Daphne Gray-Grant grew up in the newspaper business. Her father owned a struggling weekly paper in Vancouver, Canada. While going to high school and college, she worked there until she graduated and for a few more years. Then, she became a senior editor at a large metropolitan daily where she worked for about eight years. Following that, she became pregnant with triplets, and decided she still didn't have nearly enough work. She wanted to be self-employed. So, the Publication Coach was born. Interestingly, Daphne says that she struggled with writers block during all of her years of newspapering, and didn't address the problem until she started her own business. She's also the author of the popular book, Eight and a Half Steps to Writing Faster, Better. Through her website, www.publicationcoach.com, she offers the weekly newsletter power writing. It's weekly, brief, and best of all, it's free. I've been a subscriber for years myself, and I encourage you to sign up as well. Meanwhile, it's my great pleasure to welcome Daphne here today.
Daphne, you're a professional writing coach. Tell me about your own past struggles with writer's block. Well, you know, the interesting thing for me is that I struggled enormously with writing, even when I was a professional reporter at a daily newspaper. Now, you might think how can someone who works at a daily newspaper have writer's block. Didn't you have to write every day?
But the thing is, I was a born editor, and when I worked in newspapers, I did a little bit of writing and mostly editing. I loved editing, I've always loved editing. The few times when I had to write when I worked for the daily newspaper, I found it very stressful and extremely difficult. Partly, I guess because I was an editor, and so, I was a little bit embarrassed about how slow a writer I was, but also because I hadn't really learned the tricks and techniques I've since learned, to make writing faster, easier, and better.
Well, I think we'll be talking about some of those tricks, and one of the ways I think that we might talk about that is just, how did you teach your triplets to write? Did you use some of those tricks?
Well, I taught my triplets to do many things. They're twenty years old now, and they're all at university, which is great. They're so different you'd barely know they were siblings, never mind triplets. I don't know whether it would be fair to say I taught them to write, but I certainly gave them some of the tricks and techniques I give my own clients, and they too have found them very helpful.
Well, let's hone in on one of those tricks. I mean, how would you describe the difference between diffuse mode and focused mode, when you're thinking about, and when it comes to writing?
Yeah. That's a really really important point because, for me the diffuse mode, I call that the creative or writing mode. The focus mode, I call the editing brain. One of the big mistakes that many people make when they're writing, is they try to write with their editing brain. The metaphor I like to use is, I say, imagine that these two different parts of your brain are like two different people, and now put them in a car. What do you know about that? Only one person can drive. So, if you're critical or focused brain is driving, your diffused brain is asleep in the back seat, and that's not what anyone wants when they're writing. You want your diffused brain to be active and awake, to be the one that's driving when you're writing. So, one of the techniques I like to use to help people engage their diffused brain, is mind mapping. Now, the important thing about mind mapping is, it‘s a little bit different from concept mapping. I don't know too much about concept mapping because I'm not an academic myself, but mind mapping which is also called clustering, some people may know it by that name instead, is where you take a piece of paper and you turn it sideways, and that's really really important. Having the paper sideways is essential, because what that does is that, kind of liberates your brain, and it says, oh, I can go off in any direction. If you have a paper in the sort of standard eight and a half by 11 way, that's going to make your brain think that you need to write a list, or worse an outline. I really encourage students in particular, not to outline before writing. I know this flies in the face of what many grade ten English teachers will counsel you to do. But the thing is, if you think about it, outlining engages your focused brain. That's the part of the brain that's good at spelling, and grammar, and alphabetical order in this sort of very specific tasks. When you're writing, you want to create, you want to think of things, you want to make new connections, and that's where you really need the diffused brain. So, to mind map, take that piece of paper, turn it sideways and write the topic in the center of the page, then draw a circle around it. Once you've drawn that circle around it, then, just write whatever springs into your brain. The thing I also like to say, and people find this a little bit gross sometimes, but I say it's kind of like vomiting onto the page. So, don't criticize yourself, don't second guess any of those ideas that occurs to your brain, then write it down. So, I did a mind map some years ago, and I use this when I'm teaching mind mapping all the time, and I did it on the first day of school. I don't mean I wrote the mind map on the first day of school. I wrote the mind map about the first day of school. So, what I wrote in the center of the page was, first day of school. Part of the reason I picked this