Writer's Block: That Tricky Bugger!

"A grief without a pang, void, dark, and drear
A stifled drowsy, unimpassioned grief
Which finds no natural outlet, no relief
In words, or sigh, or tear...
My genial spirits fail
And what can these avail
To lift the smothering weight from off my breast?"
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Dejection: An Ode"

This is part of "Dejection: An Ode" from Cooleridge, the famous Romantic Poet. In chapter 3 of "The Midnight Disease," Ms. Flaherty describes how the Romantics dealt with Writer's Block: they wrote about it! Mr. Cooleridge didn't have a problem sharing how his spirits or inspiration was down. So, is inspiration really tied to Writer's Block? Read on. :)

Before I go on, I want to encourage you to pick up a copy of "The Midnight Disease: by Alice W. Flaherty. This book has given me so much information concerning Hypergraphia and Writer's Block. I didn't expect the beginning of the book to deal with the opposite or what Ms. Flaherty would say the "compliment" of Writer's Block. I've heard enough about the temporal lobes and the limbic system. I almost cringed when I saw those terms in the book, but she soothed my reservation. Chapter 3 is called "Writer's Block As A State of Mind. Writer's Block has been called a "state of mind" by some because they say that it doesn't really exist and it's all in a writers head. Is it really "in your head" or does Writer's Block really exist. Ms. Flaherty introduces some interesting theories concerning Writer's Block and I would say she more-so believes that it does exist. There are 2 conditions though where a Writer can gain Writer's Block (she believes).

The first is that a writer doesn't write when he/she has the intellectual capability to do so and two, he/she suffers because of not writing. This is a disclaimer though! Ms. Flaherty admits that one can be hypergraphic and experience Writer's Block at the same time. That's why she said both conditions are compliments. Here's a quick example: Joseph Conrad is a writer who wrote many, many letters to his friends but put off writing his novel. It's interesting because when I think of Writer's Block, I think of someone not writing at all, whether letters, a manuscript, anything. But perhaps that's the stereotypical way of looking at Writer's Block. Let's look at the condition of suffering though. Why must a writer suffer when experiencing Writer's Block? She answers by saying that a writer is "merely not writing," but can gather new ideas when he/she isn't writing. I would tend to agree with her on this point. When a writer feels like they have an obstruction in front of them, he/she should feel down. I mean, who wouldn't feel dejected when he/she can't pursue their craft for whatever reason? It's saddening. If you don't feel sad, I would assume that you're reorganizing. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Is suffering essential for Writer's Block to exist?

Some interesting words which I'm sure you'll want to remember are agraphia, which is the loss of skill to write and aphasia, the loss of skill to communicate. Ms. Flaherty writes that Writer's Block doesn't equal agraphia because you don't lose intellectual skill. However, she says that Writer's Block is similar to aphasia because a writer that cannot communicate falls into depression, which can lead to a loss of ability to communicate to others or the readers.

Interestingly enough, Ms. Flaherty says that Writer's Block may be an American idea. American Psychiatrist Edmund Bergler came up with the term "Writer's Block" and writer Jay Parini talks about it being historically rooted within America. He notes British writers such as Anthony Burgess, Iris Murdoch, Graham Greene, and A.N. Wilson "whom regard productivity as a virtue" and writers such as Norman Mailer, Thomas Pynchon, Mary McCarthy, and Sasul Bellow who experienced Writer's Block. I don't know if you can make a leap and say that "oh, Americans are the only ones experience Writer's Block. Darn those Americans!" It doesn't make sense. Here's a funny quote by Ms. Flaherty: "there is a paradoxical sense in which suffering writer's block is necessary to the American writer." I don't know if that's true, but there is a sense that being blocked and unable to write is an essential part of the writing process. There are hills and valleys with all writers, but I would say that there's something particularly significant in extended periods of time when a writer suffers when he/she cannot write.

