Susan Reynolds's Blog, page 2

Positivity Creates Superior Brain Functioning

[image error]A study of 460 study participants (aged 22-35) from the Human Connectome Project, reported in Nature Neuroscience found a single, stark difference in the way human brains were connected—based on an abundance of positivity or negativity in their lives. In comparing fMRI brain scans to data collected on approximately 280 behavioral, demographic, and psychometric traits—such as the person’s age, whether they have a history of drug use, their socioeconomic status and personality traits, and their performance on various intelligence tests—researchers found that positive traits and conditions vastly improved brain connectivity and functioning.

What They Found

In analyzing the results, the scientists found that brain connectivity patterns could be aligned in a single axis, with one end associated with “positive traits” (such as higher education, stronger physical endurance, above-average performance on memory tests, verbal acuity, higher income levels) and the other associated with “negative traits” (such as poverty, lack of education, poor reading skills, smoking, aggressive or anti-social behavior, a family history of alcoholism, poor sleep quality).

Not so surprisingly, they found that the participants on the “positive” side of the axis reflected stronger connectivity between brain networks associated with higher cognitive functions, including memory, language, introspection, and imagination. Because they also had stronger overall connections, their brains were able to communicate more efficiently than the brains of participants at the negative end of the axis.

So what does this mean for you?

It means that the more you work on bolstering brain capacity, as well as a positive attitude and positive personality traits, the stronger your brain’s connectome—internal brain connections and communications—will likely become.

 7 Ways You Can Bolster Brain Connectivity

Read complex works. Reading books or other materials that require you to think, contemplate, and struggle to understand what’s being said or explained generates new neurons, increases neuronal connections, and speeds up mental processing. Verbal acuity acquired through extensive reading, one of the positive traits identified in the study, also bolsters connectivity. So read extensively, read out of your comfort zone, and study and analyze unfamiliar topics.
Learn to play a musical instrument. Particularly if you’ve never played a musical instrument, the cognitive and physical coordination required to learn offers an amazing workout for your brain. Neuroscientists have also found that the association of motor actions with specific sounds and visual patterns leads to the formation of new neural networks, which boosts overall brain connectivity. It also improves bilateral connectivity, which has been shown to play a role in how well an aging brain continues to function.
Learn to speak a foreign language. This not only forces your brain to think harder than it’s likely had to think for eons, it requires memory expansion and the ability for your brain to shift from thinking to speaking in another language, which is a complex activity that stimulates your brain.
Bolster your memory. Expansive, well-functioning memory was one of the traits on the study’s positive axis because it’s vital to how well your brain handles cognitive tasks. To remember anything, your brain has to communicate across vast distances. Thus, anything you do to expand your memory, such as memorizing poetry, will bolster connectivity in your brain’s prefrontal parietal network, which will also help an aging brain. The use of Mnemonic devices, such as visualization, imagery, spatial navigation, and rhythm and melody, are fun ways to bolster memory.
Take up a hobby that involves new thinking and physical coordination. New activities always stimulate your brain, and if they involve cognition, memory, and physical coordination, they will stimulate both sides of your brain. Quilting, knitting, woodworking, landscape photography, learning to sketch architecture, making art, or ballroom dancing are all activities that would boost connectivity.
Travel. Going new places and getting out of your comfort zone (safely) always stimulates your brain. Learn and use phrases, study the culture, rely on an old-fashioned map or your memory to get around, and walk vigorously. If you can’t travel abroad, travel locally.
Exercise regularly and vigorously for 30 minutes at a time. A study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that exercising vigorously for 30 minutes improved brain plasticity (neural growth), led to an improvement in memory and motor skill coordination, and increased the thickness and density of white matter, the material that connects different regions of the brain, which improves memory and boosts attention span and cognitive efficiency.

 

Obviously, meditating on a regular basis, one of the best activities for overall connectivity, and engaging in activities that force your brain to think, concentrate, organize, analyze, remember, contemplate, learn, imagine, and relax will all boost brain functioning. The harder you require your brain to work, the greater connectivity you’ll develop. And whatever you do, do it full throttle, with a positive outlook, concentration, and passion.

What Writers Can Do Specifically

For writers, in particular, continually “educating your brain” by studying and analyzing the craft of writing, reading extensively, reading more complex works, researching topics related to what you’re writing, brainstorming ideas before writing, and employing more cognitive concentration (time spent focused on thinking) before you write will all boost connectivity around writing, and the project you’re working on.