topic, was because it breaks very neatly into some obvious marking points. So, one is grade one, one is high school, one is university. So, you can have different first days of school tied to those events. So, then I wrote those down, and you'll see I've marked them with little cross hatches. I did that after the fact, just so that, when you look at the mind map you can see this easily. Then, if you look, you'll see next to the one I've marked grade one in the top right hand corner, I've written the words, bee sting. Now, what does a bee sting have to do with the first day of grade one? Well, when I went to grade 1, first day of school I'm standing in the school yard with my mother, and I got stung on the lip by a bee. I will never ever forget that moment. For me, first day of school will always be linked with being stung by a bee right there on the lip. So, all I have to write is two words, bee sting, and everything comes back to me. I can picture the spot, the exact spot in the playground where I was standing. I can remember the crabby old nun who came up to me and said, "What are you making such a big deal about? Because I was crying. So, it's almost like a movie. I can play in my own brain, just based on those two words. Now, one of the questions I often get when I talk about this is people say, "Well, I can see how mind mapping would be very useful for fiction, and I could see how it might even be useful for memory, but, what does it have to do with non-fiction. I have to say that I use mind mapping everyday of my writing life and I have never written any fiction ever. So, I use it entirely for non-fiction. What you can do is when you interview someone and you take your notes, then you put the notes aside and you do the mind map based on your memory of that interview, and the things that are most interesting, I guarantee your brain will remember. Now, for university students, the issue is going to be a bit different because it's less likely you're going to be interviewing a bunch of people. It's more likely you're going to be reading a bunch of books but the same principle applies. If there is something that is really interesting to you and important and integral to your research, you're likely to remember that and the things that are most important are going to float to the top of your memory. So, you will remember them and then you can mind map about them. This is very interesting because it's related to the techniques that brilliant Nobel Prize winning neuroscientist, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, used when he was trying to really understand what was going on at an anatomical level. He would look very carefully at the cells he was watching in his microscope and then he would turn and he would try to draw them. He would draw and re-draw until he had abstracted the key chunks that stuck in his memory from when he was looking at them with the microscope versus when he was trying to draw them on the page.
So, in some sense, it seems what you're doing is to try and abstract the key ideas that have somehow crystallized in your mind through using the mind-mapping technique. That's a really really good way of putting it. It interests me in terms of education these days. I think we are down playing a bit the value of memory. I don't know about you, but I have all my phone numbers entered into my iPhone. I don't remember a phone number anymore to save my life and people don't memorize poetry anymore. There's all sorts of things that used to be part of the regular day to day life and regular school life that aren't there so much anymore. So, I think we're a little bit wary of forcing ourselves to rely on our memory at all, but the thing that strikes me about mind mapping is that if something is interesting or important to you, you're going to remember it. At least you're going to remember well enough to mind map it. Then, of course when you get to the point where you have to do citations, of course you have to look it up. You have to get that 100 percent right or you're quoting someone else, you need to check it word for word. But for doing the mind map for inspiring yourself to write, you're not needing that kind of 100 percent accuracy, you're just needing the inspiration. That's what mind mapping is so valuable for. I couldn't agree more and I also couldn't agree more about the importance of memory. I think what we've done is mistakenly by thinking, well, memorization can be sometimes a bad thing if you're just sitting there memorizing things without understanding them. But, we've thrown the baby out with the bath water, we've said memorization is always bad and that's actually not true. I mean, great poets have said, "Memorize a poem because it helps you to understand the underlying meaning much more deeply." In the same way, when you memorize for example an equation, it can help you understand that poetic under tone that underlies the equation and that's often the lost. But I have to bring out something you've alluded to in the past and that's simply the idea of, when you're trying to get into that diffuse mode and I'm saying this a little bit metaphorically because we haven't truly analyzed what's going on. But that mode where you're stepping back a little bit and you're not focusing completely and intently, and you're trying to get something down on a page that sometimes in order to avoid that editorial mode, the best thing to do is to cover up your screen with a towel or something like that. That helps prevent you from going back and trying to edit what you just wrote and just get it out onto the page.