On pg. 85, Ms. Flaherty that taking away motivation and skill, the problem of inspiration is left. I would agree with that because many writers with Writer's Block speak about a a deficit of desire for their story. Mark Twain wrote " The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" over a series of years. Some said that he had no emotional connection to parts of his story (the emotivist point of view). The cognitivist point of view espouses the point that writers such as Mark Twain need to be more engaged in the editing process and be less criticizing of themselves, a more logical and practical approach. Which side is right? Ms. Flaherty doesn't say but she says that these points of view exist. I would say that both are right because someone can obviously be detached from a scene if it's less exciting than other scenes and two, one can be disengaged from the editing process and change the text without consulting outside sources. Both are real.
The theory of Psychodynamic explanation emphasizes the point that unconscious desires and fear affect a writer more-so than conscious cognition. This school of thought was influenced by Sigmund Freud. A summary of his theory suggests that the problem with Writer's Block lay with a writer being fearful of "punishment by or rebellion against a parent-like authority." This suggests an emotional fear tied to one's work. Another school of thought lies with the Ernst Kris theory where creativity needs aa "strong ego and a strong id," self belief and going out and writing plenty of text. Abigal Lipson and David Perkins's book "Block" espouses the belief that our will or conscious intention is one of the many forces affecting us. You have to identify and change the forces that are stopping you from writing. That's an engaging thought but as Ms. Flaherty says (and I agree), that can come with an advantage and a disadvantage. A writer may not know where to look and capture ALL of the problems affecting his/her writing. But then again, nothing can change unless a writer tries. :)

Ms. Flaherty gives plenty of nice advice in this chapter. She writes that one should decrease writer perfectionism because guess what, nobody's perfect at writing. Not even the greats! Engaging in brainstorming to boost ideas, nurture self-esteem so you can handle criticism, and visualization so you can increase your imagination can help you work and your writing grow. I love engaging in visualization because the scenes that I'm placing in my novel become like a movie-reel in my head. It's so beautiful and exciting. You should do it! ;) And of course, embrace your "inner child." Ms. Flaherty ends saying that the inner child is the one who you were long ago, the little bitty one that never stopped playing, looking at things curiously, and wanted an identical book read to them each night. It's like going back in time! I enjoy this because in the eyes of a child, anything is possible. I think as young adults and adults we start to lose the ability to dream beyond what we can see here and now. Writing requires imagination because sometimes you're forced to look beyond what we can physically see. Reality can encompass the subconscious and what we traditionally do not think is reality. So all in all, I implore you as a writer (or even if you're not a writer) to look beyond your self and see the seemingly impossible. You just might see something great.

Now I have to go. I wish I could write more but I have a bit of studying to do. Today, I wrote a 10 page short story called "Blood of a Vampire." Sounds dark, huh? Well, I hope not. I will post it on this blog so I can hear y'all and your thoughts, okay? I hope you have a wonderful day. I will return tomorrow! :-)

-LaVel

Disease May Spur Creativity? What Did You Say?

Hello everyone! LaVel Moorehead: writer, reader, and book blogger extraordinare here. How are you? ^__^ I'm back with chapter two of Alice W. Flaherty's "The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain." Lets take a look at it, shall we? I want to post a brief run-through of Hypergraphia and theories associated with why writers have it. This is some of the most interesting information on creativity that I've come across. Sure, I've heard about writers being visited by the Muse and being obsessive compulsive. But epilepsy? Manic-depressive disorder?? Schizophrenia? I haven't heard about these diseases being tied to creative writing, but I'll take it. There are a couple of statistics that Ms. Flaherty shared that I'm sure you'll be interested in.

Chapter 2 is called "Literary Creativity and Drive." What causes drive? Ms. Flaherty asks this question and tries to answer it for us. The first idea in this chapter that she comes out with in this first book is that hypergraphia, left unchecked can lead to poor writing. Near the end of the chapter, she says that these kinds of writers need to have a good editor to counteract their onslaught of text. I totally agree and you'll see why later.

I won't get to sciencey on you, but we must discuss the relevant parts of the brain to understand what affects creativity. The limbic system controls drives. Ms. Flaherty wants us to distinguish between creativity and drives, although they affect one another. Drive doesn't necessarily mean that what you write is on a Jane Austen level, but it CAN lead up to it. I will list the three stages on creativity here.

Psychologist Dean Simonton came up with the "Darwinian Theory of Creativity." Neat, huh? The first one is where a writer produces many different ideas. Second, he or she weeds these ideas. Third is when the writer draws more ideas from the good ideas and the process repeats itself again. So creativity essentially is a never ending cycle. :D It never ends and we as writers should be asking other people who are knowledgeable or in the business in writing questions to weed ideas out.

