Scratchpad: Mindset

Part 3 of a three post series adapted from a project in an interesting (and free!) online course called "Learning How to Learn: Powerful Mental Tools to Help You Master Tough Subjects" by Dr. Barbara Oakley and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski.  I'd highly recommend it for anyone who likes to learn. If this is something you are interested in, there is a new class that start on January 3rd HERE. Or you can buy the book HERE.  

The last thing I want to tell you about is how important mindset is on making it easier to get work done.

1.      Focus on the PROCESS not the Product.

Don't think about the novel you are trying to write. Think about the paragraph or the scene you are trying to write. A paragraph, a scene... that's doable, even when the novel is stretching away from you like an impossible undertaking.

         2. Go through your checklist

Make a list of things or routines that help you get into the flow of writing. Pens or computer at hand? Appropriate story music playing? Glass of water or coffee at the ready? Phone turned off? Excellent. Now get writing.

3. Perseverance

Remember, you are in this for the journey and the long haul. Just focus on today's little piece and keep building on what you've learned and what you've written.

4. Stay Flexible

Things may crop up that prevent you from getting the work done, or a character may become decidedly uncooperative with the direction you are trying to take the story.  Staying flexible helps you roll with the punches.  Here is a great post by Veronica Roth on not letting yourself get derailed unnecessarily because the story just won't roll itself out according to plan.

5. Switch on the "Cool Dispassion"

Often the voices/internal monologue going on in our heads is not as supportive as we would wish. This may lead us to doubt our capability or focus in pursuing a writing project. "This writing is terrible." or "What was I thinking when I started climbing this impossible mountain?!"  There is also the frustration that comes with working on a project that seems to have no immediate benefit.  

Turn on the dispassion and don't let these voices sidetrack you from the work you are doing. Refresh them with the truth. You are writing because it is something you want or need to do. You are unique. You bring something to the page that no one else does. It may not be clear yet what you it is you are trying to say or what the connections you are making will turn out to mean, but that is okay.  Keep plugging away. Be proud of the steps you have already taken.  Be  confident in the steps you are taking as you move forward.

Scratchpad: Fighting Procrastination

Part 2 of a three post series adapted from a project in an interesting (and free!) online course called "Learning How to Learn: Powerful Mental Tools to Help You Master Tough Subjects" by Dr. Barbara Oakley and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski.  I'd highly recommend it for anyone who likes to learn. If this is something you are interested in, there is a new class that started on October 3rd HERE. Or you can buy the book HERE.  

Tackling the problem of getting back to the writing chair...today, tomorrow, the day after that, even when the going gets rough or its a bad day...has always been the hardest part of writing for many of us. We are writing in isolation, and we are writing with our own personal motivations as the driving force.  Procrastination has a real chance to get his foot in the door.  Here are several tools and techniques that research suggests may help with this:

1.  Keep a planning journal.

This is a bit like Ernest Hemingway's trick of stopping in the middle of a sentence. It gives your mind the time to use diffuse mode thinking to your advantage and figure out interesting ways to problem solve your writing.

Initially take a little time to think about what you want to accomplish long term with a project. Later, you can update this as you go.  Perhaps you want to write a rough draft in the next two months.  Or maybe you want to do research on a topic to see if there is something there that sparks a story.

With that in mind, write out a list of things to do or complete this week that will move you toward those goals. Then, at the end of each writing session, look at what you've accomplished and make a list of what you would like to do at your next writing session. That way, you are ready to start when you sit down the next time and don't have to scratch around trying to find your place.  

      When you sit down at the start of the next week to make out a new list, see how you did. Did you hit your targets? Did your list of to dos lining up with what was actually doable for you? How often did you make it to the writing? Keep that in mind as you make out your new plan for the upcoming week.

2. Arrange your work into a series of small challenges

The long aim (say a novel) can be too big to think about and still get work done. Break it down into smaller pieces or organize it under a larger challenge. Say a big group challenge like NanoWrimo which is coming up in a few short weeks for getting your first rough draft down on paper.   Or doing prompt challenges with websites like Today's Author or The Write Practice for doing your craft building work.  This keeps things fun. It also makes them doable.  Revisit them periodically or change them up for different things to make sure they are still working for you.

3. Rewards are the way to go

Have trouble getting to the writing desk? Reward yourself when you do sit down at the writing desk or when you close that internet browser and get back to writing. Give yourself a piece of chocolate. (Or something else small and motivational.)  

      In the long term, the finished writing itself will set up a reward loop in our brains and draw us to the writing, but that doesn't help us much today. Giving ourselves a small reward for doing the thing we want to be doing helps establish that positive link in our minds, and it helps us to overcome that initial mental hurdle of getting to the page by adding a positive motivator. 

     Plan out bigger rewards for larger milestones. It helps make the work fun instead of only the long slow trudge toward completion.

(If you want to know more about this and how it works, see this video by Robert Wright, (April 21, 2012). "How to Break the Procrastination Habit" The Atlantic.)

4. Set a time to work on something.

Set a daily appointment with yourself. Say for 25 or 30 minutes if it is a particularly daunting project. When that time comes around, sit down and work on it. Once the time is up, you are free for the day and don't have to think about it until the next day's appointment.  This also feeds in nicely to the other advice we so often here- "Write every day."

Now I just need to try these out for myself on a regular basis....

What about you? Do you have any great trips or tricks for getting yourself to the page or finishing projects?

The Silent Room, Part 23

Grandma Nan's

The warmth of the farmhouse banished dark thoughts and welcomed them in when they reached it. Now they sat in the kitchen on curved wooden chairs around a heavy oak table.  A large bay window looking out across the back lot to more grazing sheep and a rolling corn field.  Sora hummed a little tune to herself as she chased the last of her breakfast around her bowl.  Somewhere behind them the comforting presence of Grandma Nan, fake or not, radiated.