Absolutely, you know that is the number one mistake that most students. You don't have to be a student to make this mistake. Most beginning writers make is they edit while they write and I like to say that that's kind of like trying to clear the table while you're still eating dinner. It just doesn't work very well. One of the tricks I suggest to people if they've developed this habit is that they turn off their monitor while they're writing. So, of course you need to be a touch typist to be able to do that. But, if you are a touch typist, then turn off your monitor and if that feels to drastic or if you have a Mac that doesn't let you turn off your monitor separately, then just hang a towel over it and write without looking at what you're reading. I wrote for probably more than 40 years while I edited constantly while I wrote and that was so dysfunctional and so bad for me. It slowed me down so much and made writing so difficult and traumatic. That I finally made the decision that I had to break that habit. So, I started turning off my monitor. I tried some other things as well that also really helped. There's a great app on the Internet called write or die. So, it's writeordie.com. If you scroll down that screen a little bit, then you'll get to an area where you can enter the number of words you want to write and enter a time limit for yourself and then you press a button that says, I can't remember what it says, but something like start and then you get a blank screen and you start to write. What inevitably happens is we will write a few words and then we stop and we look off and stare into space while we're trying to plan what to write next. What happens is the software notices we're not typing and after X number of seconds, I think it's about 10 seconds of not moving the keyboard at all, then the screen starts to pinken and I like to compare it to a blush. Because the screen's embarrassed for you. It gets pinker and pinker and pinker the longer you go without writing. I haven't timed this in a long time so I can't remember exactly the time limit it gives you. Let's say it's 20 seconds. If you've gone 20 seconds without writing at all, then you get a loud punishing noise. So, its either a crying baby, a car alarm, or '70s disco music. I'll leave it to you to decide which is worse, but it's a very clever technique for teaching you to break the habit of editing while you write. I've used Write or Die myself and I think it does work very, very well. I love this approach of separating your editing from your actual writing. For me, what I sometimes find is when I think of something and I'm about to put it down and then I think, that's terrible. I can't write that. Then I'm editing in my head before I'm writing and when I stop that, when I just say, "Okay, I have got to get that out. Hey, that's terrible." But that's the way it is, it's going to come out on the page terrible. I'm so surprised later when I looked back and I find, hey, you know what? That actually wasn't as terrible as I thought. In fact, it got me started and it's pretty good. Yes. That happens to so many people. I have to tell you, I have taught writing for so many years now. I can tell you that when I talk to people about that nasty little editing voice that's in the back of all our brains, we all have that voice and it says the same thing to all of us. It says things like; this is no good, my boss or teacher is going to hate this, this is boring, this is really really bad. That voice says really negative essentially unhelpful things to all of us. We're all in the same boat. So, what I like to do is I like to talk back to that voice and I say things like, could you shut up for a minute? I don't have time to talk right now. I will talk to you when I'm editing but I'm writing right now. I'm too busy. If you can be conscious of that voice and talk back to it rather than just let it yammer in your ear, then you're better off. So, I think the number one technique for dealing with that is just recognizing that it's happening. Recognizing that it happens to everyone and taking some steps to deal with it. Well, I thank you so much Daphne. This was very useful and a fantastic reminder even for me. I want to encourage everyone out there to please go ahead and explore signing up for Daphne's free newsletter which is at www.publicationcoach.com. I'm a subscriber as well and maybe even take a look at her great book, Eight and a Half Steps to Writing Faster, Better or Daphne's email course which is called Extreme Writing Makeover.
So, thank you so much again Daphne and we'll see you on the flip-side.
Thanks Barb, nice talking to you.
