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Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge
- jseliger 3y agoA lot of people suffer a lot of anxiety around writing, and it seems like trying to lower the stakes helps: https://bessstillman.substack.com/p/on-writing-or-not https://bessstillman.substack.com/p/on-writing-or-not
- adaml_623 3y agoNow I'm anxious about cancer and I didn't even get to the secret about lowering the stakes :-/
- voisin 3y agoI read it and can’t find what the secret about lowering the stakes is. It seems like it takes the impending death of a loved one to put into perspective the resistance of writing as an emperor with no clothes. That if you’re meant to write you will when it realize it. Is my reading comprehension poor today or was there advice I missed on how to lower the stakes outside of a serious situation like she faces?
- cableshaft 3y agoFrom the article: > What if you just can't think of anything? Just write about your day if you need to. What you did, what you read about online (including reflecting on news if you read that), what thoughts you had over the course of the day. When I have good writing habits I can easily write 500-3000+ words about my day, and I don't have what most people would consider an interesting life. I just work from home, work on my hobbies (mostly gamedev), read articles, go to one or two social events a week (often just a family party or casual game night or meetup, nothing crazy), go to a few conventions throughout the year, and take one weeklong trip. One year I managed to write 120,000+ words with this approach, and it likely would have been higher if I hadn't skipped a decent number of days (maybe not a lot higher, I sometimes made up for the skipped days by reflecting back as much as I could). I'm not currently that good about it, though. In general it's been a bad year for me for writing these things. Maybe this article will help me get back into it.
- riidom 3y ago> Just write about your day if you need to. In past, I had the habit of laying in bed and not being able to fall asleep because I was pondering about "bad" things that happened that day, or pondering about things going to happen the next day where I didn't feel confident about the outcome, or my role (or similar). I kept this a little vague, I think the kind of events that keep you away from sleeping may be different for everyone. And if you have the habit of being in bed awake for longer time, you know why that is anyway. To get to the point: Doing a daily writing basically wiped out the problem entirely for me. Nowadays, when I can't sleep, it is because I ate too much too late. I do my writing once per day, usually close to bed time. I write about relatively noteworthy things ("another day of being too lazy to progress on hobby thing XY" is a pretty common one), then go a bit on a tangent maybe, why that is and if it's actually that bad. I try to be mostly gentle to myself here and keep it positive. If things happen that annoy me (neighbours annoying, cashier rude, big train delay, whatever), I of course write them down too, and also go on a tangent. Can I do something about this? Are there maybe good reasons for it, which I didn't think or care of the moment it happened, etc? Basically, do the thing you would do while laying in bed and pondering things - the difference is, when you are not in bed, and writing, you do it in a more constructive, brief way. For events the next day (difficult meeting etc.) nail down the worst case, the way it will likely go, the things you for sure do not wanna do/say. And it weeds out the desire to unwrap all that crap once more as soon as you lay down. Which is the whole point of the exercise, basically. Do I read these things ever again? Most often not, honestly. But I maybe change my opinion on that, and if so, they are available. FWIW, I write these on computer, not pencil and paper. Lowers the friction for me, and is fine. Most often it's in the range of 150-400 words, roughly guessed.
- rajataghi 3y agoRead through the article - fill-in journal seems like a good idea for a small app. Does anything like that exist?
- nuancebydefault 3y ago> Writing What Pops into Your Head I believe this is what I usually do when placing comments on this HN forum. Bonus: enhanced self-knowledge and in a lot of cases, instant feedback!
- hyperthesis 3y agoThe feedback-evaluation of you also must be evaluated.
- jbm 3y agoSure it does, you aren't getting me this time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Flowers_Campaign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Flowers_Campaign Jokes aside, this definitely helped when I was in college, especially when I had a follow up session where I could ask questions to my professors or the TA
- motohagiography 3y agoIt's unbelievable how that campaign and even the hint of something like it here with internet mobs can obliterate the creative capacity of huge numbers of people. I write and make to understand things, and by example, I recently wrote about 12,000 words to get a yield of about 3,000 words of my best work. The stuff in that other 9,000 words will probably never see a screen again, but it had to come out to mine it for the single ideas and turns of phrase that become like library functions for dense, concise writing. If you can't produce the raw material, you can't make anything new or good.
- prepend 3y agoThere’s a black mirror episode in the future about how LLMs trained on people’s discarded drafts start outing them for having disfavored opinions. Maybe through people’s digital AI ghosts (AIs made from people’s content after they die) start spouting racist stuff. So people are surprised to learn their friends and heroes were racist/capitalist/nickel back fans/etc Ends up being a programming error that didn’t properly account for boundaries. That’s the end of my expected story idea. But I best google and Microsoft are training off every character written, not just what makes it to your final 3,000.
- motohagiography 3y agoNot giving a fuck is a superpower.
- slowhadoken 3y agoIt’s my preferred method of communication but persuasion is popular. Self-help rhetoric propagates quickly through large groups.