Fire Up Your Writing Brain: To boost your brain’s connectivity, spend 15 minutes before you begin to write brainstorming on what you’re going to write. Give your brain free rein to come up with ideas, jotting down thoughts, words, dialogue, setting notes, a scene list, or whatever springs to mind. This will spark neuronal connections and strengthen the connectome related to whatever you’re currently writing.

Happy writing!

Tapping into the Genius of Hamilton’s Creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda

One of the hallmarks of genius is an ability to spot connections between seemingly disparate things, and then use your discovery to create something original. One of the most potent examples of how your brain births, supports, sustains, and fulfills creative ideas comes from the genius of Lin-Manuel Miranda, the mastermind who brought the highly acclaimed, sold-out, Broadway show Hamilton to life. Miranda, who grew up loving Broadway show tunes, salsa, and hip-hop, was awarded the MacArthur “Genius” Award in 2015, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2016, and 11 Emmy’s for Hamilton alone. “I do live at the center of this very weird Venn diagram,” Miranda conceded.

The young lyricist-composer-performer has noted that his idea occurred while he was enjoying a break from the Broadway run of his first musical, In the Heights, in which he was also starring. Miranda was “just chilling” in Mexico, reading author Ron Chernow’s biography Alexander Hamilton, when he recognized a pattern—and a new way to combine two ideas. “I was like, this is an album—no, this is a show,” the composer, lyricist and lead of the show told NPR’s Scott Simon. “How has no one done this? It was the fact that Hamilton wrote his way off the island where he grew up. That’s the hip-hop narrative. So I Googled ‘Alexander Hamilton hip-hop musical’ and totally expected to see that someone had already written it. But no. So I got to work.”

Miranda thought using hip-hop music and ethnic actors to create a musical about our founding fathers would be great fun, though it seemed outlandish at the point of conception. “I understand how ridiculous the elevator pitch for this show is,” Lin-Manuel Miranda said. “It sounds improbable. And then once you start hearing about Hamilton’s life story, it sort of makes sense. The mode of storytelling makes sense to the subject. That was what grabbed me about it. He [Hamilton] was a guy who used words to get everywhere and did what my favorite hip-hop artists do — if not write about their struggles, their lives, then transcend their circumstances by sheer virtuosity.”

So, let’s explore the cognitive qualities that fostered Miranda’s genius.

Passion. Prior to writing and starring in Hamilton, Miranda wrote and starred in the hit musical In the Heights about his experiences growing up in Brooklyn and was literally living and breathing Broadway musicals at the time. He’d been studying and performing in musical theatre for years. Like Hamilton, Miranda believes in the power of words to change the world.
Works to strengths. He had already written and scored the successful In the Heights and thus recognized the potential and felt primed to use those same talents in his next creative venture. The “template” for writing a hip-hop narrative as a Broadway musical was already in place.
Willingness to play. When he took time for a vacation, Miranda wanted to put all thoughts about the theatre out of mind for a few days, but as soon as he relaxed and delved into reading a historical biography that seemed unrelated to what he was doing in his life, his neurons recognized a pattern and sparked the original idea.
Vision. His mind immediately recognized and welcomed the potential, though nothing like the work had ever been written. Because his brain had settled into an unfocused, relaxed state, it was more available for making the sort of unusual connections that birth creative genius. Though he was relaxed, his brain was making all sorts of connections behind the scenes.
Complex brain connectivity. Because he had “programmed” his brain to excel at employing music, lyrics, and dialogue to tell stories, his neuronal network linked two, seemingly disparate, ideas, which sparked an epiphany, which led him to create a strikingly original Broadway show.
Willingness to experiment. He welcomed new ideas and had purposefully encouraged his brain to come up with unique ways to view his work. When the idea connecting Alexander Hamilton’s life story to that of hip-hop artists burst forth it didn’t seem ridiculous to him—it felt revolutionary, exciting, energizing, and totally possible.
Persistence and patience. He spent an entire year collecting more information about Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Fathers, their historical context, and then conceiving, writing, and perfecting the opening song. When it was met with enthusiasm, he then worked another year to write another song, and then, when prodded to speed it up, six months to write ten more. All together, it took seven years to complete, perfect, and produce the work. Even when others assured him the play was ready, he stayed off Broadway until he felt they’d achieved the best work possible. Throughout those years, he held to his original vision.
Courage. Although he was scheduled to sing a song from In the Heights at a White House event, Miranda decided at the last minute to sing the hip-hop song he’d written about Alexander Hamilton, and upon doing so, surprised his audience and received an extraordinarily supportive and enthusiastic response, which reinforced his resolve to complete the work. It also attracted others to work with him.

