Susan Reynolds's Blog, page 4

Conquer NaNoWriMo: Unleash Your Brain

If you’ve ever been around a litter of newborn puppies or kittens, you’ve likely observed that some are feisty and adventurous, some greedily suckle, some cower while others show dominance, and so on. Studies have found that such personality differences will still appear, even when animals are cloned (meaning that they are genetically identical). In 2013, a researcher cloned a group of genetically identical mice and released them into a large enclosure that provided opportunities for exploration and play. Within a few months, the mouse clones that had explored the most actively sprouted new nerve cells throughout their brains, especially in the hippocampus, a region crucial for memory and spatial navigation; less-adventurous clones showed less brain development.

We may not know why some personality differences exist from birth, but this study suggests that individual experiences sculpt individual brains and personalities, too, even if those brains are genetically identical. What it proves is that you can sculpt your writing brain by unleashing it and venturing into new territory while writing!

One way to unleash your writing genius is to participate in NaNoWriMo (writing a 50,000 novel in the month of November), particularly if it seems like a crazy thing to do. It is crazy, crazy good, particularly if you approach it as a writing adventure.

To write that many words in one month, most of us have to unleash our brains (and our subconscious mind) and hope that writing as many words as possible in a short month (goal is about 1,600 words a day) will result in a congruent story down the line. The genius of NaNoWriMo is that it encourages writers to stop thinking and just write. Ideally, you’ll follow whatever seed pearls roll out of your imagination and just get those words onto “the page,” sans editing. Writing quickly can be a very freeing experience, one that leads to experimentation and, hopefully, a joyful experience.

Participating in NaNoWriMo is a great way to fire up your writing brain.

Happy Writing!

Conquer NaNoWriMo: Manage Your Dreams

Gearing up for and writing a 50,000-word novel in one month, as those participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) attempt to do, may cause a riptide in your subconscious and lead to disruptive dreams, or even nightmares, particularly if you create unreasonable expectations and then pressure yourself to meet them, or punish yourself when you don’t. While it’s admirable to write 50,000 words in one month, if you’re also working fulltime and/or have a family that requires tending, striving to write 1,600 words a day (50,000/30 = 1,666 words a day) may soon generate palpable anxiety.

Anxiety Seeks an Outlet

We spend some 60 to 70 percent of time spent sleeping dreaming, mostly processing daily stressors. When researchers wake up subjects while they are dreaming, some 75 percent of the emotions the subjects describe are negative. When slipping into REM sleep (when most, but not all, dreaming occurs), the limbic system (sensate and emotional centers) goes into overdrive, releasing lots of brain chemicals, much more so than when you’re awake, which is why dreams often involve scary scenarios. Our brains are processing negative emotions and fears on a regular, intensive basis—while we sleep.

Try Imagery Therapy

A relatively new “imagery rehearsal” therapy (pioneered by Dr. Barry Krakow at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine) seeks ways to rewrite the frightful aspects of bad dreams to minimize and even completely eradicate ongoing sleep disturbance. It’s as easy as imagining a better scenario, rewriting the “script” in terms of what happens, or who’s in it (whether animal or human, monster or foe). Basically, the psychologist suggests that the dreamer change whatever they like (or find disturbing) and then visualize the revised “storyline” several times throughout the day. They do not recommend talking about nightmares, which can deepen anxiety, but choosing instead to focus thoughts and images on the newer, more positive version you are creating.

Psychologists who have used “imagery rehearsal” reported that the method helps 70 percent of people who try it. Some develop the ability to change the nightmare while it’s occurring, and others notice that their ingrained nightmares disappear altogether. This success comes after only two to three instructional sessions.

Why Visualization Works

Basically, when you create visualizations and meditate on them, your brain behaves as if what you are imagining is happening in real time. Just as it lays negative pathways when experiencing fear or stress, when visualizing positive experiences, it lays neural pathways related to the sunnier version. You go from giving your brain free rein to fall into a negative pathway or to helping it create a new, positive pathway.

If self-created stress is causing fitful sleep, try visualizing yourself as happily writing, easily fulfilling your desired word counts, feeling energized rather than depleted. When visualizing, create “images” that reflect what you want to happen and use those images to replace any fear-based negativity or self-created stress.

And if that’s doesn’t help, maybe it’s time to reduce your daily writing goals to something easier for you to accomplish. Remember that NaNoWriMo is intended to be a positive, motivating experience, something that fosters a feeling of success and keeps your writing brain fired up.

Fire Up Your Writing Brain Tip: Remember that your brain likes to please you and the more you connect writing with pleasure, the better it will perform. Also, when you reward your brain immediately after writing, it releases the “feel-good” chemicals that make it eager for you to write again.

