on you.