Does writing make you think more clearly?

[this is fun]

I didn't know where else to post this...
Anyway...

A friend of mine is getting her book published and this got me thinking about writing and how writing affects/uncovers your thoughts/beliefs. I've always admired people who have a way with words. She is one of them When I read her stories, I completely believe the world she has created (and I know that for you to read any type of fiction you need the so called ''willing suspension of disbelief'')
Anyway, back to people who have a way with words. I'm not like that Even in high school when we had to write an essay on a certain topic I was always to the point, I would say what I had to say in one short paragraph(not like this post ) and then I was nervous because others kept writing and writing, and then I felt I had to write some more (mostly gibberish at that point)..and that would eventually ruin something that was possible acceptable at the beginning.

And then I thought about writing on this and other forums. I really enjoy reading some people, the way they express their views and opinions. I've always wondered whether that comes naturally to them, pouring words onto the screen or they also stop to think and see what and how they're going to write?When you write or reply to someone do you first 'organize' your thoughts in your head? Do you try to structure your answer? If you do, does that help you to strengthen your belief/opinion? In that process do you explain to yourself as well (maybe not so obviously) why you think or believe certain things?

If you feel you know a lot about a certain subject is it easier for you to write an answer without thinking about how you should go about it?

If you are not so familiar with certain topic, you haven't really given it so much thought and you believe you have a certain position about it, but when you start writing your reply, you start thinking about different angles you've never considered before? And then you're not sure about it anymore?

If you are good at expressing your opinion in writing, does it come easily to you to do so when speaking? And vice versa? I've noticed I am much better at speaking, face to face. However, I find that writing/replying makes me think more about an issue, I take much more things into consideration. I know it's because you have more time to stop and think, not react immediately...but nevertheless....

Maybe people who keep journals are aware of this processes, and obviously I'm not one of them , I have never kept a journal.


As I'm writing this many other questions come to my mind, but I'll stop know!

And yes, as I was about to write this post, I had to think first how I'm going to write it, there were so many thoughts and questions and I had to structure them in my head first.
I'm not saying I structured them well,mind you Hope you get the gist of it.

[Daffy Duck]

Yes, writing down my thoughts is a good way to explore them further and organize them. I have kept a journal at various times in my life and it has been very helpful.

[brendannz]

I find journals are a great way for figuring emotions out, etc. If you're having some kind of problems with your way of thinking, then a journal can be an excellent way of putting things into perspective.

If you're not that sort of person though, that's not overly emotional, then you may find a journal still good for setting goals and making plans for the day, for the week, or month, maybe..

[lasti]

For me it's great to organize topics in my head. If I have once gone through the organization it's also easier to speak about it.

But I wouldn't say it's helping me with speaking in general. I've written hundred thousands of words but most of the time I'm a poor speaker. It's cause I don't speak so much.

[jaamkie]

Personally, email debates with a friend have refined and sometimes changed my views as I reread my writing, finding and correcting weaknesses in the arguments before sending them back to the friend.

I think learning is always a choice and takes some mental effort- no one can force you to internalize a concept or belief even if they have complete control over your life. So the process of writing a thoughtful argument can help change beliefs because you have internalized both sides of the debate, so can accept either possible conclusion as your own.

On the other hand, maybe I'm just abnormal, or else deluded to think that writing causes self-examination. I like to think that my more strongly-held beliefs come from reading multiple books and articles on a topic and then synthesizing an opinion in writing to others. I like to think my beliefs don't come from advertisements like the "head-on" commercials or political signs displaying nothing but the candidate's name. And yet... I've also read studies showing that these simplistic ads work to change opinions, and I don't have a good reason to believe that I'm a special individual to whom statistics don't apply.

I also don't necessarily think that writing helps speaking or vice-versa, because speaking in normal conversation is fast-paced and contains less information, so requires good memory and quick recollection of previously considered arguments, while thoughtful writing requires more wide-ranging associative memory and use of logic to pull together diverse data into a novel argument.

[Eric Roosevelt]

Mind-mapping works well for me when I've got a lot of things on my mind. Reading generally helps me think clearly to a greater extent than writing.

[this is fun]

Thank you for the replies.
I see many have kept journals at some point. I'm thinking about trying that, I've never done it. Maybe I could make 30-day trial with it.

@Daffy Duck, you say you've kept journals. Did you write about something until you reached a solution/had an 'aha' moment and then just let it go? Or did you re-read it after some time and then everything fell into place?

@brendannz, the same question as the one for Daffy Duck. As far as setting goals, weekly and monthly plans goes, yes, I write them down too.

@lasti, it's basically what jaamkie said about the difference between speaking and writing. You say don't speak much, is it because you don't feel the need to go into details about something or you feel nervous talking in front of more people? Because a friend of mine, who also doesn't speak much, says that he just doesn't feel the need to explain things all the time.

@jaamkie, yes, this is what I was getting at, the thing where you speak about email debates, you have to refine and sort of 'build' your arguments.

@Eric Roosevelt, I used mind-mapping only when I had to study for some exams. It was very useful. If I understood you correctly you used it for other types of 'problems'? How did that go, you would write down all your possible solutions or?

[CoolBee]

Interesting topic - I started a writing challenge last week: to commit a substantial quantity of words (not random ones ) in various literary forms to paper by the end of the year. I have produced 30000 words in the last 8 days mostly in 1000 - 2500 word chunks.

I have often found it helpful at various stages in the past few years to use Julia Cameron's "morning pages" exercise from her Artists Way The Basic Tools - so that constitutes around 1000-2000 words a day, I'm using the "journal jar" concept to give me random topics to write about, and am hoping to write a book as part of it.

