Interlude: Invisible Thinking, Writing Motivation, and Private Struggles
I really enjoy getting replies to my newsletters. Last week, Stephanie N. shared something that struck me.
She said that the things you share in your writing are the only parts of your thought process that readers have access to.
What she said reminds me of the curse of knowledge—when we unknowingly and unintentionally assume our readers know what we know (or think what we think). And this curse can get in the way of authors fully capturing their thinking in their writing.
But I love how Stephanie reframes the idea. It's less about what you know, and more about what your reader can actually follow.
So this week, I encourage you to reread a paragraph of a draft you are working on, and ask yourself: What am I assuming my reader already knows here?
You might be surprised by how much invisible thinking you can bring to the surface—and how much stronger your writing becomes when you do.
Now onto this week's round-up...
Round-up
Featured
How music influences your daydreams
Last year, I had the honor of supporting a few remarkable researchers with their TEDxNewEngland (formerly TEDxCambridge) talks. In this talk, Elizabeth Margulis, a professor at Princeton University, draws on neuroscience and cross-cultural research to show how music "hacks" spontaneous thought by activating patterns of associations we've learned implicitly over a lifetime.
From My Desk
Stop Waiting for Writing Motivation—Do This Instead
When you need to write, motivation might feel impossible to access. But here’s what most people get wrong: you can’t find motivation, you have to activate it. In this video, I share three strategies to activate your motivation easier and faster when you don’t feel like writing.
Reading
Everyone else’s kitchen is tidier than mine – and writing is hard
"I saw the messiness of my own struggles to write, because I was there. I saw only completed drafts from my colleagues and mentors. Just as their baking messes happen only when I’m not in their kitchens, their writing struggles (and nearly all of them, I now understand, had them) happened in the privacy of their own offices."
Watching
Stop Saying This When You End a Meeting
Have you ever heard someone end a meeting by saying a version of "I'm going to give you your time back"? Although I think they intend to be generous, I've often found this statement a bit off-putting. In this reel, Brené Brown shares a great alternative to this statement that better captures the generous intent.
Quote
“Writing well has everything to do with being able to read one's own work with an eye toward the unmet possibilities that are there.” –Lucy Calkins
Thank you so much for reading.
Warmly,
Crystal