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a genius and we can’t all be successful in the same way, but we can learn from his cognitive process. If you’re searching for your creative genius, start by identifying your cognitive qualities, and then brainstorm ways that you can stimulate and call upon them in new ways. Remember that Miranda’s idea for Hamilton sprang forth while on vacation. He’d set aside daily responsibilities and amused himself by reading a book that was different from what he usually read or wrote.

Because he is a naturally curious, receptive storyteller, his brain soon noticed an unusual and striking pattern (a Founding Father’s life story sounding much like a contemporary hip-hop narrative). When the idea popped into his consciousness, rather than dismissing it, he fired up his reading and writing brain and called upon all of his faculties (and experience) to develop a revolutionary way to tell a personal, and yet ultimately mythological, story about one of our nation’s Founding Fathers.

Hamilton is a megahit because it’s brilliant, but also because it grabbed us emotionally. Our brains thrilled at the prospect of experiencing history we all studied in school in a new, exciting, contemporary way. He created something we’d never seen or expected to see, tapped into our collective experience, and lit up a lot of brains. He also held to his vision, persistently worked for seven years, refining and honing the work to make it extraordinary, and welcomed collaborators along the way. His passion and enthusiasm feel contagious because our brains recognize genius when we see it.

 Most importantly, he found something that captured his imagination and motivated him to give it all he had.

So here’s the question of the day: What’s your Hamilton? Before you answer, do your genius a favor and watch the videos embedded in the article. His enthusiasm and brilliance is guaranteed to inspire you to new heights.

Happy Writing!

 

 

 

You Are What You Read: Why Deep Reading Makes You A Better Writer

A study published in the International Journal of Business Administration in May, 2016, found that what students read in college directly effects the level of writing they achieve. In fact, researchers found that reading content and frequency may exert more significant impacts on students’ writing ability than writing instruction and writing frequency. Students who read academic journals, literary fiction, or general nonfiction wrote with greater syntactic sophistication (more complex sentences) than those who read genre fiction (mysteries, fantasy, or science fiction) or exclusively web-based aggregators like Reddit, Tumblr, and BuzzFeed. The highest scores went to those who read academic journals; the lowest scores went to those who relied solely on web-based content.

The Difference Between Deep And Light Reading

Recent research also revealed that “deep reading”—defined as reading that is slow, immersive, rich in sensory detail and emotional and moral complexity—is distinctive from light reading—little more than the decoding of words. Deep reading occurs when the language is rich in detail, allusion, and metaphor, and taps into the same brain regions that would activate if the reader were experiencing the event. Deep reading is great exercise for the brain and has been shown to increase empathy, as the reader dives deeper and adds reflection, analysis, and personal subtext to what is being read. It also offers writers a way to appreciate all the qualities that make novels fascinating and meaningful—and to tap into his ability to write on a deeper level.

Light reading is equated to what one might read in online blogs, or “headline news” or “entertainment news” websites, particularly those that breezily rely on lists or punchy headlines, and even occasionally use emojis to communicate. These types of light reading lack a genuine voice, a viewpoint, or the sort of analyses that might stimulate thought. It’s light and breezy reading that you can skim through and will likely forget within minutes.

Deep Reading Synchronizes Your Brain

Deep reading activates our brain’s centers for speech, vision, and hearing, all of which work together to help us speak, read, and write. These areas are: Broca’s area, which enables us to perceive rhythm and syntax; Wernicke’s area, which impacts our perception of words and meaning; and the angular gyrus, which is central to perception and use of language. These areas are wired together by a band of fibres, and together this interconnected neuroanatomy likely helps writers mimic and synchronize with language and rhythms they encounter while reading. Your reading brain senses a cadence that accompanies more complex writing, which your brain then seeks to emulate when writing.

Here are two ways you can use deep reading to fire up your writing brain:

Read Poems

In an article published in the Journal of Consciousness Studies, researchers reported finding activity in a “reading network” of brain areas that were activated in response to any written material. In addition, more emotionally charged writing aroused several regions in the brain (primarily on the right side) that respond to music. In a specific comparison between reading poetry and prose, researchers found evidence that poetry activates the posterior cingulate cortex and medial temporal lobes, parts of the brain linked to introspection. When volunteers read their favorite poems, areas of the brain associated with memory were stimulated more strongly than “reading areas,” indicating that reading poems you love is the kind of recollection that evokes strong emotions—and strong emotions are always good for creative writing.