达芙妮·格雷-格兰特在报纸行业长大。她的父亲在加拿大温哥华拥有一家经营困难的周报。在她上高中和大学期间，她一直在那里工作，直到毕业并继续工作了几年。后来，她成为了一家大型都市日报的高级编辑，在那里工作了大约八年。之后，她怀上了三胞胎，决定她仍然觉得工作量不够大。她想成为一名自雇人士。于是，《出版教练》诞生了。有趣的是，达芙妮说她在报社工作的所有这些年里都与写作障碍作斗争，直到她开始自己的生意才解决了这个问题。她还是畅销书《快速、更好地写作的八个半步骤》的作者。通过她的网站www.publicationcoach.com，她提供每周新闻简报power writing。这是每周一次的简短内容，最重要的是，它是免费的。我自己已经是订阅者多年了，我鼓励你也注册。同时，今天能在这里欢迎达芙妮真是太好了。
“达芙妮，你是一名专业的写作教练。告诉我你自己过去是如何与作家的写作障碍作斗争的。”
“嗯，你知道，对我来说有趣的事情是，即使在我成为一家日报的专业记者时，我也在写作方面遇到了巨大的困难。现在，你可能会想，一个在日报工作的人怎么会有写作障碍呢？难道你不是每天都得写吗？但问题是，我是一个天生的编辑，当我在报社工作时，我做一点写作，大部分时间都在编辑。我喜欢编辑，我一直都喜欢编辑。当我为日报工作时不得不写作的那几次，我发现这非常紧张且极其困难。部分原因是我猜我是编辑，所以，我对作为一个作家有多慢感到有点尴尬，但也是因为我当时还没有真正学会那些技巧和技巧，以使写作更快、更容易、更好。 ”
“嗯，我认为我们将会讨论其中的一些技巧，我想我们可能会谈论的一个方式就是，你是如何教你的三胞胎写作的？你用了一些这些技巧吗？“
“嗯，我教我的三胞胎做很多事情。他们现在已经二十岁了，都在上大学，这很棒。他们如此不同以至于你几乎不知道他们是兄弟姐妹，更不用说是三胞胎了。我不知道说教他们写作是否公平，但我肯定给了我自己的客户一些技巧和技巧，他们也发现这些非常有用。”
“好吧，让我们专注于其中一个技巧。我的意思是，当你思考和写作时，你会如何描述散漫模式和专注模式之间的区别？ ”
“是的。这是一个非常重要的点，因为对我来说散漫模式，我称之为创造性或写作模式。专注模式，我称之为编辑大脑。许多人在写作时犯的一个重大错误是他们试图用他们的编辑大脑来写作。我喜欢用的比喻是，我说想象你大脑的两个不同部分就像两个不同的人，现在把他们放在一辆车里。你知道那是什么吗？只有一个人可以开车。所以，如果你的批判性或专注的大脑正在驾驶，你的散漫大脑在后座上睡着了，这不是任何人在写作时想要的。你希望你的散漫大脑活跃并清醒地驾驶着你在写作时的大脑。
“所以，我喜欢用来帮助人们激活他们的散漫大脑的技巧之一是思维导图。现在，关于思维导图的重要之处在于它与概念图略有不同。我对概念图不太了解，因为我自己不是一个学者，但思维导图也被称为集群化，有些人可能知道这个名字代替它，就是你拿一张纸把它侧过来放好纸面朝下非常重要。把纸侧过来是至关重要的，因为它解放了你的大脑，并且它说，哦，我可以朝任何方向走。如果你有一个标准的八又半英寸乘11英寸的纸张放在那里的话会让你的大脑认为你需要写一个列表或者更糟的是大纲。我真的特别鼓励学生不要在写作前就列出大纲。
“我知道这与许多十年级英语老师会建议你做的事情背道而驰。但事实是，如果你考虑一下的话就会发现列出大纲会吸引你的专注大脑。那是擅长拼写、语法和字母顺序等这种非常具体任务的大脑部分。当你写作时你想创造东西、想事情、想建立新的联系时这才是你真正需要散漫大脑的时候。所以要进行思维导图绘制那张纸然后将其侧过来在页面中心写下主题然后在其周围画一个圆圈一旦你画出了那个圆圈然后就写下任何涌入你脑海的东西我还喜欢说的一件事是人们有时候会觉得有点恶心但我会说这有点像呕吐到纸上。