Okay, so here are the three theories on creativity and where it comes from. The first is a "psychoanalytic model" (can you repeat THAT again) that basically promotes the idea that creativity lives in the unconscious. This Freudian model suggests that creativity needs a balance between primary and secondary processes. The first process is emotion driven and the second is logic driven. Look at this cool quote from the text: "Modern researchers have found some experimental evidence that creative people have better access to primary process thought. They fantasize more, have better memory of their dreams, are more easily hypnotized, and score higher on measure of mildly psychotic traits." So essentially, us writers are the ones with the best imaginations! ^__^ I would hope so. I wish that Ms. Flaherty added a bit more data on why researchers say this. It would have made her argument more defined.

The second theory revolves around cognitive psychologists. They say that creativity resides in divergent and convergent thinking. An example of divergent thinking is someone "making as many useful things out of a paperclip as he/she can" while convergent can be solving a word problem. It's more along the lines of the scientific method. Writers 1. define a problem. 2. learn as much as they can about it. 3. let the problem "incubate subconsciously" when they find it hard to solve the problem 4. find several ideas to overcome the problem 5. they test the ideas. That's how this second theory works. A little too mechanical for my taste. I know that some writers do test certain scenes and certain ideas and see which ones flow better. However, many writers write on a whim and don't keep going back to a scene. Again, it would be fantastic to have data showing what's true or not but this is fairly knew, I'm assuming.

The third theory states that mental illness is the cause for hypergraphia. 0_0 Really?? The rate of mental illness in creative people versus those outside the arts is 70% to 25%. Somehow, I find it hard to believe that the rate for those in the arts is so high, but I'll take Ms. Flaherty at her word..for now. ;) As I said before, illnesses such as schizophrenia, manic depression, and epilepsy are linked to creative writing. Even drugs have been linked to creative writing! Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Thomas de Quincey used opium to make their imagination more vivid. Scary, but true. Apparently, it worked with their writing.

Ms. Flaherty finds that creativity is linked between both hemispheres of the brain but creativity is especially linked to the right hemisphere. The temporal lobes also play a unique and significant role with creativity. A 51 year old woman named Bruce Miller had her temporal lobes damaged. She painted so much from 51 to the age of 71 and her creativity slowed and the amount of paintings decreased because the damage increased over time. Sad, huh? Ms. Flaherty concludes that it's safe to say that temporal lobes do not drive creativity but suppress it. It doesn't seem that the damage caused creativity because the woman showed signs of being a hermit and possibly being depressed. That could have spurred her creative juices. No one really knows, but it's interesting to think about.

I'll leave you with a quote from Plato. He has very terse words to say about poets being devoid of inspiration! "He who approaches the temple of the muses without inspiration in the belief that craftsmanship alone suffices, will remain a bungler and his presumptuous poetry will be obscured by the songs of the maniacs." 0__0 Wow. From the time of the Greeks, they recognized that creativity was linked with epilepsy and other diseases. And he's absolutely true. If you're writing just to write without thinking out your ideas, it's basically useless text. But if you're waiting for you ideas to bubble in that pot of creativity (and let's be honest, you have to put your ideas through a vetting process), readers will appreciate your work more. I can't wait to get back into my stories and let y'all see how much I've put my work through the proverbial grinder. I'll see y'all tomorrow. :-D

-LaVel

The Rapid Mind: Exploring Hypergraphia

Hello everyone. This is LaVel Moorehead: writer, reader, and book blogger extraordinare. How are you doing this weekend? I'm doing absolutely fantastic! I went out with my dad this afternoon to Longhorn resteraunt and we had some good food. I had some golden friend shrimp and let me tell you...it was divine! I've been craving some good shrimp for awhile so my wishes were fulfilled today. Thank God! :)

So, what am I up to now? I'm in my novelette "The DNA of Souls" of course, which is a science fiction story. It's all about alien cyborgs and humans who have come to their planet. Will their be war? What is the conflic in the story? One thing that I will tell you now that you'll see when you read the story is that the main character is a prisoner. Oh no! That's all I'll say for now. :)