Read Literary Fiction

Understanding others’ mental states is a crucial skill that enables the complex social relationships that characterize human societies—and that makes a writer excellent at creating multilayered characters and situations. Not much research has been conducted on the Theory of Mind (our ability to realize that our minds are different than other people’s minds and that their emotions are different from ours) that fosters this skill, but recent experiments revealed that reading literary fiction led to better performance on tests of affective Theory of Mind (understanding others’ emotions) and cognitive Theory of Mind (understanding others’ thinking and state of being), compared with reading nonfiction, popular fiction, or nothing at all. Specifically these results showed that reading literary fiction temporarily enhances Theory of Mind, and, more broadly, that Theory of Mind may be influenced greater by engagement with true works of art. In other words, literary fiction provokes thought, contemplation, expansion, and integration. Reading literary fiction stimulates cognition beyond the brain functions related to reading, say, magazine articles, interviews, or most online nonfiction reporting.

Instead of Watching TV, Focus on Deep Reading

Time spent watching television is almost always pointless. No matter how hard you try to justify it, your brain powers down almost immediately. And reading fluff website or magazine articles, or lightweight fiction, may be entertaining, but it doesn’t fire up your writing brain. If you’re serious about becoming a better writer, spend lots of time deep reading literary fiction and poetry and articles on science or art that feature complex thought and language and thereby require your lovely brain to think.

Happy Writing!

 

Yoga and Kirtan Kriya Mediation Bolster Brain Functioning

A study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in April confirmed that yoga and a form of meditation known as Kirtan Kriya improved brain functioning by increasing connectivity, improving memory, and decreasing mood aberration. See an excerpt where I discuss Kirtan Kriya in Fire Up Your Writing Brain below.

Over the course of twelve weeks adults – age fifty-five+, who reported mild anxiety about their memory and showed some mild cognitive impairment – focused on improving brain function. For one hour a week, one group of fourteen attended a Kundalini yoga class, a beginner-level form of yoga focused on breathing exercises and meditation. For fifteen minutes each day, they practiced a form of meditation known as Kirtan Kriya, the repeating of sounds combined with repetitive hand movements. (See IMPROVE BRAIN FUNCTIONING excerpt below).

The “brain game” group of eleven attended an hour a week of classroom instruction in a well established brain-training program and spent fifteen minutes a day performing a series of mental exercises designed to bolster their brain functioning.

Both groups showed improved communication in the regions of the brain involved in memory and language, but those who practiced yoga also showed more activity in the regions involved in the brain’s ability to focus and to multitask. The yoga group showed a statistically significant improvement in mood and visuospatial memory performance, reflecting increased connectivity and improved verbal memory.

Here’s what I wrote about Kirtan Kriya in Fire Up Your Writing Brain:

IMPROVE BRAIN FUNCTIONING WITH KIRTAN KRIYA

The Alzheimer’s Research & Prevention Foundation in Tucson, Arizona, has been studying the effects yoga meditation has on the brain and discovered (confirmed, really) that a certain form of yoga meditation, known as Kirtan Kriya, can have immediate, long-term positive benefits for the brain. Practicing this simple twelve-minute yoga meditation has been shown to bring about the following benefits:

Improve cerebral blood flow (help you think better).
Improve blood flow to the posterior cingulated gyrus (improve memory retrieval).
Increase activity in the frontal lobe (sharpen attention, concentration, and focus).
Replenish vital neurotransmitters and brain chemicals, such as acetylcholine, norepinephrine, and dopamine (which help the brain function more smoothly).
Increase energy levels, improve sleep quality, reduce stress (lower cortisol levels).
Improve both short- and long-term psychological health and spiritual well being.

Kirtan Kriya is an ancient yoga practice that involves the combination of focused breath work, singing or chanting (and whispering), finger movements (called “mudras”), and visualization. To perform it properly, you use or activate all of your senses, awakening your brain and rejuvenating your energy.

How Does Kirtan Kriya Work?

According to yogi practitioners, Kirtan Kriya meditation stimulates all of your senses and the areas of the brain associated with them. The use of the tongue stimulates the eighty-four acupuncture meridian points on the roof of the mouth, sending a signal to the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and other areas of the brain. The dense nerve endings in the fingertips, lips, and tongue activate the motor and sensory areas of the brain. Using the fingertips to accompany the sounds activates the occipital lobe of the brain, which improves vision (as in “having a vision”) or clarity of purpose—short- and long-term. Like all meditation, this practice can have powerful and positive effects on brain function.