“所以，不要批评自己，不要对自己脑海中出现的想法进行二次猜测，然后把它们写下来。几年前我做了一张思维导图，当我在教授思维导图时，我一直都在使用它，我在开学的第一天就做了。我不是说我在开学的第一天写下了思维导图。我是关于开学第一天写下了思维导图。所以我在页面中心写的是“开学第一天”。我选择这个主题的部分原因是因为它可以很整齐地分成一些明显的标记点。一个是一年级，一个是高中，一个是大学。所以你可以把不同的开学第一天与这些事件联系起来。然后我把它们写下来，你会看到我用小叉号标记了它们。我是事后这么做的，这样当你看思维导图的时候就能很容易地看到。
“然后，如果你看，你会看到我在右上角标记的一年级旁边写了“蜜蜂蜇伤”这几个字。那么，蜜蜂蜇伤和一年级的第一天有什么关系呢？嗯，当我上一年级的第一天去学校时，我和我妈妈站在校园里，我的嘴唇被一只蜜蜂蜇伤了。我永远不会忘记那一刻。对我来说，开学的第一天总是和蜜蜂蜇伤联系在一起。所以我只需要写两个词，蜜蜂蜇伤，一切都会回到我身边。我可以想象那个地点，操场上我站着的那个确切地点。我记得那位脾气暴躁的老修女走过来对我说：“你为什么这么大惊小怪？”因为我在哭。所以，这几乎像是一部电影。我可以根据那两个词在我的大脑中播放。现在，当我谈论这个时我经常得到的一个问题是人们说：‘嗯，我可以理解思维导图对小说非常有用，我也可以理解它甚至对记忆可能有用，但它和非小说有什么关系。’
“我不得不说我在我的写作生涯中每天都在使用思维导图，而我从来没有写过任何小说。所以我完全为非小说使用它。你可以做的是当你采访某人并记下笔记时，然后把笔记放在一边，根据你对那次采访的记忆做思维导图，以及最有趣的事情，我保证你的大脑会记住它们。
“现在，对于大学生来说问题会有点不同，因为你不太可能采访一群人。更有可能的是你要读很多书，但同样的原则适用。如果有一些事情对你来说非常有趣并且对你的研究至关重要和不可或缺，你很可能会记住它们，而且最重要的事情将会浮现在记忆的顶部。所以你会记住它们，然后你可以围绕它们做思维导图。”
“这非常有趣，因为它与杰出的诺贝尔奖获得者神经科学家圣地亚哥·拉蒙-卡哈尔（Santiago Ramón y Cajal）在试图真正理解解剖学层面发生了什么时使用的技术有关。他会非常仔细地观察他正在显微镜下观察的细胞，然后他会转过身来尝试画出来。他会一遍又一遍地画图直到他从中提取出从他用显微镜观察它们到他试图在纸上画出它们时留在记忆中的关键部分。 因此，从某种意义上说，你所做的事情似乎是为了试图通过使用思维导图技术抽象出在你脑海中已经结晶的关键想法。这是一个非常好的表达方式。这对当今的教育领域很感兴趣。”
“我认为我们有点低估了记忆的价值。我不知道你怎么想，但我所有的电话号码都输入到我的iPhone中了。我已经记不住一个电话号码了，人们不再记忆诗歌了。曾经是日常生活中的一部分的各种事情现在已经不那么多了。所以我认为我们对强迫自己依赖记忆有点谨慎，但让我印象深刻的是思维导图是如果某件事情对你来说有趣或重要，你就会记住它。至少你会记得足够好以至于可以用它来做思维导图。然后，当然当你到了必须引用的时候，你当然需要查一查。你必须百分之百正确地引用别人的话或者你需要逐字检查它。但是为了激发自己写作而做思维导图时，你不需要那种百分之百的准确性，你只需要灵感。这就是思维导图如此宝贵的原因。”
“我再同意不过了，我也再同意不过记忆的重要性了。我认为我们所做的是错误的认为记忆力有时候是一件坏事，如果你只是坐在那里死记硬背而不理解它们的话。但是我们已经把孩子连同洗澡水一起泼出去了，我们已经说记忆力总是不好的，这实际上不是真的。我的意思是伟大的诗人说过：“记住一首诗因为它帮助你更深入地理解潜在的意义。”同样地，当你比如记住一个方程式时，它可以帮助你理解方程式背后的诗意基调，那通常是丢失的。但是我必须提到你们过去暗示过的一些东西，那就是当你试图进入那种扩散模式时的概念——我说这话有点比喻因为我们现在还没有真正分析到底发生了什么事。但那种模式是你稍微后退一点而不是完全专注和集中注意力的模式，你试图把一些东西写在纸上有时为了避免编辑模式的最好方法是用毛巾之类的东西遮住你的屏幕。这有助于防止你回去试图编辑你刚刚写的东西并把它写到纸上。”
