How Quantum Mechanics Can Help You Stop Overthinking and Continue Writing

Looking at the famous uncertainty principle from a writer’s point of view

I have a rational mind, or at least I used to think so for a very long time, even when it seemed to behave very irrationally at times.

This rational mind tries to understand and be sure about everything that I have to deal with.

Of course, it was and still is quite often utterly annoyed, confused, and scared when something unexpected happens, that is impossible to grasp. When an event seems to have thousands of reasons. OK, if not thousands, then at least a handful and not just one. Yes, my mind was and is often searching for one reason, one way, one exact definition. One choice.

Calling physics for help

But that is not possible. At least not over time. And this “over time” happens extremely fast. Moments occur in amounts of time much shorter than a second. How are we supposed to follow? How are we meant to know which choice to make or which direction to take?

During my time as a practicing physicist, and having dealt with physics on a very low scale (in other words, having worked with atoms, electrons, waves, and other fantastic matters), I learned about the uncertainty principle introduced by the German physicist Werner Heisenberg in 1927.

Here is one definition of the uncertainty principle:

“The Uncertainty principle is also called the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Werner Heisenberg stumbled on a secret of the universe: No thing has a definite position, a definite trajectory, or a definite momentum. Trying to pin a thing down to one definite position will make its momentum less well pinned down, and vice-versa.” — Simple English Wikipedia

In other words, when you try to identify one property of an electron, for example, you cannot precisely measure the other.

Wow! Can you see the relieving power of this principle?

Applying the uncertainty principle to a writer’s life

If we apply this to our lives in general and to work in particular — to our writing, for example — then this principle could be reworded as follows:

When we choose one storyline or particular plot (for instance, our protagonist marries, dies, or comes back as an angel after death; but only one of these at a time), we will never be able to know for certain how the other possibilities could have developed.

And we will never be able to know whether the other options are better or not. Even if we give up the initial plotline and choose another. Because by abandoning the first one, we stop “measuring it,” we stop keeping our hand on its pulse, and it stops existing.

Do you know why I believe this is true? Because we are made of atoms, electrons, particles, waves, and all the other fantastic matters of this world, so we follow those laws of physics as a whole just like the tiny bits of us do.

The uncertainty principle is your call for action.

Thus, let’s stop worrying about whether another storyline or another take on what we have to say would be better or not. We cannot say for sure because we simply can’t. Let’s just concentrate on the choice we made and go on with it.

And if we choose to abandon this present idea at some point, then let’s do it. It’s another choice to make, and we can only measure for sure what we have chosen, right here and right now. Nothing else.

This is a modified excerpt from Cheerleading for Writers: Discover How Truly Talented You Are.

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