Instructions for Performing Kirtan Kriya

Variations exist, but here’s a simple meditation you can do at home:

Begin by sitting comfortably with your feet flat on the floor (you can sit in a yoga pose with your legs crossed if you like). Straighten your spine above your hips; breathe naturally, close your eyes.
Breathe in and out a few times, until your breath flows easily.
Begin by softly chanting “Saa, Taa, Naa, Maa” (together these sounds represent your highest self or true identity). You can use the familiar children’s song, “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” using only the first four notes: Mar-y-had-a.
Add the finger movements (known as mudras). With your arms lying loosely against your torso, raise both hands, palm up (you can rest your hands on your lap if you like), and, one-at-a-time, press and release each fingertip, in sequence, to your thumb. On “Saa,” touch the tip of your index finger to your thumb; on “Taa,” the tip of your middle finger, and so on.
As you continue the chants, visualize energy coming down from above (from the universe, or spirit, if you like) into your head, proceeding down through your brain and then dropping and pausing at your “third eye” (considered the site of intuition, located just between your eyes) before beaming the energy out through your third eye (visualize a capital L, if that helps you keep the energy flowing down and through).
Imagine the sound you are generating flowing through the same path.
Begin by singing the sounds out loud for approximately two minutes (listening and feeling the resonance of the sound as you sing or chant); then sing softly for two minutes; “say” the sound softly to yourself for four minutes; whisper the sounds for two minutes; and then sing out loud again for two minutes. You can use a timer, if you like, but soon you’ll be able to gauge the length that works best for you.

When you’ve completed the exercise, inhale deeply, drawing air into your lungs, stretch your arms and hands above your head (gently stretch your spine), and then lower them down each side, in a sweeping motion, as you exhale.

Don’t be discouraged if it feels incredibly awkward at first. Over time, your coordination will dramatically improve, and you’ll likely find yourself looking forward to these meditation sessions as a way to start, or refresh, your mind, body, and spirit.

Here’s an audio you can download: http://yoginsight.com/?p=624

Happy Writing!

 

To Spark Genius, Read Works the Opposite in Style, Genre, or Format of What You Want to Write

Reading works that are very different from what you want to write is a great way to spark ideas and to shake up a tendency to be too rote, traditional, or predictable when writing. If you write historical novels, for example, reading science fiction could loosen up your tendency to be a little rigid when it comes to style, or maybe it will spur ideas for setting or characterization. If you write mystery novels, reading narrative nonfiction about crimes could spark ideas for really digging into the psychology of criminals. If you write romance novels, reading mystery novels could spark ideas for more complex plots that sustain suspense or create mystery. The point is to loosen up strictures and think outside whatever genre box you may be used to thinking within.

Here are six ways reading the opposite of what you want to write fires up your writing brain: 

It leads to conceptual blending: Reading (or writing) something very different from your usual preference or style— exposing your brain to something it rarely sees, reads, or writes—is called “conceptual blending.” You’ve added something new to your framework, and your brain is going to try to find a way to make it fit with what you already know.
It makes new connections: Even it you’re not fully conscious that it’s happening, your brain is making new connections to what it already “thinks” storytelling involves, and those new connections may lead to a breakthrough idea, a fresh way to tell a story within your chosen genre; or you may discover that your brain just loves science fiction.
It expands your “small-world network.” Everything you read or do or think about the art of writing creates a “small-world network” of neurons that links all those thoughts together. The larger that small-world network becomes the greater opportunities for creative ideas.
It provides novelty. It may offer up an ingenious way to meld various genres.
It sparks new ideas: It introduces the possibility of an original idea emerging.
It surprises your brain. Reading works very similar to what you want to write may dampen your brain’s enthusiasm for reading over time. Surprise it occasionally!

Load up your summer with a variety of genres, nonfiction, science fiction, plays, poetry, essays, short story anthologies, or whatever is far from what you normally choose to read. Your brain will thank you for it later.

  Happy Reading . . . and Writing!

6 Ways Reading Fires Up Your Writing Brain

Our brains are amazing thinking, dreaming, imagining, and producing machines, reliant upon their masters to program, nurture, guide, and direct them.

Source: 6 Ways Reading Fires Up Your Writing Brain

How Drawing and Painting Keep Your Brain Young – and Fired Up to Write!