Prepping for NaNoWriMo: Be Sure to Reward Your Writing Brain

In prepping for NaNoWriMo, where an expectation (goal) is that you’ll write 50,000 words in November, it’s important to strive to meet your daily word counts, but it’s not a good idea to set them so high that you consistently “fail” to meet the goals you set.

Two things neuroscientists have discovered are that your brain actively seeks to please you and it responds to rewards. When you feel good, your brain releases and bathes itself in what are called the feel-good chemicals—dopamine, endorphins, serotonin, oxytocin, and others—which is so pleasurable for your brain that it eagerly awaits new opportunities to repeat this experience.

Thus, if you cue up reasonable expectations around writing and then reward your brain after each writing session—by pausing to feel good about what you’ve accomplished, and/or by doing something that will awaken your brain’s reward center (going for a walk, savoring a chocolate, enjoying a glass of wine with your beloved, or simply doing something that creates pleasure for you)—your brain will release the feel-good chemicals.

Your writing brain will then seek, anticipate, and enjoy opportunities to repeat that experience. The goal is to fire up your writing brain by “hard-wiring” pleasure with writing, which will make writing sessions an activity both your mind and your brain desire and enjoy.

Hint: Be careful not to “punish” yourself if you fail to meet daily wordcount goals. Better to keep daily word count goals achievable, focus more on the quality of writing, and reward yourself when you reach your goals. Remember, the more you wire a feeling of success to the act of writing, the easier writing will become.

Double Hint: Fire Up Your Writing Brain is on special TODAY only for $9.09. Use “PREP30” code when you check out.

Prepping for NaNoWriMo: Embrace Humor

We can all be too serious when thinking about or describing our work, and pessimistic when assessing the probability that we’ll land a publisher. No wonder our brains sputter and grind to a halt! If you’re going to write 50,000 words in November, employing humor is an effective – and fun – way to fire up your writing brain. (My book is available on Writersidgest.com as part of NaNoWriMo promotion, use PREP30 code to buy it for about $9.00. Promo ends 10/30).

For example, this video, by author Maria Semple, is as clever and original as her novel, Where’d You Go Bernadette? It’s not only beautifully shot (with guest stars!), that list of ways to categorize and sell her novel is a perfect model for not taking yourself too seriously, and an ingenious way to think about the book you’re crafting, and own what you love to write, whether or not it will find a home.

By the way, I read Where’d You Go Bernadette recently and loved it, even though she broke “cardinal rules,” like using a fourteen-year-old narrator for an adult novel, what would be considered too many points of view, and used devices, such as letters and emails.

Lots of clients will ask me why they can’t use six points of view (or more!), letters, emails, phone calls, etc. to tell a story, and I tell them that they just don’t work well, tend to slow the action, and will turn off editors. That said, if you are able to break those rules in a masterful way, creating a unique, well-crafted novel that is startlingly fresh, then you go right ahead.

But back to the video:  as you think about what you’ll be writing for NaNoWriMo, use humor to spur original thoughts and lighten the mood, gifting your brain a dopamine rush that will foster productive writing sessions.

Happy Writing!

Prepping for NaNoWriMo: Plotter or Pantser?

Prep for NaNoWriMo!

Some writers don’t begin writing until they have a fairly clear picture of what they’re going to write from beginning to end and seem to function best when organized. Others comfortably begin with a vague idea of story and characters, and seem to be comfortable unleashing their unconscious and letting the story unfold as they type. If you consistently use one approach, a cognitive pattern may become habitual.

Plotters, of course, are those who wouldn’t sit down to write a novel (or screenplay) until they’d come up with and pondered an idea; considered their protagonist’s and antagonist’s character arcs; conducted fairly extensive research; considered theme, setting, and tone; plotted the story from beginning to end; and created a complex biographical sketch for each of their characters.

Pantsers, on the other hand, still believe in muses, that inspiration will strike and their task will be to plant themselves in a chair, face a blank page, and dive right in. Even if they feel somewhat tortured by the process, they trust that their subconscious will deliver up a fascinating story idea, unforgettable characters, and take them, and their characters, on a delightfully surprising journey.

Most writers, however, fall somewhere in the middle, searching for an optimum way to come up with a fabulous and original idea, a way to tell the story that will capture attention and honor their craft, and a way to write it that allows them to get as many words written—as fast as possible—all without sacrificing craft.

