On Writer’s Block and Our Brain, The Saboteur

Photo by Tomas Tuma on Unsplash

Introduction

I’ve read numerous articles on writer’s block. I vowed never to write one because I believed the reasons for a block to be highly specific and personal. (Once again the universe laughs at Old Tedd. Here we are with a Writer’s Block article.)

I honestly didn’t think there was a way to provide sound advice to someone stuck in the mess. Maybe…

• A creative exercise would work…
• They need feedback or a writing group to get going…
• They need to journal out ideas…
• Freewriting would help…
• Exposure to more texts and inputs would generate ideas…

Essentially, I felt like writing an article about writer’s block was the equivalent of giving nasal spray to anyone with a runny nose. Like… It doesn’t work for everyone: some people may have allergies, some a cold, some may need to have their house checked for mold.

A Bit on Brain Science

That all changed when I started learning about the brain.

Netflix has an amazing docuseries with Vox called Explained which covers a wide variety of topics, including creativity. Additionally, I encountered several wonderful books on the topic. (I have a reading list at the end of the article.) From engaging with these, I started to understand that the reason I didn’t like articles on writer’s block was that few did an analysis of the underlying cause; they instead went straight to solutions.

What I’ve come to understand through reading, research, and experience is that the source of these blocks is our brain trying to keep us safe. Everyone has ideas. Our brains are wired to be thoughtful, insightful, and solve problems. Every day we experience thoughts, feelings, and emotions that would make excellent stories.

But certain parts of our brain want us to doubt this.

This study done on creativity analyzes rappers freestyling. What they found is that during the freestyle the dorsolateral cortex’s executive functioning drops. I know that is a complex bunch of words strewn together, so what is executive functioning? It is the part of our brain responsible for inhibitions, rule-management, and understanding social contexts. It’s the part of the brain that manages behavior. When the rappers were in their creative state, however, this part of the brain took a step back. Once they started being creative, their brain chilled out — other parts of the brain opened up and they were able to create fluid, unique verses.

Another example of how executive functioning shorts out creativity is how we respond to creative prompts. To take the example from the Netflix docuseries, if you were to be asked “Name something green”, your brain would be very uncreative. The topic is so vague, that your dorsolateral cortex would step up and manage the thoughts coming into your head. When your brain doesn’t know what to do, it defaults to the DLC because that’s the part of the brain responsible for safety — your brain literally says “Well, better be safe than sorry!” and allows the DLC to take charge. In the end, you’d end up with something safe, simple, and easy: leaf, bush, stoplight.

If, however, you make the prompt more specific, you start to activate more of the brain. The executive functioning has to get out of the way because the brain is relying on more of its network to source a response. “Name something green in your hometown.” Your brain is now activating pathways of memory about your hometown and, in the process, creating more possibilities.

All that is to say, when you’re in a creative flow, your executive functioning diminishes. Likewise, when a creative prompt is too broad, your brain relies on executive functioning because it seeks a general response rather than one which relies on other networks in the brain.

When we come to writer’s block then, we have to realize that what’s really happening is that our executive functioning is clogging everything else up. This part of the brain is in charge of keeping us safe and unnoticed. But creativity is the exact opposite of that. Its job is to smash together different ideas. It attempts things that are unsafe, weird, and outside the realm of the dorsolateral cortex’s safety net.

When executive functioning takes primacy it tries to put the kabosh on this weirdness. This often manifests in the stories we tell ourselves about our creative work:

• I have nothing to say. Everything has been said before.
• This idea is stupid. Who wants to read about tapdancing werewolves?
• I have writer’s block. I can’t write.
• Everything I write is dumb. Every word is trash. (This… is my internal monologue literally every day.)
• The next thing I write has to be great. If it’s not great, why write? It’s probably not going to be great, so I just won’t do it.

Writer’s block is actually our executive brain telling us to be safe and logical rather than wild and uninhibited. And we love that about our dorsolateral cortex! It does a great job!

But, we have to figure out ways to work around it. Its bureaucratic work really harshes the mellow of our creative juices.

Four Tips and Strategies

Below I’ve outlined some tips for dealing with this part of the brain — making peace with it, if you will, and ideas to get out of the deadlock of writer’s block.

1. Understand what your executive brain fears. As I said, writer’s block can come from a lot of sources, fears about what we write or how our creativity manifests. If you find yourself stuck and unable to write, take a minute and get real with your dorsolateral cortex. Write out the fears that are top of mind about your creative work. When I get stuck, it’s often because I am worried that what I write is not good enough. My definition is very vague, but I believe my writing is bad. All of it is bad. Sometimes it helps to re-read past passages and find something I like. Sometimes I may need to share it with someone and have them do an appreciative inquiry of the text. Other times, I just put the pedal to the metal and plow ahead. In any case, connecting with your fear and what your executive brain/ego is avoiding can help you make progress.
2. Play. Albert Einstein said, “Play is the highest form of research.” When you feel stuck, remove yourself from what you’re doing and find something that lets you be creative again. This goes back to the idea of the general prompt which limits our creative responses. We often get mired in a single project and forget that it’s supposed to be fun. Our brain is operating primarily with executive functioning rather than other neural pathways, so we need to open those back up. Read a book from a different genre. Put together a Lego set. Draw your dog. Go see live theater. Listen to some weird new music. By diversifying your inputs, your brain starts to activate in other ways and the executive functioning chills out.
3. Get Specific. Giving yourself razor-sharp writing prompts and exercises can help with this. For instance, if you’re stuck writing a novel and have nowhere to go, take a piece of your concept and flesh it out. Is it a mystery? Describe one of the characters in detail. Is it a fantasy story? Go to your world planning and describe one place on the map. If you’re REALLY stuck and have nothing to write about anything, give yourself a specific prompt to explore: “A memory about you and your best friend from the 10th grade”. This will activate your memory, thoughts of your friends from that time, and where you were emotionally. In just suggesting that prompt, I got a burst of emotional memory from my 10th-grade year, awaiting my driver’s license and driving down country roads with my best friend.
4. Chill. Often we think that our creative lives are vitally important. If our creativity is not flowing, then who are we?? Identity and creativity often conflate and we depend too much on self-expression to define who we are. But everyone is creative. Humans are wired for creativity and problem-solving. Just because you’re not writing a paragraph today, doesn’t mean anything. The world is full of ideas and wonders and experiences that will trigger your creative brain. Generating new ideas is literally what humans do best! So, next time you feel stuck, remember that it’s just your brain holding you back. To short out your executive function, you need to get out of your thinking rut. Find a stimulus that activates other parts of the brain and lean into it.

Conclusion

And here we are, the finale of Tedd’s foot-in-mouth article about writer’s block. But I earnestly hope it may give you a new perspective on what writer’s block is and how to deal with it. It’s not a personal fault, it’s our brain trying to keep us safe. The activities I posted at the beginning of this article can all serve as effective ways to circumvent your executive functions and get back to your creative work.

But first and foremost, take a breath and reflect on the fears that are causing your brain to restrict the flow. Then, of course, jump in and play. Your brain really loves to do that, too.

And to help a little with understanding creativity and the brain, below are a list of books and an article that I’ve found really wonderful:

• Out of Our Minds — Ken Robinson
• Creative Confidence — David and Tom Kelley
• The Creativity Curve — Allan Gannet
• The Creative Habit — Twyla Tharp
• Big Magic — Elizabeth Gilbert
• How to Come Up with Hundreds of Remarkable Article Ideas — Jonah Malin via BetterMarketing

Tedd Hawks is a writer, trainer, and teacher from Chicago. You can follow his Instagram and humor blog.