Want to keep your writing brain fired up and growing well into old age? Draw or paint an object, a landscape, a person, an abstract, or whatever captures your eyes or occurs to your creative instincts. A recent study reported in PLOS ONE: “How Art Changes Your Brain: Differential Effects of Visual Art Production and Cognitive Art Evaluation on Functional Brain Connectivity,” confirms that drawing and painting as a medium to create art bolsters brain functionality, far more than simply viewing and interpreting art. Comparing subjects who were asked to create something artistic, to a group who were only asked to view and discuss art (with an art expert), researchers found that those who practiced an art (in this case drawing or painting):

Showed a significant improvement in psychological resilience.
Showed improved “effective interaction” between the regions of the brain known as the default mode network, which is associated with cognitive processes like introspection, self-monitoring, and memory.
Showed enhanced activity in the functional connectivity between the frontal, posterior, and temporal cortices.
Showed enhanced memory processing, which is indeed required when stored knowledge is connected with new information to produce creative works.

In creating a drawing or a painting, you engage brain regions that are susceptible to the deleterious effects of aging and thus creating art may well keep your brain functioning at a higher level—and spur introspection and creativity.

It’s important to note that the participants in the art creation group were asked to perform the cognitive tasks of listening to, understanding, and imitating the visual artist’s instructions, and then to find and execute their individual mode of artistic expression—and to maintain focus while executing their art. This process involved significantly more cognitive and motor coordination than those who just talked about art appreciation. Participants who created their own art not only fired up their brains, they experienced “flow,” or being so fully engaged in creative activity that all else falls away.

Recently, I’ve discovered an interest in sketching, and my first efforts are truly unimpressive, but it’s simply the process of seeing something purely in a visual way and trying to replicate it, using hands that are far more used to typing than drawing, that feels stimulating—and now I know why!

Tip: Before your next writing session, spend 15 minutes looking at an object (or a landscape) and sketching or painting what you see. Really focus on the task and look for a way to make the art you create reflect something about you (a love of wacky color combinations, a passion for shadows, the desire to spin off into unfettered exploration, and so on). The goal is not to create something beautiful; the goal is to bolster connectivity in your brain and get it fired up for writing.

Happy writing!

Use Images to Fire Up Your Writing Neurons

Finding or creating a visual representation of the story you are writing helps your brain get fired up and achieve the sort of global ignition that lights up the neuronal network you’ve created (related to writing that particular story). A University of Toronto meta-analysis, published in the journal Brain and Cognition, found that viewing paintings not only “switched on” the visual cortex, but also those parts of the brain linked to inner thoughts and emotions, movement regulation, and learning, all of which will add potency to the story.

Interestingly, despite what it sounds like, when global ignition occurs, the brain is not globally excited—a very precise set of neurons is excited, which defines how an individual experiences consciousness. The neurons can be incredibly precise—researchers have found that many people have a set of neurons that only respond to Bill Clinton’s face, and merely suggesting that these people imagine Bill Clinton’s face is enough to activate those particular neurons. The majority of anterior temporal neurons exhibit that same selectivity for actual and imagined images—and memory recall can also activate them. That being said, conscious information is distributed within a myriad of neuronal cells (millions upon millions of neuronal cells).

So what to do?

When working on a particular story, find an image (or better yet create one) that evokes something crucial to the story (see examples here) and meditate on the image prior to writing. This kind of “stimulation prepping” will fire up your writing brain, particularly the neurons focused on the work at hand. Once global ignition occurs—whether it’s focused on characterization, plots, setting, and so on—firing up the particular neurons connected to the story you are crafting fuels your imagination. Scientists believe that the brain is more interested—and intrigued—in how an image is depicted than it is in the image itself, hence the activation in cognitive functions. They also found that viewing visual art activates the brain’s reward circuit, which has evolved to provide reinforcement when what you’re doing creates benefits, or pleases, the brain.

Writing Tip: Choose a painting. Emory University School of Medicine researchers found that the ventral striatum and the hypothalamus, parts of the brain involved in making decisions, taking risks, and experiencing pleasure, are activated more from viewing paintings than photographs that represent similar themes. Just think of all the fun you’ll have searching for the perfect painting—or painting your own.

Happy Writing!

5 Reasons You May Feel Blocked as a Writer & How to Get Fired Up Again

We’re going to go there, right now, even though it might lead to automatic resistance: Writer’s block is a myth.

It is not something that always existed; in fact, the concept originated in the early 19th Century when the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge first described his “indefinite indescribable terror” at not being able to produce work he thought worthy of his talent. Romantic English poets of the time believed their poems magically arrived from an external source, so when their pens dried up and the words did not flow, they assumed the spirits, the gods, and/or their individual muses were not visiting them with favor.

French writers soon latched onto the idea of a suffering connected to writing and expanded it to create the myth that all writers possessed a tortured soul, and were unable to write without anguish. Later, the anxiety (the artistic inhibition) that often accompanies writing was blamed on, or turned into, neurosis, depression, alcoholism, and drug addiction. On good days, writers suffered for their art, and never so much as when they allowed psychological issues to thwart their ability to write.

