A common 'difficulty' my clients report is too little time at the desk.  The assumption here of course, is that more desk time equals more words on the page.

How is it then, that for writers who do have time to write a common experience is guilt at not using the time?  Sitting there doggedly, hour after hour, day after day miserably fostering and maintaining low productivity.

In my experience it is more mind than time that determines creative productivity. I have clients with very full, non-writing full-time jobs plus kids, who write every day, no matter what. Not that this was always the case.   Once we addressed the all-or-nothing thinking (I can't write unless I have regular long blocks of time uninterrupted) and worked out new attitudes and approaches it was incredible to observe the shift. 

Yes the blocks of time are necessary - but they are not the only way to write.

Another killer for writing flow is the expectation that the work must be good. First time. And a sense that writing is serious business.  One must have a certain posture, a certain seriousness and an air of reverence for this serious business.  Because of its importance to the writer, the writing itself must be taken very seriously. 

So, while writers strive to find more time in solitude, creating the time and space to write, it may well be that, in reality, more writing may come from less time at the desk. It may be that time spent on incorporating fun and/or play into your day and your writing ritual will yield more creative output than twice that amount of allocated time sitting miserably at your desk criticising yourself for not coming up with the goods.

Brain researcher and author, Dan Siegel has identified that creativity and emotional well being are served best by habits that integrate the various parts of the brain. He also says, surprise surprise, that creativity can't be forced. Instead, the writer can create the physical, mental and emotional states that facilitate well-being.  These also facilitate creativity.

Siegel's healthy mind platter comprises refreshingly achievable elements.  On this daily platter for brain health and emotional well-being are the following:

•  Sleep time - decent sleep of at least 8 hours when possible.
•  Physical time - exercise.
•  Focus time - your writing !
• Time in - a mindfulness/mediation practice.  This can be as simple as 12 minutes of quite, focused breath-       awareness. Longer practices can be more beneficial than short, but short are better than none.  Some have suggested that as little as one minute a day of some sort of focused practice can bring about helpful brain integration changes.
• Down time - just whatever you actually feel like doing.
• Play/fun time - transformational for creativity (and can be incorporated into your focus time/exercise/down-time/connecting time).
• Connecting/social time

Simple, manageable daily practices demonstrated to foster and maintain well-being. 

If you'd like to hear more about the energising effects of play and its role in fostering creativity, there was a great discussion on Radio National's Life Matters program this morning.  I challenge you to listen to it and not feel like changing your own practices !!

Here's the link:

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/all-work-and-no-play-makes-jack-a-dull-boy/5733240

All the best,

Alison
www.amindofonesown.com

.

OMG first draft dread - procrastination, despair days when nothing flows, idea vacuums.....you know these stories well.

Last month, discussing 'First Draft Fear and Loathing' I wrote about some First Draft First Aid strategies that have been energising my writer clients.

And I mentioned then that I'd be back to talk about why, in the early stages of writing, the inner (or outer) critic just really needs to step aside and wait its turn.

Before I go on, I have an important distinction to make. If you're concerned that I'm peddling some advice to dumb down your work, or accept a lower level of quality, forget it. I want the standard of writing going out into the world to be high: outstanding, in fact. Rest assured that I believe when the time comes, the critic in you should take centre stage. It's vital to great writing – but it’s all about employing the critic at the right time, and for many writers, that time is not in the earliest stages.

There is also an important distinction to make about the style of mental critic that is useful – and it is not the nark critic, the sneering critic. The critic who’s  welcome when the time is right is the confident one, who wants your writing to express your full potential, not the one who wants to humiliate you into submission.

The first step in the process is really the big one, I think. Here's how it reads:

1) Identify and clearly delineate in your mind each stage of writing, even if you have no idea of the story yet. This may seem obvious, but lack of clarity is linked to many writerly problems including inertia, a sense of hopelessness and chronic distractibility.

By separating the stages I mean separating the emerging story (especially the early first draft) from the shaping re-write (second draft), from the third, fourth and subsequent drafts. But how? And what's important about this anyway?

Many writers have told me it can be helpful to see each stage as having a particular purpose, and that in each stage, the writer has a specific set of roles. Trouble is, too often the critic is there, dominating everything, right from the start. In fact, even before the start. And as you may already know, not much is as paralysing as premature criticism. Especially of the sneering kind.

When I wrote in February, I was just about to interview the beautiful, best-selling author, psychiatrist and brain nut, Dan Siegel (whose latest book, Brainstorm, was destined for the rubbish bin at one point - when published it took just four weeks to get to the NYT best-seller list in February 2014).

Because Dan specialises in brain health and mental well-being, I asked him to explain what's going on in a writer's brain when she brings in the critic too early, during the creating part of the creative process. His response was fascinating. In essence, he said that a creative process is like any complex system. And complex systems, whether they be in the form of an individual, a family, a society, an ecosystem or a creative process, share common properties.

The ultimate aim, and also the expression, of a complex system is harmony. This is an integration of the elements - for example, if the complex system is a work of fiction, when all the elements work well, the story is crafted into a coherent narrative. For harmony in a complex system, each of the elements of the whole needs to function well independently;  only once the elements are differentiated and well-functioning separate entities can the harmonious integration occur.

It may sound strange to talk about a book in progress in these terms, and it won’t work for all writers. But it certainly is working beautifully for some, as my clients and I have discovered. The message that’s so freeing for them is ‘first, differentiate the elements’ –  and for a start, this means a clear, conscious separation of the creator and the critic.

And then later, when the creative heart of your work, your early drafts, are ready, bring in that professional and respectful critic and let it do its work.

Alison Manning

A Mind of One's Own

March 2014



Click here to check our the services at A Mind of One's Own

Click here to book a confidential, free conversation about any of the services on offer.