Blogging Expands Minds

Blogs open minds... People of all ages find voice, express ideas, learn to organize, analyze, synthesize and gain vision -- all in a world community.

People generally do not "know" others, let alone themselves. Blogs can open a window to "know and be known." Parker Palmer

Even as I decided to blog on blogging, since Ellen Weber nudged the idea, I went to Joanna Young's Confident Writing blog since she earlier inspired me with how to become a fire-breathing writing dragon. Amazingly today, Joanna wrote on creating, sharing and the breath of possibility in relation to blogging. And Brad Shorr, another internet friend, wrote today that consistency, even if only to blog every week, is important to keep readers interested.

Coincidence - no!

Others' minds stretch us. Blogging takes us to new realms of possibility.

Writing Lessons from Social Media Community

Can you pare the essence of a whole article to 140 words in Twitter? Or, do you rise to the challenge of listing 22 distinct tips to assist your readers to overcome daily stress? No matter your topic, writing's like serving a banquet to readers. And the way you set your table makes a difference. For instance...

If the same dishes appear on a banquet table, day after day, people tire of them. So one way to overcome that -- write though the lens of your eight intelligences. Ellen Weber, first taught me about multiple intelligences and captured my mind about ways all eight can improve my day. Not only do I work to use most of them in a day, but I also frame many blogs through intelligences. A writer might choose to focus on numbers, playing with words to get best active verbs, choosing an image to express an idea and relying on that more than words, challenging readers to ask good questions on the brain, writing through a work problem to gain understanding, discussing ways nature impacts job performance, sharing tips on physical activity to boost brainpower, and using music as it connects to the brain. Using different intelligences for blogs is like serving unique dishes for each banquet. Thanks to Ellen, I've gained greater skill.

Brad Shorr, Gavin Heaton and GL Hoffman visited my blog first and encouraged me. From Brad I learned to consider humor as I wrote. He introduced me to Scrambled Toast his blog that focuses mainly on topics that roused laughter. Twitter through History gives you a taste of what produces a great belly laugh. Often I thought of ways to write belly laughs, too. With a great writing model like Brad, who could fail, even for a belly laugh?

Gavin's a person who loves culture. He often shares perceptions the average person would not think about. Just to give you an idea, here's how Gavin pictured me and my work in a post he titled, It's All in the Mind. Now if you don't think that's a lift for a fledgling writer and blogger!

GL's another blogger who uses the lighter side to express the serious side of work life. I loved his approach and his goodwill to me, which spread a taste of fresh honey to many days.

Because of encouragement early on, I became more aware of people who visited Brain Based Biz. Lisa Gates of 360 Alliance swaggered in with very fresh approaches to writing, much like Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing the Bare Bones. She was short, to the point and had intriguing angles for every article she posted. For example, How to Launch a Revolution in Your Evolution.

Having the right tools makes or breaks your message since they set it apart from the crowd. Drew McLellan launched a New Blogger's Toolkit challenge and invited readers to share the tools they use to construct their work. I began to use these as part of message construction and often go to Drew's Marketing Minute to get more insights. In addition, Drew led the initiative for Age of Conversation 2, a book with many bloggers' contributions including mine.

To learn more about creating good comments, I suggest you visit Jeanne Dininni's Writers' Notes. Jeanne adds high value when she responds to readers at her site or yours. She raised the bar for me so that I wanted to lift my skills as I create comments.

To value and encourage readers, I've learned much from Karen Swim at Words for Hire. She has a very generous approach to other bloggers. Generosity and courtesy go hand-in-hand with content. Is this a winning formula for you?

I never cease to be amazed at the writing challenges Robert Hruzek posts monthly, which he titles, "What I Learned from..." One challenge that really led me to dig deep was, What I Learned from a Government Deportation Notice. This helped me get launched in memoir writing... a way to start building a little book that shows more about my life.

Joanna Young, Confident Writing, lifted my writing skills in oh, so many ways. She often challenges me through tips, since her in-depth strategies rouse my curiosity. Joanna builds blogs from readers' comments. As I watched the process, I began to do likewise and played around with zoning out and readers' solutions for times this happened to them. It's something like trying out different spices in a casserole you're making. You have to have some grounding in the spices and so that you try the ones that will enhance the dish.

Joanna, I keep asking how I might enhance the banquet for readers. You presented a tempting Group Writing Project by focusing on Writing Lessons. There are oh, so many things to think about in preparing a banquet table: the menu, arrangement of foods, choice of serving dishes, color, including plates, napkins and even tablecloth. Plus, on the tip of your mind you zero in on how you'll spice foods, and even the kinds of drinks that work well with a focus on Irish cooking, for instance.

Joanna introduced me to Rosa Say at Joyful Jubilant Learning. This gave me an opportunity to participate with others who are part of this community. Rosa offers different learning themes each month as a focus for guest bloggers. I rose to the challenge to write about life experiences as well as a book review for her blog. Guest posting helped me grow more confident as a writer, too.