If you’re gearing up for NaNoWriMo and love to plot, Paula Munier’s Plot Perfect is a detailed guide that will appeal to plotters; but I would also recommend that pantsers give more thought than usual to what they want to write and sketch out more nuanced details: characters, setting, story and character arc—and, yes, plot. Those who always adhere to detailed plotting ahead of time may want to try something new, as well. Perhaps focusing less on a detailed outline and more on reading poetry or essays or meditating on the storyline while listening to music. Better yet, buy my book and learn multiple ways to maximize your brainpower while writing.

The goal is to shake up your writing process and try something new as a way to fire up your writing brain for NaNoWriMo, and all future work.

Happy Writing!

Two Ways to Fire Up Your Writing Brain for NaNoWriMo

It’s lovely that thousands upon thousands of people all over the world are participating in the National Novel Writing Month of November (popularly known as NaNoWriMo). It’s a brilliant concept that has obviously appealed to many aspiring writers, and I know many professional writers who use it to shame themselves into pursuing the creative work that’s always getting shunted for day jobs. There’s something extremely appealing about all that writing energy being exercised worldwide, and many are able to write 50,000 words in November, which surely feels absolutely amazing. So what are 2 things you can do to prep and fire up your writing brain for NaNoWriMo?

ONE: Choose A Topic That Excites You

Your neurons construct elaborate networks in response to frequent cognitive activity, such as writing. The more these neurons are fired up, the more they wire together, formulating a complex, multilayered web of synapses that grow stronger and more complex with use. It’s the practice of firing up those neurons that causes them to increase their outreach and to create new and more unique connections. You have writing genius at your disposal, but you have to make a conscious decision to use it to its fullest advantage, and one great way to do that is to choose a topic that really gets your juices flowing, something that has a certain urgency, something you’re somewhat obsessed with, something that’s important to you.

The passion for what you’re writing about will ignite those neurons, initiating the sort of “global excitation” that spurs original thought, surprising and unique connections, and the desire to re-create those feelings. Basically passion energizes your brain, gets it fired up, and makes it sharper than usual. Writing about something you feel strongly about provides the neuronal juice that will make writing a pleasure and will likely result in your best work.

If you have to write about things that aren’t deeply and personally important to you, then get excited about the craft and art of writing, and be passionate about your abilities to tell a good story and what your resourceful brain brings to the table. If you can’t love the topic, love what you do, and help your brain feel excited about it.

And if all that doesn’t do the trick, at least choose something that grips you like a vise.

TWO. Commit in Writing

When you identify the primary motivations related to your current project, journal about it, focusing on details, passions, and fears. By writing it down, you are programming your cerebral cortex and your hippocampus to remember that the story you are creating is important and that you are determined to complete it. You are also alerting your cortex that you’d like help anticipating and resolving problems and your “sleeping” subconscious that you’re asking it to offer its import. Before you begin brainstorming, read your entries to fire up all the neurons and synapses needed to do your best work.

Tomorrow I’ll reveal more suggestions to help you prep your writer’s brain for NaNoWriMo—and whatever writing projects you have on tap.

Happy Writing!

12 Things Your Writing Brain Can Do for You

To fire up your writing brain and tap into your writing genius, it’s important to understand what your brain can do for you. Twelve brain functions that benefit writing include:

Add new neurons, even when you’re eighty.
Create neuronal highways that speed up processing.
Create new synapses; renew old synapses; discard unwanted synapses.
Wire together, what you want to fire together (emotional happiness with writing, for example; rewards with successful completion of aspirational word counts).
Monitor, experience, remember, and re-create events, as if they are occurring again.
Link new stimuli to existing stimuli.
Juggle short-term memory (essential to creativity and writing) and convert it to long-term memory (your personal storehouse of ideas).
Get fired up; fire on all pistons.
Create and sustain focus; dial down distractions.
Generate empathy and identification; mirror yourself in others.
Surprise you and rise to the occasion.
Perform abstract thinking, creatively linking new and existing ideas, in new combinations.

Now that your knowledge of what your brain can do for you is growing, your part is to stimulate and protect your brain.

Stimulating your brain means expanding your knowledge base, studying your craft, reading works similar to what you want to write and genres or styles that are far different from what you want to write, reading all types of material, especially poetry, essays, and “high brow,” complex literature that taxes your brain, and challenging your brain.

Protecting your brain means getting plenty of sleep at night (8 hours preferable), exercising to increase blood flow, avoiding harmful substances (drugs, alcohol, marijuana), and eating a balanced diet (choosing “real” food over processed foods). The latest suggestion is a combination of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH Diet that some call the MIND diet, which recommends:

Leafy greens (such as spinach, romaine lettuce and kale) every day
One additional serving of vegetables every day
Whole grains three times a day
Nuts on most days (walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts in particular)
Beans about three times a week
Poultry at least twice a week
Fish at least once a week.
Berries at least twice a week (blackberries and blueberries in particular)
Wine – but no more than one glass a day
Olive oil as your primary cooking oil
Limited amounts of red meat, cheese, butter, sweets and fried foods

So be good to that marvelous writing brain of yours, and it will serve you well!