"The Midnight Disease," Chapter 1: The Incurable Disease of Writing. Ms. Alice W. Flaherty really digs deep with this chapter and looks and the temporal lobes and the limbic system which affect creative writing. Now, I know you're saying "what is all this scientific stuff?!" I asked that question myself. Don't worry! The author breaks the information in this chapter into easy-to-understand language. I said before that I love Ms. Flaherty's use of anecdotes to inject interest into what can seem to be heavy hitting facts. It's not what you think. I'll try to break down this chapter into understandable terms for y'all. So here we go. :)

I want to share this quote from the end of chapter 1. It really got me thinking and it's really funny to me. A writer named Victoria Nelson (quoted by Ms. Flaherty) describes a writer expriencing hypergraphia or extreme drive of writing versus someone experiencing Writer's Block. This is pg. 47. "The extraordinary prolific witer whose output flows unchecked is often of awe for the blocked writer who, envying him in the same way that an overweight person envies the anorexic, fails to see this deluge of words often conceals an inverted case of writer's block. Like Hans Christian Andersen's little dancer who couldn't get the enchanted red shoes off her feet, the compulsive writer cannot stop writing. Compulsive writing is, in fact, a way of hiding from some of the deeper demands of literary and emotional experience."

Ms. Flaherty follows up on Ms. Nelson's quote and says that Nelson distrustful of writers who don't write enough or write too much. Originally I would have asked if a writer could "write too much," but there is a line where writing too much can get in the way of the basics: eating, sleeping, etc. However in this chapter, Ms. Flaherty writes about writers that experienced hypergraphia and dealt with issues such as depression and mania through their writing. It seems that writing came as more of a valuable asset than a hinderance during their mental conditions. Although many of these writers wrote a lot, it didn't seem like something that threw them off of the boat of life. Let's get a glimpse at Ms. Flaherty's knowledge.

This is quite interesting! Alice W. Flaherty cites two neurologists named Stephen Waxman and Norman Geschwind: tells us that patients without hypergraphia wrote 78 words to describe their condition. Patients with hypergraphia described their condition in approximately 5,000 words. Incredible, no? This is just a taste of what hypergraphia is. Remember my last post? I described the temporal lobes and the limbic system. The temporal lobes relates to creativity in most writers. There are 4temporal lobes, 2 in each of the brains hemispheres. Ms. Flaherty describes the hemispheres as "boxing gloves" and the temporal lobes as the "thumbs." They are right behind the ears if you want to get a more basic thought of where they're located. Anyway, the 4 temporal lobes have different functions. The first is the main temporal lobe, related to memory storage. The second is the frontal lobe, which is related to judgement, initiation of action, and movement. Two is the parietal lobe, which is related to the sense of touch and movement. The fourth is the occipital lobe, which is related to visual processing. Got that all down? Hah, that's just the beginning. :)

The limbic system (which I talked about in my earlier post) regulates drives. It's "buried underneath the hempisheres" as Ms. Flaherty comments so if you want to look up the limbic system on a brain hempshere photo, you may not see it.

Now from all of this, where do these extreme medical conditions come in? I'll tell you. Do you know what epilepsy is? It's a chronic condition where one experiences seizures. People with epilepsy may have symptoms between seizures (also known as interictal symptoms). Hypergraphia is an interictal symptom! Those with temporal lobe epilepsy have five conditions known as the Geschwind Syndrome: hypergraphia, hyper-religiousity or hyperphilosophicality, altered sexuality (usually diminished sexual drive), overinclusiveness (such as talkitiveness). Ms. Flaherty says that those with hypergraphia have an internal desire to write rather than some outside influence (such as being paid to write). They also write about deep philosophical themes such as faith or love. And interestingly, Ms. Flaherty says that hypergraphics don't have to write that well. Wah-waah! That's too bad. You would think that those experiencing hypergraphia would be visited by the muse, but maybe that's too inclusive. Let's read on. ;)

A famous epileptic writer, Gustav Flabert, felt a "sense of doom" when he went along his day to day activities. However, he started to feel more upbeat during certain intervals and would experience hypergraphia. Other temporal lobe epileptic writers are Pascal, Dante, Lear, and Edgar Allen Poe. I didn't know Edgar Allen Poe was an epileptic writer, but with his dark material, I can see why. I will definitely have to research his experience with epilepsy.