Friends from social media, thanks. Thanks not only for raising writing skills but, spreading a whole banquet of happiness, too. Is that your experience? Happiness is contagious through social media friends, according to Harvard and University of California researchers. Sure spreads serotonin my way. Interestingly, I never imagined that I would learn so much from readers as well as new research on the brain as I write blogs. Though I expected to pick up tips, I didn't realize how many would come. What a bonus!

What blogger assisted you to spice your writing most and in what way?

Don't fear the pauses!

Are you familiar with the term, "pregnant pause"... a pause long enough to make you nervous when you're speaking to a group? When you introduce novel strategies or new information, unearthly silence can follow a thoughtful question you ask. What you do with a pause can make or break a presentation.

Treat silence as your ally... it provides a window of time for people to tap into their brains and play more of a role... bring ideas to the table. If you're anxious and just move on to the next point in your outline, you miss an opportunity.

Begin with a thoughtful two-footed question... a more thoughtful question on your topic that seeks people's experiences and knowledge connecting to it. Now wait... even when it seems like an eternity.

Here're six brain-based reasons why...

An individual may have...

- developed a process in the basal ganglia to sort out best ideas before speaking.

- been diminished for ideas expressed in public. The person no longer risks saying anything.

- built stronger intrapersonal intelligence skills. Such an individual is prone to reflect first.

- lacked interest in your topic and is bored or unmotivated by the presentation.

- cultivated a competitive spirit, which has been rewarded in past by listening to others' ideas first before sharing his or her wisdom.

- lacked verbalizing skills and not have confidence to share ideas.

As I've had the opportunity to collaborate with Dr. Ellen Weber in MITA sessions, I've watched her amazing acumen to pace. She has the fortitude to wait out the silence... more voice comes to life... and when participants begin to share wisdom, it takes a session to the top...

Ellen says, "Remember it's not what you say at a presentation that people remember... it's what they say!"

Innovation and invention can activate when you step into your confidence and pause...

Thoughts?

Find Oomph in Creative Editing!

Thoughtful comments filled the box following my post on why creativity shuts down if you stop to edit as you write. Want to find some excitement in editing? Joanna Young approaches editing creatively and offers refreshing tips to put a punch in your editing. Here're brilliant approaches to try...

Robyn, thanks once again for exploring some of the brain science behind this common complaint. Fascinating stuff as usual, though I'm curious - do you literally change hats? Or put an editor's hat on?

I think I might distinguish between the editor and the critic. Editing can actually be quite a creative task, just different from getting the words down. It can be enormously satisfying cutting, shaving and polishing so the best words show off in all their glory.

Or to put it another way, to cut the excess words and allow the natural rhythm of the piece to flow - to find the punch, the oomph, the unstoppable force which will leave your readers reeling

The critic I think of as the person who asks: is this a good idea? should it be written like this? now? or saved for later. Think on, think hard.

When things go skewiff is when we let the critic talk to us before we've written anything, because he (why does the critic appear as a he? well he does in my mind!)is likely to anticipate our very worst, mediocre, dull boring writing... and stop us writing anything

This gets worse when we compare our feeble efforts (not yet written) to the demands and expectations of our audience. It'll never be good enough, people will laugh... that is, we anticipate criticism

The way I get round this is to focus on my purpose. A positive purpose like: to express a powerful idea, to share some important news about brain research, to inspire someone, to let people know about the fantastic work we've been doing. Something that makes me feel positive, enthusiastic, and motivated. I keep focused on that, then let the words flow.

It's the most effective way I know to keep the critic at bay and let the writing job be done.

Gosh, that was a long comment, almost a post. I've been meaning to write a post on this, so might use this as the raw material for it. Thanks!

Joanna, thanks for taking your time to let us see editing from a whole new perspective. Writers who go skewiff might learn even more by asking purposful questions before putting pencil to paper...I know that they'd gain much from your series on how to ask purposeful questions. As you say it's a matter of knowing and being excited about our purpose. There's the crux of the issue.

I'll now approach writing and editing tasks with much more verve. What about you folks? Anyone who loves to play with words can learn to be a playful editor! After all, your brain has amazing plasticity so that we can develop new ways of doing tasks!

Do readers have additional ideas to edit more creatively?

Why Does Creativity Shut Down If You Edit Too?

Ever had a tendency to freewrite and edit at the same time when preparing a press release for the CEO? People who brainstorm and freewrite tell me that they're tempted to edit at the same time. But the minute they do, they encounter a problem... Idea flow literally stalls the second editing starts. They wonder why...

Does it have something to do with their brains? Yes! The reason is that the brain works much harder since it uses a complicated mechanism to keep the two processes separate.

So how does a writer, stop the editing gremlin from stealing imagination? Here's a suggestion I've adapted from Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within...

Think of freewriting as a time when you are fancy free and your hair is flying in the breeze as you sail with your ideas. The Editor's Hat will stop the fun of cool, breezes in your hair. Don't let yourself don that hat and spoil your creativity too soon! Tell yourself after you've enjoyed a lovely ride, you'll have plenty of time to comb out your best ideas and wear the hat.