- zeroCalories 3y agoI like writing because it forces you to turn vague feelings into concrete ideas. You can barf your thoughts onto paper and then read it with a critical eye, allowing you to evaluate your own thoughts. It helps me to find the gaps in my knowledge, notice sloppy arguments, etc. Sometimes that leads to a better understanding of the topic, but most of the time I realize that I have no understanding of the topic, which is still useful information. For example I've found myself eager to drop a hot take on a recent international event, but after writing out my comment I realize that I'm an idiot, so I make a mental note and post it anyway.
- PhilipRoman 3y ago>I like writing because it forces you to turn vague feelings into concrete ideas. Yep. I've started painting my dreams and it is surprisingly difficult to turn vague memories into concrete scenes. It's almost physically exhausting.
- johnchristopher 3y agoDo you paint them as you remember them or do you write them down before ?
- PhilipRoman 3y agoI try to paint them as soon as possible after waking up. Usually I just write down a list of keywords, that seems enough to keep my brain from erasing them. I don't think it's really possible to capture a scene in text. The text only serves as memory aid.
- lacrimacida 3y agoThat’s interesting, care to share them?
- Geee 3y agoI did this one time when I saw a particularly beautiful scenery. I could remember the elements mostly, but didn't quite manage to capture the beauty of it.
- javawizard 3y agoI have a pretty strong natural filter. Years of therapy and three different therapists have yet to get me to a place where I can truly open up, even when writing on a page I know no-one else will see. Two days ago I did weed for the first time. I accidentally took a much larger hit than I meant to. For the first 15 minutes I had a complete out-of-body experience; nothing seemed real, I felt like I was floating through space, able to peer into reality at will, still not quite trusting that it wasn't all a dream. I'm pretty sure the term of art for what I experienced would be a psychotic episode. After that... I lost my filter. Like, it was gone. And my mouth was a conveyor belt connected to the emotional part of my brain. No logic, just uninhibited speech, for 45 minutes, all while sobbing harder than I have in my entire life. I exposed every last deep, dark secret I possessed. My fear of never being good enough. My fear that everyone in my life will leave me at some point. My fear that I've done so many hurtful things over my life that I'm unworthy of love and of the friends I have. And many more things I won't be sharing with the world, at least not yet. Inside, it felt like my brain and my mouth were connected by a pipe, and all I could do was sit back and watch in horror as the very depths of my mind were laid bare for all to see. A good friend of mine was with me while I did it. She heard everything. It's a mark of our friendship that she held me, reassured me that she loved me for who I am, not who I want people to think I am. Our friendship is even stronger now, something I would never have thought possible before having that experience. It was terrifying, and yet oddly theraputic. I'm seriously considering cannabis-assisted psychotherapy now. --- I guess what I'm trying to say is: there are a number of substances that induce mind-altering states in ways that are relatively safe and free from long term effects. If you're someone who can't seem to open up naturally, don't be afraid to try them. They just might change your life. (As with everything, consume appropriately and safely. Have someone experienced in the substance you're consuming keep an eye on you. And for god's sake, don't do anything known to be addictive or to have severe negative side effects.) Also, find friends who you can truly be yourself around, who love you even when they know the absolute worst about you. It makes all the difference to know that someone loves you not for who you want the world to think you are but for who you actually are.
- coffeebeqn 3y agoWriting is one of my favorite things to do high. Nothing that interesting just whatever pops in my mind. Pen to paper so I don’t get distracted by shiny internet things
- zingababba 3y agoI've been journaling for something like 25 years now. The hardest yet most rewarding part for me is going back and reading my entries. Sometimes I have to force myself because I'm often revolted by what I've written during various periods however it has really helped me understand my moods.
- SoftTalker 3y agoIs it important to go back and read them? The few times I've felt motivated to write down my thoughts were during periods of high personal stress and once they were on paper I put the notebook on a shelf. It sat for a while, and one day when I thought about it I tore up the pages and threw them away. They weren't anything I needed anymore, and I certainly didn't want anyone else to come across them.
- layer8 3y agoThe problem I have with this is that my thoughts come 10 or 20 times quicker than I can write them down. And while doing this writing exercise I’ll have meta-thoughts about the writing and the exercise. The thoughts hopelessly outrun the writing, and also the train of thoughts will be wildly different from what it would be when not attempting to write it down. I guess one still learns something from the exercise, but it’s quite a frustrating experience.
- prepend 3y agoI few similarly, but writing both makes me edit in real time and then again as I move stuff around. I don’t think it’s useful for literally capturing every idea, but it captures as many as you can get down. It’s kind of like how when you’re reading a book aloud you get a few seconds ahead in your head.
- dwaltrip 3y agoIt sounds like you are putting too much pressure on yourself. You don’t have to write everything down. Just writing something, anything at all, no matter what it is, is great. That’s something to be proud of. I find it very helpful to slow down, breathe, and regain connection to my body. And you can stop whenever you want. Journaling is something you do for yourself — it shouldn’t feel like a chore. Your journal is your safe place where you can dump your thoughts. It will never judge you :) It can receive anything you offer to it.