Hypergraphia is also linked to manic-depressive (bi-polar) disorder. Ms. Flaherty admits that temporal lobe epileptics experience milder bouts of depression like manic depressive patients. But look at this! Ms. Flaherty also has information that most writers are manic-depressive. Really? Psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison discovered that writers are ten times more likely to be manic-depressive than the rest of the population and that poets are fourty times more likely! Shocking, no? Ms. Flaherty also describes herself and her own experience with depression. Writers that experience depression deal mostly with Writer's Block says Ms. Flaherty, but they write more once their funk ends. Ms. Flaherty describes a time that she took a mood stabilizer and she didn't want to write. Then she took an anti-depressant which supposedly gave her energy without changing her mood. So she felt stable but she had the energy necessary to write. And she wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote. She even spent time in a psychiatric hospital and she underwent a 3 day evaluation before she could leave. During this time, she described herself as a prisoner. This "prisoner syndrome" drove her to write about her experience and that's what she says that writers with manic-depressive disorder and epilepty do to escape their "prison."

So what do you think? What's you reaction to research that writers are ten times more likely to be manic depressive than the rest of the population. Sounds crazy, huh? This is something that I will look into. Overall, I liked Ms. Flaherty's chater. She needed to be a little more clear on the four temporal lobes because it sounds like one temporal lobe is...a temporal lobe. The other have different names, but it sounded unclear in her writing. Again, I love the use of anecdotes to weed out the perceived sciency role of her book. This is information that I haven't been privy of in the past which makes reading this book exciting. Chapter 2 goes more into detail about the temporal lobes and how they work in "normal writers" as opposed to hypergraphic writers. I look forward to seeing what Ms. Flaherty has to say and I can't wait to write another post tomorrow. Alrighty? Take care y'all. :-)

-LaVel

Aliens, Secret Prisons and Cyborgs: Oh My!

Hello everyone! This is LaVel Moorehead. :) This is the second day of the spring semester and I am so excited. Today however, I felt under the weather and had a devilish headache. Yes, it was devilish! Unfortunately, I couldn't do much writing today and decided that I needed some rest. And rest I did! I managed to get out of bed and go to Campus Crusade for Christ or Cru as it's known as now. It's a wonderful place if you want to get connected to the Maryland campus and meet some nice folks! We had worship, a funny speaker named Ben, and the young Pastor Ryan. It was a fantastic evening.

Now, I want to update y'all on what I'm up to with my writing. As I said before, I couldn't write at all today and decided to rest. But that doesn't mean that I haven't been thinking about my ideas 24/7. Right now, I'm in the middle of a story titled "The DNA of Souls." The DNA of Souls? What's that, you might ask? :) It's a science fiction story which takes place on a plant light years away from Earth. Humans have managed to harness the power of light speed and they've been able to populate different planets. (The Human population is expanding over 11 billion!) This planet is home to...drumroll please: The Cyborgs! Yes, that's right. These cyborgs live on a tropical planet and mainly put machinery on their bodies to survive. The humans have been in contact with these cyborgs for quite some time...but all is not what it seems. These humans want something from the cyborgs, but what is it? You'll have to find out by reading "The DNA of Souls."

I'm so excited to write this piece because one, I haven't written much sci-fi stories and two, I'm entering this novelette into the Writers of the Future Contest. The Writer of the Future Contest is a prestigious contest for aspiring writers in the science fiction and fantasy department. It was established by the great L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer who wrote plenty of science fiction novels. I admit that I was a little intimidated when looking at past winners. Most of them are what you would guess, adults in their late 30's and beyond. But you know what? I'm not going to be intimidted just because most of the winners are older than I am. I'm going to stand on my own two feet and prove that I have something different to offer from the younger generation. I am my own, unique self and I have ideas that other writers don't have. It's the same for other writers too. They have something unique to offer. It's just God-Given talent, an understanding of writing craft, and desire which can propell writers to greatness. I'm priveleged that I'm taking part in this contest and I can't wait to share my work with y'all.

Well, I better get off. I need to finish some school work and relax before going to bed. Tomorrow's Friday and there's so much in store for the weekend. Get excited and be blessed. Tomorrow's a new day. :)

-LaVel

Midnight Disease? Be Afraid of the Dark: Not!

