Fire Up Your Writing Brain

Kinesthetic: body smart Logical: math smart Linguistic: language smart Interpersonal: people smart Intrapersonal: self smart Auditory: musical smart Visual/spatial: picture smart Naturalistic: nature smart

Fifteen to twenty minutes of expressive writing, three to five times a week has been shown to have positive health benefits, including long-term

Nonfiction: You have the expertise and/or you like working with an expert to educate people on science, art, music, or anything, really. You possess an analytical brain that likes to burrow into topics that fascinate you, and you are adept at then explaining them to others. You have a fresh perspective on a subject that needs exploring.

list the attributes that contribute to your ability to write

Studies have shown that your brain is more apt to be more open to new ideas and new ways of thinking about things—and a broader way of thinking about things—when you’re physically tired.

It’s helpful to use your affinity list as affirmations to bolster positive thoughts about yourself as a writer: “I am imaginative, creative, and compassionate. I am open to new ways of thinking and fresh ways of seeing certain issues in life. I am able to focus on what I want this particular work to reflect. I love to think, plan, dream, originate.

The first job of a writer is to notice—to see, hear, smell, taste, touch, feel, and intuit—what’s important and then to use those stored memories to produce work that can be grasped at once, in prose that is strong and clean, not muddled. The writer’s second job is to discover and develop his or her unique voice. Voice equates to your distinctive a

Bettelheim says fairy tales re-create the sort of dramas that lodge in our psyches and offer a way for children to understand that people are rarely all good or all evil, and that they can learn to navigate safely in the world.

but studies revealed that Googling relieves your brain of its duty to pose a hard question (which, in itself, is highly valuable) and more importantly, it frees your brain of the necessity to search deep into its database for the neuronal connections that will eventually lead to the answer.