How Writing Helps Me Think.
If you’d met me when I was just a wee lass, you’d have bet your cheeseballs that I’d have become a writer or studied the English language. That’s what my mum saw. She’d have been so proud.
The fire I had slowly turned to embers. It’s not completely gone, but there’s signs it once was. So I went from writing fun stories about a Little Red House which had magical doors and mythical woodland beings( Thanks Enid Blyton!), to writing winning essays for my local government in secondary school. And now? I write to stay sane!.
How you may ask?. Simple, my mind is a beehive not in the sense that its working or producing something sweet, but that it’s noisy. I find it hard to focus and process a single thought without interruption, the experts call it short attention span🙄 which then results in me blurting out unprocessed thoughts sometimes, and being unable to complete daily tasks. This sucks!
Well, I’ve found that writing helps with creative thinking. It helps me organize my thoughts and also broadens my perspective about a particular subject. As a creative, I struggle with articulating and sharing my ideas and then I end up using words like “thing” and “stuff” to describe things🤦♀️. Critical thinking is also improved by writing because it's now possible for me to analyze, evaluate and interpret information before making decisions or conclusions.
Creative thinking gives me a fresh perspective on problems around me. penning down my thoughts or typing them out really puts two and two together. Yes guys I’m admitting that I do in fact keep a journal. I took a break from that during my service year which was when I needed it the most, thinking it was cheesy or cliche to keep one. I realize in that one year that nothing really made sense. I kept questioning every decision I made.
Writing to me is like having a conversation with myself which is awesome because, I mean… it’s me 😏. But on a more serious note, everyone should write more. It makes one more open minded, Helps you become a better communicator, and it might just spark that flow of creative juices you’ve been craving.
Free tip guys: Did you know that writing things out by hand actually makes it easier to encode them in memory?…you knew that already?. Well, its true that using multiple strokes(writing on paper), instead of a single key press (typing), gives the brain more of a chance to process the ideas that are being recorded. Creative ideas take time to emerge, and giving them those extra few seconds can make a huge difference.
As designers, we can use writing to tackle tasks such as designing a logo, creating product packaging, animating an explainer video, illustrating a children’s book, designing a book cover, Designing a billboard or whatever it is you do that requires your divine skills. Let this be part of your brainstorming phase and you’d lead better lives.
If you do this and it works, you owe me a drink!.