- layer8 3y agoMy point is that I don't find it remotely feasible to write down unfiltered thoughts. They are necessarily dramatically filtered in terms of volume, because the speed of thought is magnitudes faster than the speed of writing. They are also filtered because putting things into words constitutes a transformation and distortion of the original thoughts, a crafting into words that are not quite the same as the original thoughts. Thirdly, the writing process introduces meta-thoughts about the writing, which when following "write down what pops into your head" very quickly leads to just writing about the writing. Maybe other people are less conscious of the distortions and of their meta-thoughts. But for me it makes the exercise a rather artificial process, where it's difficult to produce anything authentic, anything close to the original thoughts.
- thomasfuller 3y agoI find this to be true for me personally. I try to set aside 5 minutes every day just to write what ever I’m thinking about. I find it forces me to confront my anxieties directly. Sometimes even just writing about them reduces them. I think this style of writing is intentionally not meant to be perfected so I never go back and edit what I’ve written. Earlier this year I built https://chronofile.co https://chronofile.co to help me with this specific practice.
- NalNezumi 3y agoI think a lot of people put too much pressure on themselves when it comes to the advice "writing your thoughts down". Perfectionism, or the memories of being forced to take notes in school, kicks in and you start to look for how-to:s, format and guides. Very similar to meditation. The best meditation advice I got was to just sit down, focus on doing nothing and be OK with being bored. Not some breathing techniques, how to focus your mind, posture etc. That comes later, very naturally, after you get curious about improvements. Same goes for writing down thoughts. Just take a blank A4 paper from the printer and write away. Not sure what to write? Write about that, the fact that you're not sure what to write. Throw the paper away if you don't like the thoughts you see, or at least do it with that mindset. It's not about writing something novel, just as meditating is not about reaching some enlightenment
- rpastuszak 3y agoHi, I eat my own dogfood so to speak and built an app for stream of consciousness writing: https://enso.sonnet.io https://enso.sonnet.io I've been using it for 4 years, every day, every morning. We also have a small, but community of users using it regularly. Finally, weirdly enough I wrote about morning notes, processing emotions through writing here: https://untested.sonnet.io/Stream+of+Consciousness+Morning+Notes https://untested.sonnet.io/Stream+of+Consciousness+Morning+N...
- numtel 3y agoBefore I graduated from college, my aunt gave me the book, The Artist's Way, which prescribes this basic task as you've described as the foundational exercise for creativity. The suggestion given was 3 pages a day no matter what.
- criddell 3y agoDid you pick up the practice? If so, what are your thoughts after doing it for some time?
- mtalantikite 3y ago
- ckyngcybra 3y agoI started doing this like 3 years ago. Actually have like 30+ 100page sketchbooks filled so far. Keep meaning to catalogue it all, but I keep adding to it instead.
- iammjm 3y agoI think it's nice to see my own library grow. It will also be interesting to revisit it one day. It's like a time capsule. Plus it's thousands of pages of input to create an ai-version of myself one day ;)
- cyanydeez 3y agoGood to hear my livejournal was more than just bad teenage poetry
- Geee 3y agoI've written down (typed) my thoughts for almost 20 years now. They're mostly just some sort of ideas that pop in my head; usually inspired by something I've read. Lot of them are just app / business ideas. Usually a few ideas a day. Not sure if it's been helpful in any way.
- iamjason89 3y agoReading this article and the comments here make me want to journal again. After reading a book on taking smart notes and finally successfully implementing the zettelkasten technique into my daily life, I feel like I've drifted away from the traditional journal method. Where I now utilize a system of index cards to capture dreams, thought out ideas, task list and concepts, I previously held notebooks that I would attempt to write daily on all various types of things. Reading back on these is an amazing to relive and stir up new feelings. I found that when I wrote and read things back later, I would have trouble remembering them fully. When I was using a "journal" daily, I started to capture a few key details with every entry to help with recall: 1) Current date and exact time (ex. 10/9/23 @ 9:33am) 2) Music / auditory ambiance (ex. X song was playing in background) 3) Where I was while writing (ex. on couch in living room at X house) 4) A trigger memory (ex. travelled back from X destination yesterday) When I read the entries that include this metadata, it helps me re-live these times and further spark memories around them. I'm curious if anyone else has key details like this they include with their journaling that help them. I have a mission to start journaling again and would be fitting to add anything else others might be doing.
- broscillator 3y agoA few things: around once a month I log what I've been reading, listening to, watching, playing, and hanging out with. For the daily journaling I try to focus on a quality of feelings and events, which we could call significance. It is pretty difficult to measure the significance that a thought or event will have in the future, but this process itself is helpful for journaling in the moment, and its most helpful for my future reader self. That means that when I sit down to journal I no longer focus on the "material" conditions, when I do that it feels like I'm grasping at straws to capture some inner snapshot that by nature is not contained in any of those material factors. Rather I try to focus on fragments of my inner narrative while being on the lookout for my own biases and mental patterns. It's almost like trying to guess which events for the day will resurface in your dreams, which stick to your subconscious rather than what you think is relevant in the moment that you sit down to write.
- iamjason89 3y ago