Chapter 5

Jumpstart Your Writing Brain

Practice the Art of Brainstorming

“Writers don’t need tricks or gimmicks or even necessarily need to be the smartest fellow on the block. At the risk of appearing foolish, a writer sometimes needs to be able to just stand and gape at this or that thing—a sunset or an old shoe—in absolute and simple amazement.”

—Geoffrey Wolff

As we discussed in previous chapters, your brain is capable of many things. Many of these things you likely take for granted because they happen at an unconscious level or because they’ve become so ingrained in how you function that you’ve lost awareness of what it took to get to this phase and any effort you have invested. Still, your brain is very active behind the scenes, and in terms of preparing to write, one of its most important capabilities is cognitive processing.

Summoning Your Brain’s Ingenuity

The brain is not only designed to think, it loves to think—and there are specific ways you can summon and maximize your brain’s ingenuity. Let’s begin by clarifying the various abilities and functions the brain performs, and how each will serve your writing.

Perception

Your brain recognizes and interprets sensory stimuli (what you taste, touch, smell, feel, hear, see, intuit, and so on). Just think of how much “raw material” this function contributes! The more your magnificent brain perceives at a minute level, the better you’ll be able to write fabulous scenes. Luckily you can both train your brain to be even more perceptive and you can enlarge your hippocampus, where all those lovely memories are processed, just waiting for you to call them up when needed.

Attention

Your brain has the ability to sustain concentration on a particular object, action, or thought. It also has the ability to manage competing demands in your environment. The more you train your brain to focus, and to sustain said focus, the stronger these skills will become. Remember to limit distractions when sharp focus is required—and to tackle one task at a time. Truly dedicate yourself—and all the brainpower you possess—to the task at hand, such as plotting your novel, and your brain will take your quest seriously and “serve up” gems.

Short- and Long-Term Memory

Your brain is capable of juggling short-term/working memory with limited storage (it helps you juggle ideas and information while working—but usually only about seven pieces of information at once), and long-term memory with unlimited storage (that you can call upon when writing scenes and characterizations culled from your own experiences, from stories you’ve read in the past, or from your imagination). Obviously we have to call on our memory in every level of writing; it’s crucial to our ability to craft stories, empathize with characters, and re-create events to illustrate emotional truths. Memories don’t become long-term unless you purposefully assign them importance or generate enough sustained neuronal involvement for the hippocampus to know these are memories you wish to store. Writing or speaking about memories helps your brain assign them meaning.

Motor Skills

Your brain coordinates the ability to move your muscles and body, and to handle objects. It’s the smooth coordination of motor skills that leads to facile typing. Motor skills are also imperative for walking and exercising—essential to keeping oxygen and blood flowing to your brain. I’m so glad I learned to type while in high school, and if you’re a “hunt and peck” typist, it may behoove you to bolster your typing skills. I am known, within my writing circle, for saying that whatever “genius” I have for writing flows from my fingertips, because when thoughts are flowing, my ego leaves the room, and my fingers fly over the keyboard (seemingly with little interference from my brain). It’s when I do my best writing.

Language Skills

Your brain’s facility for language allows you to translate sounds into words and generate verbal output. With writers, these functions may be—or will become—more highly developed than people who don’t write on a regular basis. Reading and playing word games are fun ways to bolster these skills. To bolster your brainpower, don’t take your verbal skills for granted. Find ways to challenge your brain—read and analyze works that require massive concentration or engage in wordplay that requires you to think creatively. However, be aware that skills might not transfer—building a better vocabulary won’t help you use those words appropriately unless you train your grammar centers, too! By the way, it can be beneficial to your writing to review grammar principles occasionally. Books about grammar often hold many useful suggestions, such as limiting adverbs and adjectives, and writing in active rather than passive voice.

Visual and Spatial Processing

Your brain has the ability to process incoming visual stimuli and to recognize the spatial relationship between objects. This ability also includes visualizing or imagining images and scenarios, which is crucial to being able to craft stories. This internal “GPS” helps you remember what certain settings looked like and how people moved within the scene. This also has some effect on how you combine words, though most of that will happen on an unconscious plane.

