Summary

The article advocates for stepping away from writing to allow for subconscious processing, akin to letting bread dough prove, which can enhance creativity and problem-solving.

Abstract

The article emphasizes the importance of taking breaks during the writing process to allow the unconscious mind to work on the content. It suggests that writers should not strive for immediate perfection but instead write a rough draft, step away from it, and return later to find new insights and solutions. This approach is likened to the process of making bread, where the dough needs time to prove and expand before baking. The author assures that this method will not only help identify and fix issues in the writing but also make the writing process easier and more enjoyable. The article cites examples from the author's own experience with writing a book and from the routine of writer Roald Dahl to illustrate the effectiveness of this strategy. Additionally, it mentions the benefits of sleep in aiding the subconscious to solve problems, referencing the concept of the "overnight test" used in advertising.

Opinions

Writing without immediate re-writing allows the unconscious mind to contribute to the creative process.
The stress of writing often stems from the unrealistic expectation of first-time perfection.
Taking breaks and returning to writing with fresh eyes can significantly improve the quality of the work.
The unconscious mind continues to work on unresolved problems, aiding in the creative process even when not actively thinking about the task.
The article suggests a structured approach to writing: one hour of writing in the morning, followed by a break and a return to the task later in the day.
The author shares personal experience of writing a book, highlighting the effectiveness of stepping away from a problematic section and returning to it with new perspective.
The article references the story of "The Elves and the Shoemaker" to metaphorically describe the unexpected improvements that can occur in writing after taking a break.
Roald Dahl's writing routine is presented as an example of how taking breaks can lead to a more productive and satisfying writing session.
The concept of "the overnight test" is introduced as a method for allowing the subconscious to resolve creative issues during sleep.

Leave Your Writing And Let it Prove

The time you don’t spend writing is just as important as the time you do.

So you’ve sat down at the keyboard to write a blog. You know what you want to write about but you don’t know where to start.

The first thing is just to start. Write without worrying too much about about what it’s going to be like as a finished article. Just get your thoughts down on paper. Think of it as a first draft or a braindump.

Try to write until you really feel like you’re stuck and then stop.

Now what people would normally do, is go through it and re-write it. But this is the point at where you should stop.

Re-read what you’ve written and think about where you want it to go. What were hoping it was going to be and communicate. What’s wrong with it and what’s not working. Once you’ve considered all this step away from the keyboard and let your unconscious mind do its magic.

A good analogy would be making a loaf of bread. You’ve got all the ingredients and you’ve mixed them all together. You’ve put the effort into kneading it and now it’s time to let it prove. You cover it and leave it warm place and when you come back to it will have doubled in size and be ready to bake.

Leave your writing and let it prove.

The reason we get stressed when writing and feel blocked, is want it to be perfect first time and it never is.

If like making bread, you know part of the process is to leave it, you will be able to relax a bit more and enjoy the process.

Rather than allocating yourself two hours in the morning to write a blog, spend one hour in the morning and then leave it and come back to it at the end of the day and spend the second hour then.

I guarantee you really will be amazed at how you can not only see where the problems are, but also how you can fix them. And not only that, you’ll find it so much easier to write. Everything will just seem to slot into place.

The reason everything seems to make so much more sense when you come back to it, is your unconscious mind has been working on it while you’ve been doing other things.

Yes, you don’t even need to think about it during the day. Put it on the back burner and let your brain do its thing.

We are only conscious of 5% of what are brain does, so that leaves a lot of brain power to solve your blog problem without you being aware of it.

And our brains hate unsolved problems. They’ve got a lot on their plates. It just wants to tick things off and move on. So when you give it a half finished blog, it will be working on it, unawares to you, so it can move on the next thing on its to-do list.

This is the incubation part of the creative process. It might sound a bit strange, but once you have tried it and seen the results, you’ll do it every time.

When I was writing my book ‘Brainhack’, which is 45 different hacks on how to be more productive and creative, I used this approach. Not because I wanted to, but because I had to.

Each separate hack was about a 1,000 words long. In each one, I wanted to have the scientific back up for the hack as well as one or two examples of how it could or had been useful. Sometimes they slotted together but often I just couldn’t see a way to connect them.

In that case, I left that hack and started on the next one. I was a little concerned because I really couldn’t see how I could resolve the issue. But after leaving it for a day, I was really amazed to come back to it and see how all the elements could neatly slot together.

It made me think of that children’s story ‘The Elves And The Shoemaker’, where unbeknownst to a poor shoemaker, some elves come into his workshop at night and transform his last scrap of leather into a beautiful pair of shoes.

I was just couldn’t believe how something I couldn’t make sense of one day, would all seamlessly slot together the next.

Another example is from the writer, Roald Dahl. He wrote all his books in a shed at the bottom of his garden. He had a very set writing routine. He would write in his shed from 10.00 to 12.00 in the morning. Stop for lunch with his family from 12.00 to 2.00. Then he go back to his shed and work for another two hours from 2.00 to 4.00.

It sounds like a nice work day, doesn’t it. But in reality, he found the first two hours in the morning incredibly hard. The ideas and words just wouldn’t seem to come. He would go back for lunch tired and despondent.

But then in the afternoon the time would fly by as he found everything flowed and he was really happy with what he had written.

But that’s the thing about being creative, you’ve got to have that initial struggle with a problem to get those little elves in your unconscious mind to work on the problem.

Of course, as well as writing blogs this works for any form of problem solving.

And to supercharge this incubation process try sleeping on it. In my ‘Madmen’ days, when I worked in big advertising agencies, my partner and I would often get to the end of the day and not know which idea we had come up with to present the next day.

We’d give it what we called ‘the overnight test’ and the answer was always obvious in the morning.

As Alexander Graham Bell said, “Have you not noticed that, often, what was dark and perplexing to you the night before, is found to be perfectly solved the next morning?”

So as well as working on your writing, make sure you don’t work on it.