In the writing craft book, The Mindful Writer (which I hadn’t discovered before naming my Substack that!), the author, Dinty W. Moore, has a section entitled “The Writer’s Mind” and in it he says that writing is more difficult for writers than it is for others.
Do you think that’s true? Do let me know your thoughts in the comments.
After reading this, I sat and thought about whether I found writing hard. And my initial thought was that I don’t. Maybe that’s because I’ve been a working writer for most of my adult life — first as a magazine editor and in communications departments before going freelance and working as journalist, then writing stories and courses about writing stories, and editing and publishing other people’s fictional work.
But then I realised that I do often find actually sitting down to write fiction very hard to do. Over the past five years since my second novel came out in March 2019, there have been long periods of several months, several times, where I have written no new fiction at all. Or edited any. So maybe I do find it hard.
I don’t think it’s to do with the reasons that Dinty gives in this quote though. Although, of course, the doubt demons do pipe up and tell me there’s no point and I do get bogged down in specific words, and the order they appear on the page! But, for me, I think it’s more to do with headspace. I work with other people’s stories all the time for my main job and am always reading and editing, giving feedback, or writing and teaching workshops and courses about writing stories. All of which I love and feel very lucky to do. I write freelance articles for my second job. My mind is often wondering where we will live next when the current house sit ends, and I’m busy looking after other people’s properties and pets.
So do I really have a writer’s mind if I let it be filled with all these other things and don’t focus on my own writing all the time? Is there any such thing as a writer’s mind? I don’t have the answers but I do know that when I don’t write fiction for a long time, my brain starts to behave differently. It starts to write sentences and paragraphs of stories in my head when I’m sleeping. I wake up and they are running through my mind. And when I am writing, or editing, my own stories pretty regularly, this doesn’t happen.
What about you? Does your brain change when you’re not writing?
So knowing this about my own brain, I found the research1 that Martin Lotze of the University of Greifswald in Germany did into what happens to our brains when writing really interesting. He ran an experiment where he monitored what happens in the brain when someone is writing fiction. Using an fMRI machine he discovered that when given a writing prompt and told to brainstorm it, people with no experience of writing fiction activated a different part of the brain than experienced fiction writers do. Non writers used vision, so saw the story in their minds, while fiction writers used the speech area of the brain showing that they were writing the words of the story in their mind.
Maybe that’s because we think in words all the time. Maybe it’s because we do have a “Writer’s Mind”.
I don’t know. And I’m alright with that not knowing. I’ve come to realise that the mystery is a big part of what makes this human experience so mind-blowing.
With love
P.S. If you’d like to work with me in a small group to connect more deeply to your writing, applications are open for the June start of my Year of Mindful Writing programme.
It's interesting to think about, Amanda. I'm not sure if I agree either, although I do completely resonate with, "trying to constantly refine the words that make up the stories you want to tell."
Ummm...Yes, I think so. Even at nearly 92, I still sometimes wake early and mentally compose a line or two, change the direction of a statement, etc. Although I type and think slower...I still manage my weekly column in The Costa Blanca newspaper and the odd poem. My 10th book still awaits a publisher as I am not a technical person, and have a neglected Wordpress site (http://joylennick.wordpress.com) to be attended to again soon...) I am still curious and love words; it stops me from rusting! Cheers.