Deborah Cooke: Author

The brain is an incredible machine, but one that (unfortunately) doesn’t come with a user’s manual. We have to figure out things for ourselves. Here’s a neat brain trick that maybe you don’t know. It’s useful for problem solving.

When you’re trying to solve a problem or a riddle or come up with a creative solution, you can seldom do that by thinking hard about the question. What works for algebra doesn’t work for plot tangles.

It’s better if you can think about it sideways.

Here’s an example. Yesterday I worked on the Big Finish for Kiss of Fury. I’ve been working on it all week and I like it, but I don’t love it yet. It’s not quite there. It’s good but not grrrrrrrrrrREAT! I didn’t know what was missing exactly, but something was missing. So, I went through it a couple of times, achieved pretty much nothing, and knew I had to think about it sideways to get the job done.

There are two ways I know to think sideways, but they involve the same prep work.

1. Focus on the problem. And that’s more than “why don’t I love this?” It’s a whole string of Q&A, as many Q’s & A’s as you can think of. “Why don’t I love this? What should this scene be achieving? Where do I think it falls short? What are its strengths? What else do I want to happen here? How do I want to feel when I read it? What does the heroine feel? Could I increase her emotional stakes, make the scene more of victory/defeat/revelation than it already is?” etc. etc. etc.

The more questions you can ask and answer, the more fuel your brain has for its magic. The more specific you can be, the better your brain magic will work. What you’re doing is defining the problem, and looking at it from as many sides as possible can only help.

2/ After that, the two variations aren’t that different.

For dreaming brain magic, you do this Q&A right before you fall asleep. In fact, you lie in bed and think through all these variables UNTIL you fall asleep. 99% of the time, you will either dream of the answer or have an AHA! moment in the shower the next morning.

This one really feels like magic – remember that story about the elves who did the tailor’s work at night while the tailor slept? Dreaming brain magic is that kind of magic. It impresses the heck out of me every time.

For waking brain magic – which was what I did yesterday – you put the problem out of your thoughts and do something else. It’s imperative that what you choose to do is different from writing. Don’t do correspondence or promotion or work on a synopsis. Your brain needs a vacation to do its magic. And don’t call up a buddy to chat or get online. Your brain needs me-time to do its magic.

So what should you do? Cooking, baking, knitting, painting a wall, sewing drapes, dancing, walking, swimming, riding a bike – all of these are good activity choices for waking brain magic. They take you away from your desk and away from your writing and away from everyone else, too.

I often drive somewhere, preferably in the country. (Driving in traffic is too much like problem solving to work.) I look at the trees and the horses and the clouds and compare colours and shapes, as if there’s nothing on my mind at all. Yesterday – predictably – I drove to yarn outlet store and got seduced by a wool sale – that part was predictable! I played with the colours and the textures and the potential pattern, lingering over my selection. By the time I pulled back into our driveway, I not only had more stash but my brain had done its magic.

I knew what I had to do to fix the scene. Alakazam! BRAIN MAGIC works again!

Do you use brain magic? If so, how did you figure it out? If not, why don’t you give it a try?