Creativity is born in uncertainty. It’s a grand Easter egg hunt – the more you search, the more possibilities you explore, the better your chances of finding the best solution. Your challenge is that even if you may be consciously willing to keep looking, your brain isn’t. Too Efficient For Our Own Good Sometimes Because […]

Writers Must Surrender Certainty
Creativity is born of inefficiency and uncertainty. Unfortunately, your brain does not welcome uncertainty. Because the human brain, which makes up only 3% of the body’s mass, uses 20 to 30% of the body’s oxygen and glucose, it evolved to be as energy-efficient as possible. Uncertainty is simply not efficient. Why question what you already […]

Brainy Writers Seek Uncertainty to Solve Resistance
Don’t know where you’re going? Excellent! Not sure how you’ll get there? Outstanding! On your way anyway? Kudos! Know everything? My condolences. Resistance is caused by fear. And fear of the unknown is the biggest fear of all. But it’s not not knowing that causes problems, it’s the fear of not knowing. At the heart […]

Ask Not for Whom Resistance Tolls
Writers ask me, “How can I tell when I’m resisting my writing?” “You make your best guess,” I tell them. Before they can realize how much of an answer that isn’t, I describe typical examples of resistance, many of which sound familiar enough to assure them that resistance is part of their writing life and […]
New Book Update: My Early Attempts to Embrace Uncertainty
I’m embracing uncertainty. Admittedly, I’m embracing it with the one-handed, two-second pat-his-back-and-push-back kind of hug you give an uncle you never really liked far more than with the open-hearted, lingering enfolding you give your Beloved. But it’s a start. I’m in First Insight (described in chapter 4 of Around the Writer’s Block). This is the […]
Certainty is a Certain Route to Resistance
Don’t know where you’re going? Excellent! Not sure how you’ll get there? Outstanding! On your way anyway? Kudos! Know everything? My condolences. But take heart in the fact that you’ll be able to get back to not knowing eventually. Most resistance is caused by fear. And fear of the unknown is the biggest fear of […]