I recently attended a great workshop on remembering your creativity with author Sue Woolfe. She’s turned to neuroscience to understand how the creative mind works in order to optimise creativity after being somewhat stuck with her own writing process. Here are some gems I took away with me that have lifted a weight off my shoulders and made writing fun again.

1. Stillness

We used to believe that so-called creative people had ideas constantly flowing through their minds. A study done in the mid-seventies discovered that instead such people’s creativity dipped sharply before taking off exponentially. This is known as the lull. By decreasing brain activity or going into stillness, we allow the creative parts of our brains to activate. Begin your creative time by de-focusing and see what happens. Remember, we are all creative beings and problem solvers by necessity.

2. Writing is a two-part process

It’s not possible to write a perfect story in one hit. You need to do the creative—often called the vomit draft, first. Then you begin the editing process, fixing your story by bringing in structure and order to it etc.. As Sue said, you need to make the clay before you begin the sculpture. Here’s why…

3. You must turn your editor off

This is critical. For so long I would write a section of my story then edit it. Then I would edit the whole chapter and next the chapters before it. I was fearful that if I didn’t, I would end up going down dead-end paths. The problem was I became stuck in an endless editing loop and my stories’ progress was slow and stilted. Most critically, I was no longer having fun writing. Here’s the reason. Apparently when we edit we engage the frontal lobe. It carries out higher mental processes such as thinking, decision making, and planning. The problem is the frontal lobe isn’t connected at all to the creative part of our brains. This means that when we engage our editor we’re switching off our creative thought processes. So turn your editor off, go into the lull, trust yourself, and see what comes out. It may be half rubbish but it also might lead you somewhere exciting and new, adding depth and beauty. You can always go back and fix it later. Better an imperfect something on the page than a perfect nothing.

4. Conclusion

By observing Sue’s advice I’m enjoying writing again. When I look back over the previous day’s work (briefly and without editing, of course), I sometimes can’t remember what I’ve written and am pleasantly surprised. Characters are taking over, which deepens point of view and adds authenticity.

Give it a go. What have you got to lose?