Sometime during my lunch hour last week I was seeking comfort from the grey clouds and mood to match. I wondered into a chain book store. I wasn’t really looking for anything particular but wondered over to the mag section and after looking at the tat and men’s mags (no not porn ya filthy bastards I get plenty of that on my phone). The normal numbness set in so I was on the hunt for something more and picked up a writers rag, “Poets & Writers”. So far it’s an interesting bit of reading. I found one article rather interesting, cover page has it as “The Brain Science of Writer’s Block”, and inside the article itself is titled “The Inspired Mind, A window into the writer’s brain”. Written by Arnie Cooper
The article in itself seems to be based around the practices of Rosanne Bane and Lisa Cron and the neuroscience of creativity.
Bane states that there are a few tricks or exercises, which we can use help to train our brain to pull our heads out of writers block. These are Process, Product Time, and Self-Care.
Process per Bane is, “doing something fun that puts you in the creative flow”. But she does not limit it to simply free-writing… she says two listen to music, drawl, make collages, keep a dream journal, scrap-booking, sketching or dancing. So basically anything that activates your left brain… will help spark a creative flow.
Product Time is the writing we do when we want to share it with others.
Then Self-care is taking care of you… sleep, nutrition, and such.
Cron says we are wired for story, from early cave man time we told stories to now it’s been ingrained within our brain to tell a story.
Yes I’ve paraphrased a little here and there, but this is what I’ve gotten from the article itself and I wanted to add a little more myself.
Truly the things in the article have been said before, just maybe not with the scientific backdrop. Those who write have a desure to do so. We don’t always have a willingness to share said work, but its ingrained in use to write for whatever reason. Genetics? Maybe but why question it.
As for writers block we all have that struggle at times… We sit to create that masterpiece and end up at least in our eyes writing crap not fit for a porn parody of the next big movie.
What we find works most of the time is taking our mind off and focusing on something other then what is driving us crazy … Music, reading, slashing paints onto canvas, or writing the phone numbers of the high school cheerleaders in the bathroom of the local strip club down in Tijuana. Not that anyone would ever do that last one… (it wasn’t anywhere near the army wife looking for a good time number either). Dang it I probably shouldn’t say that…
It’s all about that spark or what some might call inspiration, the muse, porn for the soul… Just find it and create till your little hearts are content.
Last night… Um that would have been the 7th I think… I did write a bit in my story. The two main characters they were um discussing their past and how they discovered each other and why. Jack and Patrick aren’t to friendly to each other that’s for sure.
Twisted Skull Media 