8 How Do I Think While Writing?

Frank had come to an unexpected realization: he had never examined his thinking as he wrote. Frank had always been a productive writer. He had an active mind, one that he had learned he had better keep focused on writing, or his mental energy might turn unhappy and even dark. So, Frank knew something about his psychology and the relationship between his writing and his thoughts. Yet Frank had never explicitly thought of the perspective, persona, and psychological level from which he commonly wrote. Instead, Frank just let his mind go to work on the writing. What if, instead, Frank were to deliberately shift his thoughts to different frames as he wrote? Would his writing grow deeper, richer, and more varied? Frank was ready to try.

Thinking

Writers write from thoughts. We direct our musing to the writing’s subject and flow, expecting it to produce recordable content. And magically, it does. Yet writers also have the capacity to shape those thoughts, beyond the surface train that the writing’s general subject and specific topic require. Writers can benefit by centering and varying their thinking as they write. Indeed, they must do so, to produce quality writing. How you think affects what you write. The deeper, richer, and more varied your thought is, the deeper, richer, and more varied your writing should be because writing records and interacts with thoughts. Give some good thought to your thinking, in a metacognitive stance toward your writing, and you just may improve your writing. You may realize that you can write from a better mental location and vary your writing’s perspectives among multiple psychological levels, enriching your work product. Consider and improve your mental practices as you write. 

Levels

One helpful insight to recognize about a writer’s thoughts is that the writer must subtly locate them between the writing’s general subject and the specific topic and text the writer presently writes. Writing projects, whether assigned or conceived, generally have an overarching purpose and theme. A magazine article about what annuals to plant in your windowboxes, for instance, should address that subject only, without spiraling out of control into how to maintain your home’s furnace. A writer must keep the project’s subject constantly in mind. Yet writers can cover a lot of ground while addressing the writing’s main topic. The article about flowers in your windowboxes might, for instance, wander fruitfully through related topics on soil, sun, heat, and precipitation. A writer’s focal point is thus neither solely on the writing’s main subject nor solely on the individual topic the writer presently addresses but instead somewhere in between, connecting the two levels. Indeed if, for another example, you are writing a book, your thoughts need to be somewhere between the book’s subject, the chapter’s subject, and the topic on which you presently write, in just the right spot among all three book, chapter, and topic levels. Thus, as you write, locate and vary your thoughts sensitively among your writing’s structural levels. Don’t let your writing wander unduly. Keep weaving your writing’s structural levels together to produce a continuous and connected flow. 

Psychology

Another helpful insight into a writer’s thoughts is that a writer can think at different psychological, mental, or spiritual levels. Thinking operates in different regions of the brain, responding to different external and internal stimuli, producing different kinds and qualities of thought. Thinking may, for instance, build upon either flight or fight responses, in either an alert, cautious, even timid and flighty manner or, conversely, in a bold, courageous, even righteous and angry manner. Thinking may, for another example, develop from a dispassionate, logical, calculating, and strategic stance or instead from a warm, empathetic, emotional, and connective stance. A writer’s mentation isn’t singular, unwavering, always at the same psychological level. We instead can have a wider range of modes of thinking. And we may, with a little discipline and effort, be able to shift those modes productively, to enrich our writing. Indeed, if we simply give ourselves the permission to write from a wider psychological palette, we may find that the subject itself begins to draw wider, deeper, and richer insights from us. Consider the following examples of varied psychological stances from which to write.

Surface

Some writings require only surface level treatment. Some projects are solely about the information, not its deeper or richer interpretation. Newsletters might be the classic example. You don’t generally read a newsletter for much more than basic information, whether the dates, times, and locations of upcoming events, new products or services a company has launched, or new employees or volunteers an organization has welcomed. While a newsletter might announce a new practice or policy a reader wouldn’t expect the newsletter to address in depth its grounds and justification. Nor would a reader expect a newsletter to advocate for changes in practices or policies. Readers expect different writing types to appear in different writing forums and formats. Newsletters inform. Blogs alert. Memoranda and briefs advocate. Studies report and analyze. Articles interpret and emote. Books delve deeply into a subject’s underlying strata. Know the psychological level at which your writing project should communicate. If you are writing only a surface piece, then keep it to the facts and information. 

Strategic

Some writings require the writer to go beyond the surface information and into that information’s strategic interpretation and recommended use. Educational web content is an example. Readers go to websites not only for information, like what perennials are locally available for planting in the spring, but also for its interpretation, like what perennials are best for a shady dry bed under an overhang on the north side of the house. Readers would visit a medical information website, for another example, not just to pique their curiosity about various maladies that they might someday suffer but instead for a diagnosis, treatment regimen, and prognosis for the ache that they’re currently feeling. A substantial part of your writing is likely to be not just informational but also interpretive, predictive, and strategic, as in what do I do with this information? If that’s the nature of your writing assignment, not just to topically inform but also to guide, advise, direct, and assist, then unleash your experience and strategic wisdom. Think more deeply, predictively, and calculatingly than the surface.

