The Writer’s Process: How to Get Your Brain in Gear

The Writer’s Process: How to Get Your Brain in Gear

In this article, Steph Nickel reviews The Writer’s Process: How to Get Your Brain in Gear by Anne Janzer, and finds that she is impressed!

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A Review of The Writer’s Process

I have recently come across an amazing book, The Writer’s Process: How to Get Your Brain in Gear.

Before you think it’s only of interest if you’re a writer or want to become a writer, consider the subtitle, How to Get Your Brain in Gear. Who among us doesn’t want to do that more efficiently?

Before deciding this book isn’t for you, I would encourage you to ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I want to know how to engage the “logical” and “creative” parts of my mind, in writer’s terms, the Scribe and the Muse?
• What happens to our thinking processes when we step back from outside influences, including the Internet?
• When is it best to walk away, for a time, from the task at hand?
• How can I trigger my mind to settle into a specific task?
• How can I move beyond the scarcity mindset?

And speaking of questions, the Amazon review of The Writer’s Process reads this way:

Do you fear the blank page? You may be skipping the essential early phases of writing. 

Do you generate swarms of ideas but never publish anything? You need strategies to focus and persist to the finish. 

When you learn to work with your brain instead of against it, you’ll get more done and have more fun. 

Master the Inner Game of Writing

The Writer’s Process combines proven practices of successful authors with cognitive science research about how our minds work.

You’ll learn:
– How to invite creativity and flow into your writing process
– Why separating writing into different steps makes you more productive
– How to overcome writer’s block, negative feedback, and distractions
– How to make time for writing in a busy, interrupt-driven life

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I’m Impressed!

I can’t tell you how impressed I am with this book. I’m not exaggerating when I say, “It’s lifechanging.”

I write monthly posts for the InScribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship blog. May’s topic is “Writing in the Cracks of Time.”

I began to write my post for InScribe by explaining why I find focus and rigid schedules difficult. And then I downloaded The Writer’s Process audiobook—and had to rewrite the post significantly.

Neuroscience and Productivity

I’ve recently become interested in neuroscience and this book incorporates recent discoveries with the process of productivity. It makes the subject approachable for the layman.

For the most part, I’m not really learning things I didn’t know—at least on one level.

I know the satisfaction that comes from completing a project before moving onto the next.

I know how much easier it is to focus on the task at hand without distractions: a cluttered workspace; a cellphone in my line of sight; even music, especially music with words.

I know I’m far more successful keeping my thoughts in check when I don’t allow myself to flit from distraction to distraction to distraction or even other things on my To-Do list.

I know I will achieve far more of the projects on my list if I stick to one task at a time—even if that’s editing a single chapter of a book rather than the entire manuscript.

I know I’m able to learn new things, but for too long, I’ve been putting off exploring important subject matter: theology and apologetics, for instance. (You can learn more about my thoughts on these topics in my review of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.)

Applying the Writer’s Process

Sometimes, it isn’t what we know but how we apply it. Implementing what I’m learning and rediscovering in The Writer’s Process has changed my work habits and mindset.

I am now putting into practice concepts that were vague and on the “One Day I’ll Implement this Knowledge” list.

And, of course, I’m learning new things as well. As I mentioned, the author refers extensively to neuroscience, a subject I’m just wading into.

Although, I don’t know if the author is a Christian, this book makes me think of Psalm 139:14 (ESV),

“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

So, if you’d like to get your brain in gear, I do suggest you pick up a copy of Anne Janzer’s The Writer’s Process: How to Get Your Brain in Gear.