Happy writing!

Two Simple Ways to Fire Up Your Writing Brain

Long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad, also the author of a memoir entitled Find a Way, recently answered questions in “By the Book” (a fabulous resource for writers) in The New York Times. Nyad revealed that she loves to read about the cosmos. “The genre that has captivated me all my life is lay astrophysics. When I was younger, it was Carl Sagan. Now Stephen Hawking and Lawrence Krauss and Brian Greene, with his substantial The Elegant Universe, pull me in. The basic facts of our universe, that before the Big Bang all the energy and matter we know of existed, literally, in a space the size of a millionth of a millionth of a penny, blow one’s mind. I took four months to read Krauss’s A Universe From Nothing, because most every sentence required putting the book down and attempting to fathom what I had just read.”

I note this because Nyad elucidated two primary ways to fire up (program, prime, prep, stimulate) your writing brain:

Read outside of your comfort zone (field, genre, usual favorites). Reading something seemingly unrelated to what you usually read or write creates and sparks neuronal connections that often lead to a “bright idea” or a fresh way of thinking about something. It can lead to that marvelous “aha” moment we all desire.
Read complex works that require you to decipher new material. If the sentence structure or the new information is complex and causes you to have to read more slowly, with a focus on interpreting what you’re reading, your brain responds to your request for it to “work harder.” It’s like working a muscle, something that doesn’t occur if you never read anything that you have to struggle to understand or that introduces you to new concepts or new ways of thinking about things.

Bonus: Ms. Nyad also revealed a third way to fire up your writing brain: Learn new vocabulary before falling asleep. The book Nyad always keeps beside her bed is 501 Spanish Verbs because she is a “firm believer in imbuing the brain just before sleep with some empirical data…and thus waking up a tad more fluent than when you went to bed.” Right before you sleep is a great time to break out a dictionary and learn new words. Your brain can be highly receptive and, if you spend a few minutes intentionally studying the words, your brain will continue processing—linking neurons—while you sleep. Even better, create a few sentences using the word before falling asleep.

Happy Writing!

Wire Your Brain for Writing Success

A recent 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 brains were connected. In addition to scanning study participant’s brains (in a resting state), the scientists collected information on approximately 280 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.

In running a computer analysis, they then found that the brains of those possessing “positive variables” (such as higher education, stronger physical endurance, above-average performance on memory tests, verbal acuity, higher income levels) seemed to be more strongly connected, and able, therefore, to communicate more efficiently, than the brains of participants with “negative traits” (such as smoking, aggressive or anti-social behavior, a family history of alcoholism, poor sleep quality).

The scientists don’t yet know if the weakened brain connections are the cause—or the effect—of negative social or personality traits (whether behaviors, such as using alcohol or drugs, diminished connections). They did find evidence that recent marijuana use decreased connectivity (more on that in future posts).

So what does this mean for you? It means that the more you work on bolstering positive neuronal connections and positive personality traits, the stronger your connectome (internal brain communications) will become. Seven things you can do to bolster connections related to writing:

Improve verbal acuity (learn new words, learn new verbs).
Continually “educate your brain” by studying and analyzing the craft of writing.
Read extensively.
Read more complex works.
Research topics related to what you’re writing.
Brainstorm ideas before writing.
Practice cognitive concentration (time spent focused on thinking) before you write.

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. And get plenty of restful sleep!

Happy writing!

Identify Your Higher Purpose

Just as Pope Francis delivered an inspiring speech to our Congress today, urging them to embrace their higher selves when governing, accessing your higher self while writing is a great way to get your brain on board.  Basically, your brain likes to have a clear purpose, a task that it can eagerly and intelligently perform, and, even more importantly, your brain wishes to please you, to please your higher self, if you will. When you ascribe a higher purpose to the work that you are asking your brain to do, it boosts the amount of energy your brain will expend. An effective way to tap into this richness is to journal about the reasons you are writing whatever you are writing. When you do, go beyond the more concrete reasons, such as to earn an advance, into the realm of higher consciousness, such as to bolster women who feel bound to a tradition that limits their aspirations, or to inspire children to reach within for the strength and courage they will need to traverse whatever entrapments that may come their way. You get the point: Think about your higher purpose and how the work you are performing relates to this purpose. Doing so will help your brain pay closer attention and offer up its genius.

Image courtesy of FreeImages.com/Fernando Audibert