Hello everyone. LaVel Moorehead here! I told y'all that I would read and blog about the book "The Midnight Disease," by Alice W. Flaherty. I've been intrigued by the so-called "Writer's Block," the state of mind or is it a "disease" that all writers fear. I just read the introduction to the book and let me tell ya', it's brilliant. I love Ms. Flaherty's use of anecdotes and comic relief in the book so it doesn't come acros as heavy, science related information. Let me share a little bit of what I read.
I love the quote in the beginning. Look at this quote by Roland Barthes in "Witing Degrees Zero." "A creative writer is one for whom writing is a problem." BAM. Those words hit me like a brick. Is that true? In some ways, yes, writing is a problem. It can be a problem because writers want to use the right words when they write. They want the words to flow on the page like a bubbling stream (no blockages, please.) But unfortunately, the blockages come anyway. Ms. Flaherty wants to address them.
Interestingly enough, Edgar Allen Poe and author Michael Chabon called Writer's Block the "Midnight Disease." I have no idea why they calld it the "Midnight Disease," but I guess I'll learn as I go along.
Ms. FLaherty says that the temporal lobes and the lymbic system affect the creative mind. TheTemporal lobes can produce the condition known as hypergraphia, or the strong inclination to write as much as possible. It can also produce Writer's Block, the exact opposite of hypergraphia. The second region or the lymbic system is linked to emoton and drive and it's lso connected to the temporal lobes. Hmm...
A beautiful reminder on page 9 of the book is the idea of "self-experimentation." It isn't smart to keep doing the same thing and retain the same habits when they don't work. For example, she says that if you find it hard to write at night, write in the morning or sometime during the day. That's just SMART. Experiment, don't repeat the same thing and expect a different outcome.
Ms. Flaherty gives an anecdote of giving birth to twin girls. (Aaaaw, so cute! ^__^) After giving birth, she fell into a "stupor" and needed a mood stabilizer. However, this stabilizer gave her Writer's Block. I hope Ms. Flaherty explains exactly HOW she knows that the medication gave her Writer's Block because she could have just been tired and needed rest from writing. It could've been that she fell into the cyclical mode where she needed to repair her creative juices. One last piece of advice that I'll share is tied to what I just said. Ms. Flaherty admits that writers go through an up and down process: One minute, writers are full of ideas and the next minute, nothing. It's all a part of a PROCESS and the sooner writers like myself realize that, the better shape they'll be in to cope with new challenges.
I hope you liked the post. Tell me what you think! I'll be back with more updates on "The Midnight Disease" and my novelette. Okay? See you then!
-LaVel

The Return of the Author

Hello everyone! How are you? This is LaVel Moorehead: writer, reader, and book blogger extraordinare. It's been long, too long that I've been gone from this blog...but no more. There's been so much that' happened to me these past few months and I can't wait for all the good things that will happen this new year. Are you ready? Let's go! :D
First of all, I need to apologize. I told everyone that I would update this blog every day and I didn't. I've been dealing with my own demons this past fall semester at the University of Maryland, College Park. I had a bout of depression last semester tothe point that I stayed in bed for some days because I didn't want to get up. It was a dark, dark place. I didn't stay in contact with friends and I gave up activities that I loved. I felt hopeless, that I didn't have what it took to learn at a prestigious university. But you know what? There's a reason that I'm here, a reason that I received a full academic scholarship at the University of Maryland. It's because people believed that I had the smarts to take on the challenges AND opportunities that this great university affords. So you know what? No more whining, no more complaining. It's time to embrace the future! ^__^
Right now, I'm in the middle of a novellette titled "The DNA of Souls." What's that, you ask? It's a science-fiction/adventure story involving humans and...cyborgs. 0__0 Yes, cyborgs, I didn't stutter. I hope to finish it this weekend, but it's based on the workload I have for college. I'm excited to write this story and I can't wait to share it with y'all!
I hope y'all are having a great week. I am! I just started my first day of spring semester. It's going to be exciting, I can tell you that.
Well, I will have another blog post up on the book I'm reading titled "The Midnight Disease" by Alice W. Flaherty. It's all about...WRITER'S BLOCK. You don' want to miss this. Stay tuned! :-)
-LaVel