Day 5: Color My World in the Process

Color soothes, energizes and sabotages our writing process when we are unaware of the effects it has on our ability to concentrate and create.

For me, words speak in colors, rhythms and actions. So the science behind how colors affect our moods, creativity and confidence is relevant to the writing process.

For example, a 2009 study describing the emotional pull of red and blue (at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090205142143.htm) found that:

"Red boosted performance on detail-oriented tasks such as memory retrieval and proofreading by as much as 31 percent compared to blue. Conversely, for creative tasks such as brainstorming, blue environmental cues prompted participants to produce twice as many creative outputs as when under the red color condition."

Personally, I surround myself with reds and greens when I write. Pink, purple and yellow don't inspire me in surroundings. (They may remind me too much of the early classrooms.) 

Day 4: Environmental Factors

As much as I knock the conformity of learning to write in schools, the influence of those days and the discomfort that surrounded us should be acknowledged to get beyond the deja vu of it.

The hard seats, the buzzing overhead lights and the hiss of the heater as it kicked in never leave us completely. That means that we must be aware of our environment to escape the association of noise and pain connected with our earliest efforts to form words.

To redirect that energy into writing, it helps to understand the more ideal school room described at http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=390. Specifically: "To achieve environmentally pleasing classroom spaces, teachers need to get in touch with what feels good to them and attend to the specific population that will be using the room."

Once again, don't think about this too much or you ruin the effect. As a writer, be sure to hide or get rid of anything that distracts you, or still has the ability to make you wince.

Day 3: Comfort Above All

I'm not saying that this process means you can hide behind a slight discomfort with writing. Rather, just consider how we set ourselves up for success or failure based on learned behaviors like sitting up straight at a desk when writing.

If you deviate from this straight-spined majesty, which we tend to do despite essays to the contrary, then the focus is often on finding "just the spot" necessary to spark creativity. (See Day 2 for a prime example of misguided writing advice.)

Although you shouldn't spend too much time dwelling on this matter, how you sit or stand may decide how comfortable you are with putting pen to paper or typing away at a keyboard. Consider this article from NPR on thinking inside and outside a literal box: http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2012/02/29/147646374/thinking-outside-the-box-with-our-bodies-and-our-brains.

Now, consider for a few minutes where you write most fluently. For me, the ideas come during walks, but the best writing I have ever accomplished was on a plane during a five-hour flight.  Although it's difficult to repeat this creative spurt, approximating this atmosphere at coffee shops, bookstores and other homes away from home also works. (So does committing to a blog...)

Day 2: Physiology & the Push for Conformity

     Throughout history, the writing process seems to have been studied with an eye to standardizing the practice. This ineffective attempt to teach our calling as a skill is what feeds the exhaustion many kids claim in writing "How I Spent My Summer Vacation."
     "No Child Left Behind" is just the latest in a push to drill "the basics" into children. The only magical thinking allowed is academically, not for silly children who would rather be in physical education than writing, for the most part.
    Consider an "Essay on the Physiology of Writing" from 1894 by Emile Javal at http://www.archive.org/details/essayonphysiolog00java:

    The Commission, without neglecting the questions of lighting, school furniture, typography of school books, adopted the formula of George Sand that I had brought to light, and came to this conclusion : that if the Administration adopts vertical writing for young children, the principal cause of nearsightedness will have disappeared.
     The following is the text of the report: "The Commission think that great progress will be made by exacting, according to Mme. G. Sand's formula, vertical writing on straight paper, the body erect. Thus both scoliosis and myopia will be avoided together."

   This "formula" for success, along with perfect eyesight, is only one of many that fail to encourage writing in any form.
     No wonder so many of us grow up as writers who avoid the act of writing. (By the way, this Library of Congress book is entertaining, even though it's  not meant to be.)

The Process: Day 1 on Knowing Yourself

This blog so far has concentrated on the many ways we are discouraged or encouraged to write.

Today, we will begin looking at the processes both mental and physical that help or hinder writing as a calling. 

The first, and most pressing mental process, for many writers is doubt. Like any art, writing starts in our emotions and the way we process what we see and what we believe about ourselves and the world around us. If you set arbitrary goals that feed guilt or write down deadlines that make you anxious rather than energized,  they only serve as constant reminders of supposed failure.

Write one word at a time, instead of setting deadlines. Make a sentence the triumph each day. If all else fails, write down your frustrations. Any and all writing is valid.

From Organic to the Process

This blog was inspired by one too many people saying that they had to pay their dues to be considered a writer. In practical terms, this maxim may be a career-affirming ideal.  In terms of inspiration, however, it's a deal breaker for many of us who have played by rules we did not make and cannot write into submission.

First, never accept another person's edicts on what form great writing takes. Almost a decade back, I told another writer that one of my books in process was "literature." That woman frowned and said, "You don't get to decide that. If it's literature, then the experts determine its validity."

She was wrong. The greatest writers in history have been those who wrote and still write without looking at the market, the critics and all the experts on audience needs. How many times have you found great writing in surprising places? For instance, my bookshelves are filled with fiction and nonfiction lyricism from authors as diverse as J.K. Rowling (the whole Harry Potter series), Hillary Jordan (Mudbound), Brian Greene (The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory), Linda Hogan (Solar Storms), many science fiction writers and Michio Kaku (Parallel Worlds).

Looking at these books reminds me that writing is an organic form of creative freedom we often take for granted or see as unreachable. Granted, some of the authors above are professors who must publish in their fields, but they didn't have to write books that are a pleasure to read.

If you are looking for inspiration, read some of your own writing to this point. Also, consider why you go back to the same authors over and over again on your own.

Up to this point, we have considered the roadblocks to finding your path as a writer. Now it's time to think about the writing process. Toward that goal, this blog will tackle 30 days of posts on how we approach writing and the many forms it can take.

Writing by the Numbers

http://www.teachthechildrenwell.com/other.html

When you paint by the numbers, the manufacturer provides all the paint, an outline for the painting and brushes. In childhood, a gingerbread man like the one at right could delight us even if we painted outside the lines.

In writing, the same cannot be said for its childish pleasures. Unfortunately, for many of us, learning our native language is tedious. The learning curve involves scrolling line after line of the alphabet with a death grip around a large crayon or pencil.

Then we are tasked with taking spelling tests that, once again, do not tie pleasure to knowledge. In these cases, it either matters that we get a 100 on the test, or we could not care less and steadily move away from the language as a whole.

As adults, we need to take back the power and majesty of the words, phrases and sentences that were drilled out of us. Playing with words can help. Or maybe replacing some of the numbers in these paint-by-number schemes with the words that speak colors, shapes or emotions can help us regain some of wonder that comes from writing outside the lines.