Menschenhaar bei 200 fach (Aufnahme senkrecht von oben!). Ausschnitt ca: 600µm x 400µm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today I had an amazing day! Having to spend hours on a bus back and forward between two cities (I went for a meeting) I took my science book with me to prepare myself for the exam on Thursday, and off course also a piece of paper and a pen if I would get the urge to write something. I ended up solving – lining up the plot, the dialogue, the body language and the order of everything – of my two last chapters of my book in detail. I did not had to wait for it to come, it just came to me nice and quite from above and landed in my brain, heart and hands. I wrote it down, as if a message from God. Left is only the writing now. The rest of my book is already fully written and edited to about 98 %. Sweet…. and even more sweet remembering how close I was to give it all up the day before yesterday. The difference between success and defeat is thin as a hair´s breadth.
I really have to write a blog post that summarises this part of my research, because the idea that somehow, the information you need to finish a piece of writing “magically” appears out of nowhere is part of why writers get blocked, and beginning writers don’t write. They’re afraid this magical muse won’t show up for them. In fact, studying how the brain works shows us that letting the part of the brain that’s actively working on the problem, whatever it is, REST, is crucial to actually *solving* the problem, that there’s nothing extraordinary about this. Unfortunately, since we can’t see inside our own heads (or bodies) we have learned to attribute divine intervention to explain this invisible process to ourselves. I think demystifying these various processes would help others write, and help writers who are already writing feel better about ourselves, which is why I want writers to know about this brain research.
Posted by Alison Gunn, Ph.D. | April 18, 2012, 10:12 amThe part I forgot to say is that the activity of going on a train, gazing out the window, for example, is one way of letting the brain rest. Doing any activity that takes the thinking/cognitive “weight” off the problem-solving part of the brain allows less conscious thoughts to the surface. Resting the conscious cognition part of the brain by doing some “mindless” activity helps us weave all our unconscious thoughts together, and then we come up with answers to our problems.
Posted by Alison Gunn, Ph.D. | April 18, 2012, 10:15 amAlison Gunn,
Other things are less nice of the writing process, as the grief that came to me today, with a huge surprise. Writing about that in next post.
Im not sure people need to know how the brain works. At least I love the “magic” about getting things, information, from above just like that. I feel safe with that kind of magic, and it makes me happy. But I really understand what you are saying, and I must agree. Being a buddhist I´m trying to meditate every day, and – wow – things are really coming to me when I´m thinking about nothing, it´s a huge experience to feel that things solve themselves if I just let it be. Nice
Thanks for your comments, I appreciate this very much. Having a relation to another writer and sharing like this developed me. Thanks
Maggie
Posted by Magdalena Wiklund | April 18, 2012, 11:47 pm