My head is usually swimming with hundreds of ideas, and my computer is laden with unread "free reports", newsletters and the like on a multitude of subjects, so writing really helps me clarify my thoughts - pin them down - and writing key points on the various reports etc is helping me figure out what value there is (if any) in them.

[Daffy Duck]

Originally Posted by this is fun

@Daffy Duck, you say you've kept journals. Did you write about something until you reached a solution/had an 'aha' moment and then just let it go? Or did you re-read it after some time and then everything fell into place?

Both. I also kept journals just to write down memories and experiences... not always to figure something out.

[this is fun]

Great, thanks. I think I'll give it a try then.

[this is fun]

Originally Posted by CoolBee

I started a writing challenge last week

Good luck with your challenge!

Originally Posted by CoolBee

use Julia Cameron's "morning pages" exercise from her Artists Way The Basic Tools

Thanks for the link, it looks interesting.

[CoolBee]

Talk about synchronicity - I got sent an email today talking about clinical research by one James Pennebaker on how writing can raise immunity levels and improve all round well-being:

Open Up! Writing About Trauma Reduces Stress, Aids Immunity

Here, you can look in part of his book:

Opening up: the healing power of ... - Google Books

[this is fun]

Thanks for the links. After all this I'm sure I'll do a 30 day trial with some form of writing. Especially since a friend of mine would also like to improve her writing skills, so we'll have little debates via emails. After a month we'll revise our progress and conclusions.

[CoolBee]

I'm not regretting my challenge in the slightest - I'm up to over 40000 words now (that's half a typical novel!) in 8 days of writing - today I got a random topic assigned from the journal jar about an aspect of "high school life" which didn't thrill or inspire me at all (or so I thought!).

Some 1.5 hours of pounding at the keyboard later, and some 3000 words in, I was struck by some of the things that had revealed themselves to me - some of the hurts and 'life's lessons learned young' that came rolling out, that are affecting me now, some 30 years later where the rational, grown up me would probably have reasoned around who said what and why, teenage me didn't.

This challenge feels like its opened a floodgate for me, like every little bit of me wants to find its way out. I guess for the first time in my life I have the space, time and energy for something like this, and I think its a crucial part of my personal development. If you had asked me even a month ago if I would do something like this challenge, I would have said you have got to be kidding.

[Bradshaw]

Speedwriting is a lot of fun too. Try writing a 80000 word novel in five days. Fun!

Whenever you get stuck somewhere, you can just write: "Suddenly, a group of flying monkeys appeared out of nowhere."

Great plot twist. Great story. Never fails! Ever! You have to keep writing anyway if you want to make it to the 80000 word mark in five days.

--

Writing equals organizing your thoughts. Journals are very useful for many things in life. It's like they say: The best way to learn something is to write a book about it.

[loic]

If I had only one reason to keep blogging it would be this.

Ideas that appeared very clear to me, weren't that clear when put on paper.

Writing just needs you to think one step further, so that what you understand yourself can be understood by other.

A pretty darn good exercise.

[StuartPE]

Writing fiction makes you very analytical of situations, and more open to what-if scenarios. Also it feels rewarding to create something from nothing, this is highly motivating and enjoyable.

[CoolBee]

Originally Posted by StuartPE

Writing fiction makes you very analytical of situations, and more open to what-if scenarios. Also it feels rewarding to create something from nothing, this is highly motivating and enjoyable.

Absolutely.

As part of my writing challenge, I'm intending to write a novel. I have been reading around how to structure - I tend to write 'narrative' and was interested in how to write a more action / challenge / conflict - orientated scene and came across "motivaton reaction units".

Advanced Fiction Writing Blog » Blog Archive » MRUs Lesson 1

(Apparently the idea is from a guy called Dwight Swaine)

I decided to practise using them in a situation with which I was familiar, by writing out a vicious argument I witnessed last year. The act of writing the 'reaction' phases (feeling - reflex - rational) actually helped me to understand big time why my "point of view" character (with whom I had a great deal of sympathy) suffers from IBS (after I read the scene back to myself I was astonished about how all the 'feeling' reactions for this guy were in his stomach and gut - I hadn't consciously planned it that way!) and also some of his feelings toward someone else (not the person he was arguing with!).

My next, and more challenging, take on this, will be to write exactly the same scenario but with the "point of view" character being the person who to my mind was entirely in the wrong! I'm actually putting off doing it because I absolutely don't want to feel any empathy for her and the act of writing this post has made me realise that!

[StuartPE]

I strongly recommend the book "Immediate Fiction".

[CoolBee]

Link looks interesting, I'll check it out.

Meanwhile, I am happy to report that I have just in the last ten minutes reached 100000 words - so that's the equivalent of a chunky novel in under 4 weeks.

(That doesn't include any posts made on this or any other forum even though I appear to have verbal diarrhea at the moment )

[this is fun]

Originally Posted by CoolBee

Meanwhile, I am happy to report that I have just in the last ten minutes reached 100000 words - so that's the equivalent of a chunky novel in under 4 weeks.

Congratulations!

In the past few days I've been thinking about trying this challenge as well, I'm not sure yet what I'll do, write for 30 minutes every day, write 3 pages, random topics or stick to one topic...but I'm sure it'll be fun

[rak]

Writing is a tool for aligning your soul

[Lamusa]

@this is fun

Write without thinking, give your conscious mind a rest. If it critiques what you are writing, tell it kindly to go back to sleep and you'll deal with it later. Write without stopping. Time yourself. Start with two minutes, work up to 10 and more if you'd like. If you stick with writing, without any concern for grammar and punctuation things will open up for you, characters will emerge, settings and so on. Buy a journal and start that 30 day trial today.

[this is fun]

Originally Posted by Lamusa

@this is fun
Buy a journal and start that 30 day trial today.

That's my plan It'll be my 30 day trial next month.