Why Is It So Hard to Write? A Neuroscience Perspective
I’m a cognitive neuroscience researcher who also writes fiction. I recently wrote about an idea from neuroscience that I’ve found genuinely useful for understanding my own creative process: creativity may work better when we separate generating ideas from judging them.
The neuroscience is obviously more complicated than literally having a “creator” and an “editor” in the brain. But I’ve found that metaphor really helpful. Studies suggest that generating ideas and evaluating them can involve somewhat different patterns of brain activity. It makes me wonder whether part of what makes creative work so difficult is that we often ask the brain to do both at once. When I try to write and criticize what I’m writing at the same time I often get stuck.
I’m curious if people here have techniques that help with this. In the post I write about Zach Cregger’s “elfing” method for first drafts. He basically gives himself permission to write badly just to keep moving forward. I think it’s a great technique, and it fits surprisingly well with what some neuroscience studies suggest about separating idea generation from evaluation.
Sharing the post too in case anyone is curious to read more: