The Head-trip

In Dorothea Brande's "Becoming a Writer," the next two chapters "Duplicity" and "Taking advice" talk about the head trip you have to play on yourself.

Duplicity is about the Conscious side, the side that keeps everything in order, feeds the kids, cleans the house, is also the editing and judgmental side.  The other side, the unconscious side, the side that sees the flowers in your mind, the dreaming side that is still active when you just wake up, is the creative freewriting side.  The real writer.

Brande says these two sides should not be fighting each other.  Instead they should be working together. The conscious side should be protecting and making conditions right for the Unconscious side -- or like Julia Cameron calls it, the Artist-child.  With the conscious side providing interference and making conditions right, they are working together.  She said when they are fighting each other that's when a writer gets stuck.

The next chapter is about the imagination seeing you ahead of the game.  You see yourself completing the task before you start.  She has the reader do a little experiment showing how your eyes lead your actions.  It is a very interesting experiment, but it is also a very revealing experiment.  At this point don't look at the difficulties you will face.  That will come up later in the book.  Have that "L. Ron Hubbard" attitude... a positive outlook.  See yourself in a positive way. 

I've always thought of myself as a realist...planning for the attack.  She says see yourself actually sitting down and writing, and then it is easier to do it.

It's ahead trip, but maybe that's what I need... A head trip right now...