Much is made of the difference between plotters and pantsers – the writers who create from an outline and those who jump in and wing it – but there’s another two-sided writerly coin that we don’t hear much about. There’s not a cutesy term for them yet, but let’s call them idea machines and revisionists: the writers who love the first bursts of creation but find editing and revisions a chore vs. the writers who struggle to get a first draft on paper, but are happy to redline a manuscript.
Writers often believe they are one or the other – a brainstormer or an editor – but in a post on Jane Friedman’s blog, Jessica Conoley says you can be both. “Your brain isn’t hardwired, it’s fancy and neuroplastic,” Conoley says. “Therefore, you can improve the weaker side of your writing practice by consciously adjusting the setting on your analyzer.”
Conoley recommends an easy method to trick your brain into switching modes. Visualize a sound board or another type of instruments that adjusts input and output levels. When you’re brainstorming, reduce the levels controlling your inner critic and your habit of re-reading what you just wrote. When you’re editing, pump up the levels that control your analytical side and your attention span.
When this editor needs to revise or is working through a tricky scene, he turns up the level that controls problem solving and turns down the level controlling competitiveness, which is useful for pumping up his word count. We like creative visualization and use it in other areas besides writing.