Once your best ideas fill your paper and you run out of fuel, go ahead and put on the Editor's Hat. Put on a literal hat. This helps you separate the processes in your brain. Pretend you are editing for a large magazine... You want the article to hook readers and hold interest. And, at the same time a top quality article informs and stirs folks to question their current ideas. If you edit with this in mind, as well as watching grammar and formatting, while you wear your Editor's Hat, you'll squelch past problems of losing your creative focus.

Amazingly, your brain focuses best on one thing at a time! Spend too much time trying to juggle more than one objective and you'll end up wanting to get rid of all your goals. Ellen Weber suggests that a creator cannot be a critic at the same time.

How do you keep the editing gremlin at bay while you're creating copy for an ad or other writing projects? We can all learn from your strategies!

Reading Unleashes Your Brain's Thinking Box

A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man's mind can get both provocation and privacy. ~Edward P. Morgan

Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labeled "This could change your life." ~Helen Exley

How many books have you read in the last couple of months? I notice many bloggers include favorite books on side columns of blogs. What might happen if you read books and blogs more? Reading offers both the imaginative and the practical...

Imaginative In The Uncommon Reader, British writer and actor Alan Bennett, imagines what might happen if the queen read more. Hmmm... bet your mind never went there... does that rouse your curiosity?

As Bennett pictures it, the queen was not big on books, and one day discovers how much she likes them. She "gets so absorbed in reading that even while riding in a carriage," as Bennett characterizes this, "she is reading a book with one hand while waving to her subjects with the other."

Through her reading, Bennett's queen becomes more aware of the political world and the world in general.

"She starts having opinions and she starts really for the first time in her life putting herself in other people's shoes," Bennett says. "She'd never really imagined what it was like to be one of her subjects. And now she does. Books really humanize her, I think."

One gem in fiction is character... What is behind peoples' choices? Historical fiction opens a window to both imagination and fact so that history's fascinating. Does fiction capture your interest?

Practical On the other hand, non-fiction draws readers, in different ways... "How to..." books, science, history, business, technology... Non-fiction helps folks navigate all the practical aspects of today's world.

Women Read More Interestingly, research shows that women read more than men...

A couple of years ago, British author Ian McEwan conducted an admittedly unscientific experiment. He and his son waded into the lunch-time crowds at a London park and began handing out free books. Within a few minutes, they had given away 30 novels.

Nearly all of the takers were women, who were "eager and grateful" for the freebies while the men "frowned in suspicion, or distaste." The inevitable conclusion, wrote McEwan in The Guardian newspaper: "When women stop reading, the novel will be dead."

McEwan's prognosis is surely hyperbole, but only slightly. Surveys consistently find that women read more books than men, especially fiction.

Maybe biological differences between male and female brains affect these choices, or guys' magnetism to technology or the way girls and boys are introduced to reading at a young age... No matter what: Americans—men and women—are reading fewer books.

People Reading Less Last month The Associated Press and Ipsos, a market-research firm, released poll results revealing that Americans on the average "read only four books last year, and one in four adults read no books at all."

A National Endowment for the Arts report found that only 57 percent of Americans had read a book in 2002 a four percentage-point drop in a decade. Book sales have been flat in recent years and are expected to stay that way for the foreseeable future.

Young people, in general, read less than older people, and that does not bode well for books and the people who love them.

Reading Stirs Higher Cognitive Processes What advantage is there for folks to read? For openers, it affects ability to reason at higher cognitive levels. Here's what goes on in your brain as you read...

The large mass of white matter, consisting of bundles of fibres, links the white matter of your brain's two cerebral hemispheres. The corpus callosum carries a large number of fibres from one cerebral hemisphere to the other and is the major route of communication between the two hemispheres to control cognitive and motor function.

White Matter Matters in Reading Performance The white matter is basically the wiring in the middle," Dr. Christian Beaulieu, Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering in Alberta, Canada, explains.

"The way I see it, the grey matter is the computers and the white matter is the wiring or the Ethernet cable that connects them all up and lets them communicate."

His research team concentrated on the "wiring" that connects different parts of the brain and observed that measurable differences in the wiring can be found in children... They found that the stronger the connectivity of the white matter "wiring," the better the child's reading ability. Since our brains have remarkable plasticity, as you begin to read more, you build more reading acumen.

Reading opens your mind to a world of new ideas you would not otherwise explore... whether by book, magazine, newspaper or blog... And, like Bennett's Queen, you'll have new opinions and you'll step into the shoes of other people and see the world differently...

To compete in tomorrow's world of business, be ready... explore a vast world of ideas...

What book will you read next?

Try, Valeria Maltoni's Picnic '07 on Experience, Storytelling, Social Objects, Complexity, Simplicity and Choice for a blog to stretch ideas... What blogs enlarge your mind?