Here’s the simple truth: The very nature of the art of writing incorporates uncertainty, experimentation, and a willingness to create art from the depths of who we are. Writing is a mentally challenging occupation, which requires more hard-core, cognitive expenditure than many other lines of work.

Here’s another truism: Many adults don’t like to think; once they have an occupation that provides a living and keeps them relatively happy, they prefer to live in a mentally remote world where they have a job they can do, sans hard-core thinking.

But writers have to think and think hard—and we have to think beyond mastering craft into creating works full of meaning, purpose, and nobility—and then editing and selling them. So, to even assume that this should go smoothly—particularly in the slogging middle—is to be misguided.

Writing is not for sissies, and if you intend to write nonfiction books, novels, screenplays, plays, and so on, it will not be easy, and you will often come up against a wall of resistance. Just don’t call it “writer’s block,” call it what it is: not being prepared to move on to the next level.

That being said, a discouraging loss of steam strikes even the best and most prolific writers. Even though it’s natural, and fairly predictable, one must never linger, which is why this blog will offer a spate of ideas to break the spell and get your writing brain back on track. But we begin, of course, with reasons why all writers get stalled.

You’ve Lost Your Way

All writers reach a point when they lose their way, their work veering off into unforeseen directions or experiencing a surprise (like when a character you didn’t anticipate shows up). Rather than permitting this to sabotage your momentum, take a day or two to rethink your story (or project). Identify the hold up, and loosely dance around it a few days. If it’s a character issue, go to the library, pull some of your favorite books off the shelves, and see how writers you admire dealt with similar problems. If it’s a setting issue, visit the place in question, or a similar site, and spend some time absorbing elements that you can weave into the story.

If you’re stalled because you lost your way, try the opposite of what you usually do—if you’re a plotter, give your imagination free rein for a day; if you’re a freewriter or a pantser, spend a day creating a list of the next 10 scenes that need to happen. This gives your brain a challenge, and for this reason you can take heart, because your billions of neurons love a challenge and are in search of synapses they can form. You can practically feel the dendrites flinging out their spiny little arms.

If you’re having trouble identifying the problem, your perspective may be too constricted. Try pulling back. Think about how the story is working on a larger scale, give yourself credit for getting this far, and then hone in on what you think may be the hitch. Maybe you think your character has turned into a caricature or the plotline is too weak. If that’s the case, look through the previous 50 pages for ways you can tweak it to achieve what you want. Often the brilliance is right there, just waiting for you to claim it.

Your Passion Has Waned

It happens. Because writing a novel requires full immersion—thinking about it, crafting it, dreaming about it, obsessing about it—your brain may be on overload or just bored. It doesn’t mean that your writing is boring; it means that you’ve worked and reworked the material so much that it now feels, sounds, or reads boring—to your mind.

A pair of fresh eyes would likely have a more objective opinion, though it’s not time to ask for outside eyes. Asking now may invite uninformed opinions (no one will have invested as much as you have to date) that make you question everything, and editing while writing can stifle creativity. Wait until the first draft is complete and it’s time to edit, before allowing yourself, or others, to question your creative decisions or, worse yet, to nitpick.

Lots of writers discard projects at this stage, often lamenting that they just lost the juice they needed to keep going. They chalk it up to choosing the wrong project, the wrong genre, the wrong topic, the wrong characters, or whatever. That may be the case, but if feeling bored about a third of the way in becomes a pattern, it’s likely more about you than about the story, characters, or subject matter.

Remember, your writing brain looks for and responds to patterns, so be careful that you don’t make succumbing to boredom or surrendering projects without a fight into a habit. Do your best to work through the reasons you got stalled and to finish what you started. This will lay down a neuronal pathway that your writing brain will merrily travel along in future work.

If you’ve lost steam and fear it’s because you’ve chosen the wrong subject, take a day or two to do, read, or think about something else. Before you go back to the manuscript, ask yourself these three probing questions to reveal the real reason you chose this topic, these characters, this storyline, this theme, and so on:

What drove me to write about this in the first place?
Why did I feel that this was worth a year of my time?
What is it that I wanted the world to know?

If your reasons remain solid, true, and important enough to you, you’ll likely spark a few “grass fires” into your neuronal forest, which will send you rushing to your desk to put pen to paper.