Executive Functioning

Your brain is capable of high-level cognitive processing, commonly called “executive functioning,” as it involves the “thinking” functions that allow you to accomplish goal-oriented behavior, such as the ability to generate and recognize ideas, organize your thoughts in terms of all the elements of storytelling (plot, characters, setting, theme, tone, scene creation, etc.), create a game plan for completion, and do what it takes to reach your chosen goal. Without these functions, you’d never be able to write anything cohesive, much less a novel. The specific abilities involved in executive processing include the following:

• Flex­i­bil­ity: the capac­ity for quickly switch­ing to the appro­pri­ate men­tal mode; from resting to “flight or flight” would be the most dramatic representation.
• Theory of mind: the ability to possess insight into other people’s inner world, their thoughts, their likes and dislikes, their behavior. It also allows for introspection. It is the part of our brain that allows us to think about our self: our mind separate from our brain.
• Anticipation: the ability to make predictions based on pattern recognition, what’s worked or hasn’t worked in the past, in specific or familiar situations. Anticipating pleasure has been shown to be a reward in itself (more on this later).
• Problem solving: the ability to define the problem in a way that allows us to gen­erate solutions and (often spontaneously and instantaneously) choose the right solution for the problem. Obviously this task is crucial to the process of writing, when you are constantly solving minor—and major—problems related to crafting the story.
• Decision-making: the ability to make decisions based on problem solving, even when dealing with incomplete information and emotions (ours and those of others).
• Working Memory: the capacity to hold and manipulate information in our mind, in real time, which is essential to the ability to write stories. It allows you to hold thoughts about what you’ve just written, while mining your long-term memory for more input related to what you’re writing. This happens both unconsciously and consciously.
• Emotional self-regulation: the ability to identify and manage one’s own emo­tions for optimum performance. This is a very important function, as it helps you set aside distracting emotions long enough to stay focused on your goal—and writing.
• Sequencing: the ability to break down complex actions into manageable units and prioritize them in an effective manner. Much of this is done unconsciously, but you can choose to do it consciously simply by mimicking how your brain sequences when making a plan about how you’re going to execute a task (such as writing a novel or screenplay, or even crafting a scene). Just break down the steps and proceed to address each task in a sequential manner.
• Inhibition: the ability to withstand distraction and internal urges. Learning to consciously use this skill improves the ability to meet goals. This, of course, has everything to do with your ability to concentrate, and it’s a “muscle” you can develop over time.

We should also add the ability to be original to this list, as your brain has the ability to make surprising associations, perhaps better known as those “aha moments,” when all the thought—research, conjecture, supposition, theorizing, imagining—you’ve been putting into something seems to suddenly coalesce and a brilliant solution appears, as if by magic. We’ve all had those moments, which typically come after a long period of struggle and frustration, and often after you’ve taken a break, to mow your lawn, garden, do the laundry, or wash your car. Halfway through the physical task, while your lovely mind has been blissfully freed from your attempts to steer it in certain directions, a synaptic event occurs (like a lightning strike in your brain, and it really is similar) and the ideal solution emerges. When it happens, it feels like pure writing nirvana, and rather than being elusive, it can be facilitated, which you’ll learn and relearn as you progress through this book.

One of the best ways to engage your brain is to call it forth and give it a starring role before you buckle down to write—but it’s also good to give it break when necessary, so those lightning strikes can happen.

Clarify Your Intentions

One of the best things you can do to get your brain on board is to figure out what you want to write and why you want to write it. Without clear ideas about these two questions, your brain remains unfocused and unfiltered, which will make it hard to narrow your choices. Instead of knowing what you want it to concentrate on, your brain will sally along perceiving the world around you without knowing what’s most important—beyond life or death issues. Basically your brain can be easily distracted and susceptible to focusing on the wrong things.

