Do The Unfamiliar To Keep Your Writing Going

One of the best ways to blow someone's winning streak during a tennis game is to comment on how great they are doing. Your comment will kick in their left brain's inner critic which will zap their flow and change their focus. In tennis, this is an underhanded type of gamesmanship.

In life, it happens to each of us all the time. Even to writers.

In writing, the same thing occurs as soon as the right side of the brain, the right hemisphere, gets a break, the left side begins editorializing. Even if the left side compliments you on your progress or the time you committed, it still zaps the flow. Flow stops, hiccups, and the writing or idea doesn't get to the next step.

This is an event that affects us all in more than just writing.

There is not any particular timeframe when this occurs either. It may occur when you are writing something short, like an article, memo, or email. Or it might not occur until the chapter six of your book. This is why the freewriting exercise works so well. It allows your right brain to tell the left side to shut up for a particular amount of time.

There is actually only one way to get the writing flowing again. It is by doing something unfamiliar. When you are doing something unfamiliar the left side doesn't know how to logically respond. The left side then can't be its helpful self. Flow, intuition, and ideas naturally return with a renewed rhythm.

Whenever I am trying to describe something, my logic side kicks in and brings the next action to a halt. The self talk begins to say,