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Inspiring rewrites happen in your unconscious writing brain

ByJosh Bernoff

I woke up this morning with a great idea on how to revise a chapter I’m working on. By the end of today, it’s going to be much better.

This doesn’t happen by accident. Here’s how to prepare properly so lightning can strike.

What must be in place for an inspiring rewrite

Before an inspiring rewrite can happen, this is what you need:

  1. Preparation. It helps if you’ve been thinking about the piece you’re working on for a long time. Over a period of days or weeks, you’ve likely collected nuggets of research, stories, quotes, and witticisms you can include. While you’re collecting these, some part of your intellect is, consciously or unconsciously, considering how to organize them.
  2. Focus. You need to try to solve the problem of assembling the piece of writing. You might write a draft and feel it’s missing something. Or you might assemble a fat outline. But until you’ve wrestled with the whole piece — successfully or not — you haven’t programmed your brain to start really working on the problem.
  3. Time. If you complete your writing project right at the deadline, there’s no time to rewrite it. It needs time to sit (or more accurately, your mind needs time to sit with it). So allow a day or two between the completion of your draft and when it needs to be fully polished.
  4. Time off. For your unconscious mind to work on a problem, it needs to be occupied with something else. So you need a break, during which you might be walking, cooking, watching a movie, or anything else that’s not writing. After a little time off, inspiration is likely to strike.
  5. A modular approach. It’s a lot easier to rewrite things if they’re well organized. Then you can rearrange and improve some bits while leaving the rest alone.
  6. The will to improve. The wrong attitude is, “This sucks, why did I write it?” The right attitude is “I’ve got it! I know what’s missing, and I know how to fix it.” Now, do the work and rewrite around your new inspiration.

Creativity is ineffable, but you can prepare for it

Inspiration seems to just happen. The idea that you can prepare for it is counterintuitive.

But you can create the conditions that make it far more likely, especially in writing. Then your completed work can be inspired, rather than half-baked.

Finishing a draft ahead of the deadline may seem impossible, but the results are well worth it.

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3 Comments

  1. “Over a period of days or weeks, you’ve likely collected nuggets of research, stories, quotes, and witticisms you can include. While you’re collecting these, some part of your intellect is, consciously or unconsciously, considering how to organize them.”

    So true! I publish an article a month on LinkedIn. By the time I begin to write, I’m not starting from scratch. I’m working from notes and quotes I’ve assembled, and pondered, over weeks, months, or even years.

    Reply

  2. Thanks Josh, a great summary of the elements of writing that I have become aware of over time. I now have them all in a row which helps my neurodiverse brain be organized. Also leaves me feeling less alone in my writing!

    Reply