Writing, it's just brain science!

    

     We know that our brain develops rapidly during our development from conception until "adulthood". We have two hemispheres, and we know that one side is our creative side, and the other is the analytic side.  There are people we meet who we sometimes can immediately identify which side is working for them by their personality, the creative writer or the analytical book editor.
       We also have a new term of "neuroplasticity".  This means that we have the potential to continue to learn and adapt regardless of age. The key to plasticity is the introduction of a stimulus or event over and over again.  We use this in therapy for patient's who have suffered a hemispheric stroke to teach surviving brain cells the control lost by the damaged brain cells. We used to think that after two years the patient couldn't regain any additional motor control.  We know know that they developed "learned disuse" of the extremity.  Their brains learned that their arm was not useful and therefore eliminated the use of the arm with activities.  The old adage, "Use it or lose it" really is true.
     In therapy we also know that to gain proficiency you must push the patient beyond a threshold of comfort.  The brain needs to be challanged to make those synapses grow a new pathway. The path may be rocky and lumpy, but the arm won't work at all if that head to hand connection isn't made.
    
So what does this mean for the writer?
      I follow author blogs, and the most successful writers will tell you to write, and write and write some more. Write every day. The more you write, the easier it will become.  It doesn't matter that you think you are too old, you aren't!  Lee Child of the  Jack Reachers series is an example of someone who didn't publish a book until much later in his life.
     Most writers will tell you writing is a love/hate relationship.  This means that they are pushing themselves out of their comfort zone.  How else will their creative synapses spread into a new thought of what their character does next, or the situation they are put into develops?  An author can't improve their manuscript if they don't receive feedback of grammer or context.  The pain of edits can help to produce a much better story in the end.

Coming next:  Digital dementia