“…a new place to write…”

What you think you see is what you get

I have to admit that the Medium writing proposal really appeals for one simple reason—we think with our bodies as well as our minds. As a designer I don’t just draw things to explain; I draw to think.

This is not less true for writers—the pen/keyboard/quill/recorder matter. The physical feel of these objects or activities become deeply associated with the cognitive process that accompany them. Moreover, it’s not just your brain that’s doing the thinking—your body is also doing quite a bit of cognitive processing (you have ~35km of nerves in your body and they’re connected to your brain via the Cerebellum which has as many neurons as the brain itself!).

With writing, it might not seem that there is as much physical activity as using sketching to design but there are other more subtle physical processes that are going on that shouldn’t be ignored. As I write I am re-reading what I have just written and this is a physical act as well as a cognitive one. I am processing the patterns visually, trying to relate the points I’m making to the wider story, and doing all of that and thinking about what to write next or make it better.

(I am also constantly tapping the keys, cracking my knuckles and making the faces I make when I write…). Make no mistake, writing is a physical as well as a mental activity.

And that means that the physical matters. I have to admit to completely understanding (and completely agreeing with) what @ev says:

I’m one of those people who will open up Word and spend half my time defining styles and adjusting the spacing between paragraphs. This is a terrible distraction and a waste of time—but it still feels necessary when the defaults aren’t good. (ref)

That stuff matters. When this isn’t right you feel uncomfortable—like sitting with your back to an open door. Even that physical metaphor gives you a clue that embodied cognition (that’s what I’m on about here) is something to think about. When things are working well, the physical and the mental just … work. I’m pretty sure that the physical are a necessary part of Csíkszentmihályi’s flow for just such a reason.

So Medium is definitely a nice place to do this. A place to write with my hands, eyes and mind but where those aren’t constantly distracted.I am distracted by the writing.

Think I might be back… :)