“当然，这是大多数学生犯的头号错误。你不必是学生才能犯这个错误。大多数初学写作的人都会边写边编辑，我常说这就像在你吃晚饭时试图清理餐桌一样行不通。我建议人们的一个技巧是，在写作时关掉显示器。当然，你需要会用触摸板打字才能做到这一点。但如果你是个触摸板打字者，那就关掉显示器吧，如果觉得这样做太极端或者你的Mac不允许单独关闭显示器，那就把一条毛巾挂在上面，不用看屏幕上的内容就写作。我大概写了40多年的东西，一边写一边不断编辑，这非常不高效，对我也很不利。它大大拖慢了我的速度，让写作变得如此困难和痛苦。最终我决定必须打破这个习惯。所以我开始关掉我的显示器。
“我还尝试了其他一些方法，也确实很有帮助。互联网上有一个很棒的应用叫做write or die。它的网址是writeordie.com。如果你稍微滚动一下屏幕，就会看到一个区域，你可以输入你想写的字数和你给自己设定的时间限制，然后按一个按钮，我想不起那个按钮叫什么了，但大概是类似“开始”之类的词，然后你就会看到一个空白屏幕并开始写作。不可避免的是我们会写几个字然后就停下来，看着屏幕发呆，试图计划接下来要写什么。软件注意到我们没有在打字，经过X秒（我记得大约是10秒）不动键盘，屏幕就开始变粉色，我喜欢把它比作脸红。因为屏幕为你感到尴尬。屏幕越粉红说明越长时间你没有写作。我已经很久没测过时间了，所以记不清它给你的时间限制是多少了。假设是20秒。如果你20秒都没动笔写字，那么就会听到一个响亮的惩罚性的声音。可能是婴儿哭声、汽车警报声或70年代的迪斯科音乐。我会留给你自己决定哪个更糟，但这是一个非常聪明的方法来教你打破边写边编辑的习惯。”
“我自己也用过Write or Die，我认为它确实非常有效。”
“我喜欢这种将编辑工作与实际写作分开的方法。有时候我发现当我想到某件事并准备写下它时，然后我想，这太糟糕了。我不能写这个。然后我就在脑海中编辑，当我停止这样做时，当我说，‘好吧，我得把它写出来。嘿，这很糟糕。’但事实就是这样，它在页面上看起来会很糟糕。后来我很惊讶地回头看到，嘿，你知道吗？实际上并没有我想象的那么糟糕。事实上，它让我开始了写作并且写得相当不错。“
“是的。很多人都是这样。”
“我必须告诉你，我现在教写作已经很多年了。我可以告诉你们，当我和人们谈论我们大脑后部那个讨厌的小编辑声音时，我们所有人都有那个声音，它对我们所有人说的都是一样的话。它会说像：‘这不好’，‘我的老板或老师会讨厌这个’，‘这很无聊’，‘这真的非常糟糕’。那个声音对我们所有人说的都是非常负面、本质上无益的话。我们都在同一条船上。所以，我喜欢做的是我会回应那个声音说：‘你能闭嘴一会儿吗？我现在没时间说话。我会在编辑的时候和你说话，但现在我在写作。我太忙了。’如果你能意识到那个声音并在它喋喋不休地在你耳边说话时回应它而不是让它继续说下去，那么你会更好一些。所以，我认为处理这个问题的第一个技巧就是认识到它在发生。认识到每个人都会发生这种情况并采取一些措施来应对它。”
“非常感谢你Daphne。这非常有用，即使对我也是极好的提醒。我想鼓励大家去注册Daphne的免费新闻通讯网站www.publicationcoach.com。我也是订阅者之一，甚至还可以看看她那本很棒的书《八步半：快速、更好地写作》，以及Daphne的电子邮件课程“极限写作大改造”。 再次感谢你Daphne, 我们下次再见。”
“谢谢Barb, 很高兴和你聊天。”
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