Saturday, October 27, 2007

You Can’t Do It Alone

A favorite comment in my writing courses is “Seek feedback on your writing.” I am reminded of a similar observation in Mihaly Csikszentmihaly’s Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience:

Why is solitude such a negative experience? The bottom-line answer is that keeping order in the mind from within is very difficult. We need external goals, external stimulation, external feedback to keep attention directed. And when external input is lacking, attention begins to wander, and thoughts become chaotic—resulting in the state we have called psychic entropy.


If you are writing just for yourself, then keep a journal; if you are writing for others, then expect feedback—and accept it prescriptively.

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