Calls

Other writings go beyond the surface information and its strategic consideration, toward a call to action. A newsletter would inform. Educational web content would interpret information. But a memorandum, study, brief, sermon, or website marketing pitch would further call upon the reader to act. Readers often seek out writings for a purpose, to learn what to do. The writings they read should then tell them what to do. If, for instance, you’ve hit a personal crisis and are surfing the web for legal advice, you expect the law firm website on which you land to tell you, if not exactly what to do, then at least to hire them. Virtually all marketing material should have a call to action or, better yet, multiple calls to action, whether explicit or implied. But so, too, should memoranda that supervisors request on how to address a workplace issue, studies that address how to reduce social or environmental problems, court briefs advocating for a client’s relief, articles addressing financial or social issues, sermons addressing moral and spiritual crises, fundraising pitches, workplace motivational materials, and other writings explicitly written and read for their pitch. Readers expect, want, and need pitches, invitations, calls to action, and spurs to act. If that’s your assignment, then unleash your inner sergeant at arms to give the call to act. 

Emotional

Some writings benefit from an emotional treatment of their subject. We don’t read solely for information, strategy, or calls to act. We also read for emotional connection. Romance novels may be the classic example, but emotional impact can also be the primary point for several other writing forms such as drama, poetry, long-form descriptive articles, travel logs, and memoirs. Yet even in other writing forms, including marketing materials, exposés, and argumentative memoranda and briefs, emotion can play a helpful if lesser role. The writer who is aware of the emotional tenor of a piece and can control and vary that tenor brings an extra dimension to the craft. As you write, allow yourself to respond emotionally to the topic and to express that emotion through the text and narrative that your craft. Using active rather than passive voice, sensory descriptions, adjectives that emote, light humor, nostalgic sentiments, and a warm, relaxed, and empathetic tone can all heighten the reader’s emotional connection with your text. 

Patterns

Other writings go a step deeper in that they connect the event or other phenomenon that they describe to other similar events or matters, disclosing the pattern that they represent. Your writing may, for instance, describe a crisis that has occurred, diagnose its origin, and offer a prescription for managing it, calling the reader to that action. But then, your writing may further equate that crisis to other crises, confirming that the crisis that is the subject of your writing represents a common pattern. When you reveal to the reader the patterns that your subject represents, you give the reader a broader framework within which to evaluate your writing’s subject. You invite the reader to consider the reader’s own experience, evoking similar events in the same pattern. To deepen and enrich your writing, be aware of the patterns that your writing subjects evince, and call those patterns to the attention of readers. Thinking in terms of patterns can take your writing to another level, giving it depth and perspective. 

Symbolism

By connecting what your writing describes to other similar occurrences, you also broaden the reader’s perspective into the historical, moral, and philosophical realms. You call the reader’s attention to principles, values, and commitments. The events, conditions, circumstances, and figures that your writing describes become symbols for those principles, patterns, values, and commitments. Your writing projects the world’s symbolic structure, hierarchical, vertical, and horizontal. You show how human thought and life mediate the conscious and material realms, marrying material with meaning, and bridging heaven and earth. You place the reader in the proper position within reality’s framework, as both comprehending meaning and embodying purpose. You elevate the reader’s consciousness to its proper divine realm. Allow your writing to reflect and project the phenomenological universe’s symbolic nature and structure. You may only find a rare opportunity within your writing projects to open your reader’s mind to that vision, but when you have the opportunity, seize it. It may be the thing that your readers most value and remember.

Archetypes

At the deepest level, you may even find the occasion in your writings to reveal the universal symbols, themes, heroes, or archetypes that draw the world together, giving the world not just its patterns, meaning, and purpose but also its glory and wonder. Archetypes reach across history, continent, and culture to unite all humankind around its profound project. A keen writer can discern the activity of archetypes deep within the spirit of individuals, organizations, initiatives, communities, and nations. A keen writer can also see evidence of the archetype in events, conditions, and circumstances. When you reveal hints of the universal in your writing, you lift the reader’s vision and spirit to their highest, broadest, and deepest levels. You elevate the reader’s consciousness from the temporal to the eternal. You invite the reader to stand among the heroes of old, before the ancient of days, to receive the eternal word from the pinnacle point. Writing need not be routinely mundane. Writing can instead routinely uplift and elevate. Allow hints of the archetype to adorn your writing, to reward your readers with its glorious light. 

Reflection

At what psychological, spiritual, or emotional level do you typically write? Are most of your writings purely topical and informational works? Or are you routinely including strategic, predictive, and interpretive thoughts, even nuggets of wisdom, in your writing? Do you write materials that require a clear call to action? What is the emotional level and tone of your writings? Would evoking a greater emotional response from your readers improve  your writing? Do you commonly broaden your writing by pointing out patterns that the events and conditions you describe represent? Do you suggest the symbolism, principles, values, and commitments beneath the patterns that your writing reveals? Would revealing universal archetypes with which your writing connects further deepen your writing? 

Key Points

• Writers benefit by centering and varying their thinking as they write.

• Write conscious of and connecting theme, subject, and topic levels. 

• Write out of broader psychological and spiritual dimensions.

• Some writings require only surface, informational treatment.

• Other writings need strategic interpretation of the information.

• Other writings call the reader to the specific action the piece seeks.

• Other writings should convey rich emotional tones and empathy.

• Your writing can also reveal the patterns that your subject represents.

• Your writing can further explore the symbolism behind the patterns.

• Your writing can further reveal the archetypes behind the patterns.

Read Chapter 9.