It’s up to you to guide your brain where you want it to go. It’s always striving to discern what you want or need, and one way it does this is to “notice” what it’s being asked to do on a regular basis. Your brain creates a strong neuronal web for the needs it is asked to fulfill—it focuses on what you direct its attention to, what you direct it to do.

Imagine how hard it would be to go against your desires, to use your writing genius to support something you didn’t believe in. You’d encounter substantial resistance and dread every moment spent preparing or struggling to write. Now think about how much easier it will be to write about something that really matters to you, to express something that has been eating away at you all your life, to say something that you know will uplift and inspire others. Having a sense of purpose in alignment with your values gives you a raison d étre (a reason for being) and feeds the creative fire. It doesn’t have to be noble, but once you delve into the real reasons why you want to write about a certain topic, it clarifies the mission for your brain and facilitates the writing process.

Choose a Topic That Excites You

As we’ve discussed, 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.

Brainstorm Ideas: Give Your Brain Free Rein

We’ve all heard about brainstorming, and we’ve likely all used it, typically when writing essays and reports in school. You likely had a teacher who showed you how to write down the central idea and then create balloons as offshoots to brainstorm ideas for flushing out, illustrating, or refuting the central idea. It may also spark creativity if you incorporate color and use curved or artistic lines from the primary balloon to the offshoots. Using pictures you found in magazines or that you sketch yourself may also spur ideas. This sort of mind mapping exercise (you can find lots of images online) may feel cliché, but, in fact, it remains effective.

But it’s also true that a brainstorm is what we’ve already been discussing—it occurs when massive amounts of stimulation (you providing input) produce a tightly woven web of neurons that can be ignited to make writing go well. One way to create a brainstorm and fire up your writing brain is to sit down with pen and paper and start generating as many ideas as you think of related to the story you want to tell.

Gather Your Brainstorming Tools

Now that you’ve focused your mind and your brain on what you’re going to write and about—and why you are eager to make a massive brain investment in completing the work—it’s ripe for the sort of brainstorming that results in plot, characters, theme, structure, setting, and whatever else you need to contemplate to get this story on paper. There are a number of software programs you could use to facilitate this process (and plenty of writers like them), but there’s scientific evidence that the old-fashioned way—writing with pen and paper—taps into slow thinking, which is beneficial at this stage.

Spiral sketchbooks with big, white, blank pages—with texture and space—can be very appealing to your senses and can leave your brain feeling like it has plenty of space to roam; that is, it can fill those spaces with brilliant ideas. Some, like me, prefer blue ink pens with a fine-tip point that lets the words flow across those big, white, blank spaces. Many writers have always loved pen and paper and probably still enjoy spending time in stationary stores (lucky you, if there’s still one near you) selecting paper and pens.

Create the Time and Space for Brainstorming

Once you’re ready to fire up your brain, begin wherever you have the most heat, the element that has been driving you to write this particular story, that keeps it in the forefront of your mind, whether it’s a compelling situation, a particularly fascinating character, a dramatic and overarching theme, or the climactic and memorable ending. Give yourself at least a two-hour block of uninterrupted time to do nothing more than focus on the expansion of your primary idea. To write a novel, you need an idea that will keep your brain engaged and that can sustain the kind of depth that makes novels and longer works of art necessary, but these ideas often start small and expand as the writer works her magic.

Break It Down and Be Specific

Write down the inciting thought (what attracted your brain to this particular character, situation, or story) and then branch off from there, jotting down any ideas that arise. Don’t overthink, just let the thoughts flow, and write down anything that pops in. I suggest starting with the big picture items, such as the basic premise, theme, main characters (and their relationship to each other), and the genre, and giving each one a full page for an expansion of ideas. Big picture elements to break down include the following:

