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Hello, and welcome to this week’s WEN-zine nuggets.

Well, it has been a rather wild week ... if you’ve read the email I sent out yesterday, you know I launched the Content Maximizer Guide a few days ago. Writing the Guide was the easy part! It’s all the tech setups to promote it, do the checkout, and deliver it that pose the challenges! Many a time over the past few months have I benefitted from the Zeigarnik Effect for working out problems ...

1. Use the Zeigarnik Effect to your advantage

In the 1920s, Lithuanian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik observed an odd thing. While dining out, she was impressed by the complex orders the wait staff was able to remember at one time. Yet, as soon as the bill was paid, the wait staff forgot completely what the orders were. This observation gave rise to the study of what would become known as the Zeigarnik Effect.

The Zeigarnik Effect refers to our tendency to remember incomplete or interrupted tasks better than completed ones. As Naomi, who writes the Todoist newsletter explains, “Our brains are superb at holding onto and resurfacing the open loops of uncompleted tasks.”

So how can we harness the power of that subconscious problem solver in our writing life?

Give your mind time to wander – Naomi’s husband is a shift worker with a lot of driving time. He’s also writing a book and uses his long drives to let his mind figure out whatever writing challenge he’s facing. In addition to long drives, walks, working the treadmill, doing non-thinking chores such as vacuuming or folding clothes, and similar activities, will help the effect carry on.

Challenges you might leave unresolved until the Zeigarnik Effect helps you out:

• Character development – When unsure how stories or characters will evolve, stay with the uncertainty while doing non-writing activities.

• Subplots – Let outlines, plot ideas, themes, or key scenes stew in the mind without attempting to finalize them immediately. The unfinished ideas become psychological “stickers” that the brain continues churning on in the background.

• Unsatisfying components – After finishing a chapter draft, put it aside for a while before revising. This lets an awkward scene or stiff dialog continue to develop off-stage in your thoughts.

2. And then there’s David Milch’s disembodied writing process . . .

Milch is a screenwriter (NYPD Blue, Deadwood) who “writes” while lying on the floor in a roomful of people and dictating to a typist. In this interesting piece (complete with photos), is a quote from his memoir:

“I find that I function most effectively when I sort of disembody myself. I lie there on the floor and I talk and the words come up on the screen and then I fix the words, but I never actually lay my hands on anything, a computer or a typewriter, none of that.”

3. About that Content Maximizer Guide ...

as buyers have said, it ...

• teaches techniques for repurposing content for freelancers, bloggers, and internet marketers generally;

• is very detailed with no fluff.

And you can read more about it here ... or just pick up a copy here (WEN active members, be sure to use the coupon to save 24% – it’s posted on the Members Only page.)

4. FYI items

▪ In his Small Potatoes newsletter, Paul Bloom offers 3 productivity tips for the restless ... and shares the writing habits of Darwin, Oates, Freud, and Trollope

▪ Printable To Do Lists

https://printabletodolist.com/

Enjoy!

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To Your Writing Success,

Dana K Cassell

Editor

(Dana Cassell is founder of Writers-Editors Network, and has been freelancing/creating full-time for 47 years. In addition to writing, editing, and fact-checking for numerous business clients, she has published more than 2,000 articles and has ghosted or authored more than a dozen books.)

Not a Network member? Join now: https://freelancekeys.com/join-now/ Temporary discount codes:

Save $10 on Basic options: use TESTING coupon code

Save $15 on FFWA options: use TESTFFWA coupon code

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