Your Expectations Are Too High

A mistake many novice writers make is setting their sights too high, and expecting perfection when they have yet to write a complete novel or screenplay. The best advice anyone can give inexperienced writers is to write a first draft as quickly as possible, as good books are not written, but rewritten and rewritten and rewritten. Once you have a first draft, you have a solid base on which to build, and all the “problems” you anticipated will work themselves out as you massage and craft your raw material.

What stops many writers midway is attempting to make the first draft the best they can write. Some believe it’s the way real writers write, which is generally not true; and some believe that perfecting each chapter will relieve them of the need to rewrite, which is also not true. Imposing this unreasonable need for perfection is bound to cause anxiety—and a great deal of frustration.

The more pressure you put on yourself, the higher your anxiety level rises and the more writing becomes a signal of danger, which transmits a message straight to your limbic system, triggering fight-or-flight reactions. When that happens, the limbic system stops forwarding messages to the cortex, which is where conscious thought, imagination, and creativity are generated. Instead, your amygdala releases stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline, and soon, your heart rate is skyrocketing, your ability to feel emotionally safe enough to write is eroded, and your ability to concentrate vanishes. Who wants that? Who wants to re-create that? Small wonder that you are feeling a resistance to writing.

Instead of setting your sights too high, give yourself permission to write anything, on topic or off topic, meaningful or trite, useful or folly. The point is that by attaching so much importance to the work you’re about to do, you make it harder to get into the flow. Also, if your inner critic sticks her nose in (which often happens), tell her that her role is very important to you (and it is!) and that you will summon her when you have something worthy of her attention. That should free you to dive back into the writing pool.

You Are Burned Out

It is quite possible that you’ve simply tapped yourself out. We all have our limits, be they physical, mental, or emotional. Eventually your body, brain, or emotions are going to rebel and insist on downtime, which may come in the guise of what you may call writer’s block.

But keep this in mind: You aren’t blocked; you’re exhausted. Give yourself a few days to really rest. Lie on a sofa and watch movies, take long walks in the hour just before dusk, go out to dinner with friends, or take a mini-vacation somewhere restful. Do so with the intention to give yourself—and your brain—a rest. No thinking about your novel for a week! In fact, no heavy thinking for a week. Lie back, have a margarita, and chill. Once you’re rested, you’ll likely find the desire to write has come roaring back.

Have you ever wondered why ideas seem to come easier when you’ve stopped concentrating and gone off to rest, shower, or mow the lawn? When you’re working on a task that requires a higher level of cognitive functioning, like writing, which requires intense concentration, your brain focuses like a laser on the task at hand, blocking out distractions and relying on existing neuronal connections. But when you break concentration and do something that doesn’t require focused cognitive functioning, your brain is more susceptible to distractions and thus “lets in” a broader range of information, which can lead to imagining more alternatives and making more diverse interpretations—fostering a “think outside the box” mentality and creating the milieu for an aha moment. Scientists have even found that when your brain is a little fuzzy from exertion, it’s a lot less efficient at remembering connections and thereby may be more open to new connections, new ideas, and new ways of thinking.

You’re Too Distracted

Few of us have the luxury of being free from distractions. Most of us have jobs, spouses, kids, and responsibilities that occupy a huge amount of our brain space. If your productivity has stalled, or your frustration level has peaked, it may be that too many other things are on your mind. For many, paying the bills and other prior commitments begin to weigh us down. There’s just too much on your desk—and in your brain. When those distractions mount, it’s often easier and more productive to just stop writing and go take care of your life, to do whatever it is that is causing you to feel pressured.

Take note that, unless you’re just one of those rare birds who always write no matter what, you will experience times in your life when it’s impossible to keep to a writing schedule. People get sick, people have to take a second job, children need extra attention, parents need extra attention, and so on. If you’re in one of those emergency situations (raising small children counts), by all means, don’t berate yourself. Sometimes it’s simply necessary to put the actual writing on hold. It is good, however, to keep your hands in the water. For instance, in lieu of writing your novel:

Read works similar to what you hope to write.
Read books related to the subject you’re writing about.
Keep a designated journal where you jot down ideas for the book (and other works).
Write small vignettes or sketches related to the book
Whenever you find time to meditate, envision yourself writing the book, bringing it to full completion.
Make writing the book a priority.

Instead of feeling like a failed writer, be patient and kind toward your writing self until the situation changes. The less you fret and put a negative spin on it, the more small pockets of time might open up. And, since you have been wise in keeping your writing brain fired up you may find it easier to write than you imagined.

Happy Writing!

3 Ways to Get Your Writing Brain Fired Up and Ready to Go Each Day

Source: 3 Ways to Get Your Writing Brain Fired Up and Ready to Go Each Day