• Basic Premise: What is the story about? What happens? What does it prove, or at least illustrate? Why is telling it important? What’s unique about your angle?
• Theme: Once you have clarified your premise, brainstorm related ideas, extensions, and contradictions. What is the primary message you want to convey in writing this particular story? Which elements (the setting, point of view, the antagonist, the plot and subplot, etc.) will elucidate, amplify, or contradict the theme? What offshoots or subplots are possible?
• Style/Genre/Tone: Will it be a comedy or a tragedy? Will it be a young adult novel or a high concept thriller? Will it take place in contemporary times or be historical? Will it be told in first person or third person, subjective, with multiple points-of-view, or only one? No need to narrow it down, but do think about it as your brain may serve up a lovely surprise when you do. This is when you might also decide that your novel or prose poem might work better as a screenplay.
• Protagonist/Main Character/Hero: Who will be the primary character, the one who propels the story forward? Create a list of this person’s characteristics relevant to what happens in the story. What will serve your protagonist, and what will hamper or sabotage his progression? What is his primary dilemma? What will make the hero unique and unforgettable?
• Antagonist/Supporting Character/Villain: Who will thwart your hero’s efforts at every turn? Create a list of the villain’s characteristics relevant to the story. What will make this person the perfect foil for your hero? Note: Sometimes the antagonist is the protagonist’s own personality or character failings, such as his inner conflict, a drug addiction, or cowardice.
• The Ending: What happens as a result of what your protagonist does to overcome his challenges? Knowing how your story ends will not only provide lots of ideas and color everything that happens within the story, it will provide the impetus to write.

At this point, keep asking yourself what the story is about and what needs to happen. Concentrate on the broader aspects, but write down any subplots, characters, or scene ideas that occur—and they will. Avoid falling too deeply into one aspect, as doing so may deflect you from creating the broader strokes. When the session feels complete, tuck all the pages away and think about something else. Do, however, thank your brain for being brilliant—and reward it with a glass of wine, a hot bath, or a piece of chocolate perfection.

Brainstorm the Width and Breadth of Your Novel, Memoir, Screenplay, Etc.

For this round of brainstorming, delve a little deeper into your topic/theme/concept. This is when you begin to figure out who else will be in the story, what will happen, and the sequence (this will happen, causing this to happen) and flush out the character’s arc (where the character is when the story begins, where he is in the middle, and where he is in the end—and what changes as a result of his actions).

Even if you don’t have full confidence in what you’ve created thus far, release expectations, suppress negative thoughts, and surrender yourself to the process. Thanks to brainstorming, your brain is beginning to make vital neuronal connections, which will spark ideas. Again, this is not the time to reject ideas. Write down whatever occurs to you and welcome surprising thoughts. It’s not uncommon to experience the genius your brain possesses. When you feel spent, stop, but be sure to thank (and reward) your lovely brain for delivering up a bounty of ideas for you to ponder further. In the meantime, here’s your brainstorming task:

• Revisit your “big picture” elements (as above) and make any revisions or extensions.
• Protagonist: Add to your list of qualities (if needed) and start to think about where the hero will be in the beginning, the middle, and the end. Jot down ideas for what will happen to create her progression or regression. Detail a character arc—challenges that build in strength and often thwart your protagonist, that require proactive behavior to conquer, and that may forever alter your character. Think progression and escalation of action and challenges.
• Antagonist: Add more to your original notes. How does this person specifically challenge your hero? What is it about this particular character that impedes your main character? What will be the antagonist’s character arc?
• Supporting Roles: Characters who will add subtext, illustrate themes, create tension, or provide comic relief. Consider their personality traits and anything relevant to the story. Remember, characters have to have a reason to exist.
• Primary Plot Points: Write down ideas that would propel the story forward or send it reeling backwards—obstacles/complications/setbacks. Consider how these complications and strategies or solutions to overcome them fit within the theme, but don’t censor anything. Remember that conflict, whether inner or outer, is what gives a story its lifeblood.
• Subplots: These are extensions of, or counteractions with, the theme. What’s happening beneath the surface that has a trajectory of its own? One of the supporting characters may have a storyline that complements or disputes the theme.
• Setting: Where will it take place, what’s significant about the setting (how does it relate to character, theme, plot)? Write down the basic elements: time period, location, weather, occupations, economic status, tone, and so on. Create rudimentary descriptions or list descriptive words.