It was a good idea to come here, Kerr thought, stuffed now on baked oatmeal rich with peaches, brown sugar, and cream.  A second cup of fresh hot coffee sat steaming in front of him.

A switch to the back of his head from a tea towel brought him out of his thoughts, and he carefully set the front legs of his chair back on the ground as he shot a rueful half grin at Nan.  Whatever her age under the iron gray curls and layers of fine crow's feet, she was rail thin and strong as a whip.  Her words while gentle had been pretty lean and to the point, too.   She was going to use that tongue on him now, he thought, as he watched the teasing glint in her eye shift to a quiet certainty. They were going to talk.

He didn't know how he knew this of a woman he didn't know, but he did.  He felt a cold iron fist tighten in his gut.

"Sora, darling,"  Nan's mellow voice broke the silence, "there are kittens out on the back porch if you want to have a look."

Sora was on her feet and disappearing out the back door  in a flutter of white night gown before Nan had even finished her sentence. Before he could call her back and delay the inevitable.

She didn't waste any time.   "Have you figured it out yet?" she asked , sliding into a chair across from him with her own cup of coffee.

"That I'm stuck in a dream that doesn't make sense?" he tried to make light of it, to turn the impossible away, but the crack in his voice gave him away.

"Yes, and what's behind that,"  she waited patiently for  him, as though she was only waiting for him to catch up with the plot.

"Who I am?" she prompted.

He stared into her narrow, kindly face and tried to find an answer.  The certainty there... it terrified him.  Ripped the icing of good food and welcoming kitchen away. He felt the void in his mind again. The giant void with the answers locked tantalizingly out of reach.

"The Institute," she prompted again.

This time the words registered, a can of memories bursting and spilling across his mind.  Graduating college.  Getting that government job so quickly. He had been thrilled. Had taken the job without a second thought. And then everything that came after...

Suddenly he straightened, eyes shooting to the back door. Horror dawning.

"I have to leave her here. I can't take her. I..."  He didn't. He couldn't. How could he?

Warm fingers wrapped around his clenching shaking fist,  "I know, dear.  I know."

ScratchPad: Focused and Diffuse Modes- Harnessing Your Thinking for Improved Creativity and Learning (plus Update)

Update-  I've been a bit MIA around these parts the last month or two.   Taking Scott Dinsmore's "Start a Blog/Revive a Blog" Challenge  to see if I can jump start my intentionality again. For starters here is the first part of a three post series adapted from my final project in the fascinating (and FREE!) online course I took through Coursera called "Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects". A very worthwhile and useful exploration of the topic by Dr. Barbara Oakley and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski.  I'd highly recommend it for anyone who likes to learn. If this is something you are interested in, there is a new class starting on October 3rd HERE. 

You know how many famous writers and creatives seem to go out for long walks on a fairly regular basis? Turns out they are taking advantage of the brain's use of diffuse thinking.  Use this to your advantage as well and make your story deeper and fuller!

So what exactly is happening when they are out for a walk that gets all these advantages?  Most of us think about periods of high level focus or concentration as the important bit in getting words down on paper or in learning something new. It is important. Nothing beats BIC (butt-in-chair) for getting closer to a finished piece of writing. Turns out, though, that the periods of inattention and lack of focus (when we make another cup of coffee, google random questions that happened to pop into our heads, doodle in a sketchpad, or wander around aimlessly...)  are just as important.  They give your brain the necessary space to making the new connections that will lead you to a better understanding of what is going on with your characters and story world, and ultimately to a better piece of writing. 

You can think of it like having two kinds of pinball machines in your head. When you are focused, the pins of your mind keep your attention tight and narrow, bouncing around in only one narrow defined area. When you are involved in activities that activate the diffuse mode of thinking, the pins are more widely spaced, allowing you to make connections between that amazing song you heard last week, the random radio interview with a French historian playing as you drive to the grocery , and a Pick Up Sticks game you played as a kid.  These broader context connections will add layers and depth to your writing.

When you do the first focused round of writing (or learning), the brain lays down tracks for the new material, but it often doesn’t make sense of it in a meaningful way until it  begins to make connections with other things in your mind and memory. You also need time for the new tracks to solidify.  Writing a little every day gives your brain that time and makes a tighter, better "wall" for you to sit on. Then when you step away for those periods of diffuse thinking, you allow time for the subconscious brain to step away from the new material, turn it over, and then come to new conclusions and connections about it. It cements things and firms them up.  Binge writing  on the other hand (of which I am VERY guilty) gives you a potentially more crumbly wall without all those connections and hardened cement framework.

So what does all this new research actually mean in getting better writing done?
1. Plan focused times to sit down and do your writing. Set a timer and actually be there at the 
      page for that period of time.
2.  When the timer goes, step away and do something completely different for a bit--listen to 
      music, draw, go for  a walk, … It should feel like a reward.
3. Then come back and focus for another stint!
4. Follow it up with reward--diffuse mode thinking take two.
5. Show up again tomorrow.  (This is the tough one for me.)

The length of time you set the timer for will be individual and dependent on the day. Maybe the writing is difficult and you only feel up to committing to a Flylady Fifteen (You can do anything for fifteen minutes!) rather than a Pomodoro Twenty-Five  or an Amy Alkon Sixty (from her interview in the above mentioned MOOC). Experiment. Find the amount of time that is optimal for you.

If you give this a try, let me know how it works for you! Best of luck in your writing and your learning.