Once this level of brainstorming is complete, you will have a growing mound of notes to help your writing brain focus on what you hope to achieve. Even while you’re sleeping, your brain will be processing all the new information, linking it to what you created earlier and to whatever else is in your storage bin, as a result of your prepping efforts—or what you’ve encountered in life.

Use Brainstorming to Narrow Down Specifics

The third round of brainstorming will focus on specifics. Begin by reviewing all your notes from the previous two sessions and making any changes or expansions that come to mind. Once you’re ready, create a page for each major plot point, and be ready to jot down ideas about the essence of what happens and what will change. You may even be ready to create scene pages, describing who is in them and what happens that moves the plot forward. Note that the numbers of pages specified for each section (beginning, middle, and end) are an approximation for novels or memoirs.

• Major Plot Points: Create a list of major plot points that might occur (that you can think of without overstressing). Lots of little things need to happen in a book, but this list is about the occurrences that change things or at least propel the story forward (or backward). Remember that everything that happens should be causal and essential. Unless you’re writing magical realism, fantasy, or science fiction, coincidence and magical happenings should be avoided. The goal is to put your main character in a situation and then fill his or her path to success with roadblocks that he or she must overcome by taking heroic action (or being an antihero and failing to take action or taking destructive action).
• Beginning/First Fifty Pages: This is where you start to brainstorm scenes and where they belong in the story (ideally, action scenes and quieter scenes will be interspersed to maximize pacing). In the opening pages, you need an inciting incident (what happens that forces the main character to act and thereby sets the story in motion) and scenes to follow that will establish character, situation, and story, without bogging down the action (i.e., limit backstory to only what’s absolutely essential). Keep in mind that scenes must be dramatic enough to sustain interest and that nothing that isn’t necessary should be there—no fluff, just plenty of action that reveals character and situational challenges.
• Middle/Next Two Hundred Pages: There's no way to make this part easy, so bring your brain to the table and use it to concoct situations that propel the plot, create tension, create complex obstacles, sustain suspense, force your character to act, and reveal growth. Big things need to happen multiple times, and they cannot be contrived but must arise out of a series of situations that escalate as a result of what your characters do—or don’t do. Spend as much time as comfortable jotting down as many ideas as possible—and think causal; that is, this happens because that happened and then this happens, which causes this to happen, and so on.
• Ending/Last Fifty Pages: These scenes will lead up to the dramatic climax and a satisfying denouement. (Although we seem to prefer happy endings, a satisfying denouement or resolution does not imply “happy.” It implies “appropriate for this particular story.”) All that happened earlier should lead to a moment when everything is on the line and your protagonist is going to win or lose—dependent upon what he or she does. You need a dramatic, climatic scene that shows the moment it happens (climax), and then you need a few scenes that show what results or comes next (denouement). Keep in mind that all essential plot and subplot elements need to be resolved and that the ending should be as compelling and finely crafted as the beginning.

By now, your story should be taking shape, and if it’s not, go back to the first level of brainstorming and keep those ideas flowing. Remember, you’re not rejecting or committing to anything. The whole point is to engage your writing brain in the process so that neurons connected to formulating a story will start firing and wiring together. You’re creating a strong neuronal network that you’ll soon call to duty when the real writing begins.

Writers on Craft

“Only in men's imagination does every truth find an effective and undeniable existence. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.”

—Joseph Conrad

“The deep self, your true self has to come out. Try word association. Go to the typewriter and type in any old thing that comes into your head. By the bottom of the page, some character will take over and begin to write, and you’ll be writing with excitement and passion and all the things in your past that you haven’t touched yet.”

—Ray Bradbury

“The mind can proceed only so far upon what it knows and can prove. There comes a point where the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge, but can never prove how it got there. All great discoveries have involved such a leap.”

—Albert Einstein