Disclaimer: The contents and opinions of this blog post do not represent the views or values of Honours Review as a publication.
I have to admit… Ever since I was asked if I would like to join the Honours Review team of writers, I thought “Oh yeah! The opportunity I have been waiting for to express my creativity and ideas”. Guess what… It didn’t happen. Every time I have to write about a new topic, my mind goes blank and I feel like all my creativity is gone or it never existed and the reality I used to know was fake.
I wonder, is it just me when I am put on the spot, or does this happen to everyone?
As you may already suspect, a writer’s block is one of the most common conditions one can suffer from. By definition, it is “the condition of being unable to create a piece of written work because something in your mind prevents you from doing it” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2020) [1]. However, this condition may somewhat be extended to all arts, drawing, painting, writing, dancing, composing, et cetera, taking the designation of a creative block.
The mechanisms and strategies to overcome this condition are spread online and I am not going to extrapolate about them. Often I ask myself, though, how are those daily shows still going? You may argue, there is a team of thinking brains combined to work together for a final product. Still, it is done daily! Furthermore, you can consider all the YouTubers and influencers who are producing daily or even weekly content so we can be entertained, brain-dead just sitting around in our couches. Do they have a list of potentially good ideas or do they improvise as they are going? These are the questions I can think of when I have to come up with a new topic to write about. But first things first, what is the creative process, after all?
The creative thinking process is still not entirely understood by science but myths, such as the distinction between right or left brain thinkers being more rational or creative respectively, have been proven to be wrong [2]. It is the communication between both hemispheres that determines the final response to certain stimuli. Some of the more rational people may also be part of the more creative ones. I would dare to say that being creative is somehow a rational process, which can be worked on and developed further by each one of us. In the simplest way, creativity is a four-step cycle which can be stimulated, consisting of (i) generation of a problem and gathering of facts about the matter in discussion, followed by (ii) defining the problem and troubleshooting, then (iii) evaluation of all hypotheses and planning. Finally (iv) the acceptance of the “idea” [3]. For the most attentive, you might have noticed this particular cycle is essentially the same as the Scientific Method [4].
Regardless of the similarities of both methods, the conditions or situations in which the thinking paths arise can be quite distinct. Some of the most promising hypotheses in Science are the result of pressure, either by peers, supervisors, sponsors, time, among others; or by literature reviewing or even by having scientific conversations with friends. In a final analysis, some of the “light at the end of the tunnel” in research comes from strong brain activity. On the other hand, creative, artistic ideas usually pop in our minds when the brain activity is at the lowest: when we are relaxing, listening to music, taking a shower, or even drinking [5]. The way I understand it, in a caricature way, is that when we allow our “main brain” to rest, our subconscient is able to wander around our mind and reach realms otherwise inaccessible to the imagination. In reality, this process is directly related to the release of dopamine, a chemical messenger acting as a neurotransmitter, often characterized as one responsible for the feeling of pleasure [6]. It is also associated with the ability to focus, learn, and mood changes. Previous studies have shown that a dysregulation in the dopamine flow within different areas of our brain can not only affect the distractibility status but the generation of new thoughts - through the combination of old known information, for instance - and the capacity to retain them and evaluate them critically later [7].
In retrospect, the process of generating new ideas, even though well-studied, conceptually is still a mystery (at least for me). From a blank mind to a brilliant idea seems to be quite a complex mechanism, and not only the creation is quite abstract, but I also wonder, what makes a good idea? The distinction between a normal idea and the one we end up choosing to keep for our task is, perhaps, a result of a careful analysis of the advantages and disadvantages, its fitness to the surrounding environment and, lastly the ability to make it happen.
With the thoughts shared here, I cannot stop myself from being transported into the Dreams’ World and think about the movie Inception (2010). There, the adopted premise is that planting an idea in someone else’s mind is theoretically possible through a kind of sleeping hypnosis. Would this fictional idea be possible in our reality? And which implications would it have?
References
1. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/writer-s-block
2. https://lifehacker.com/how-to-have-great-ideas-more-often-according-to-scienc-1476608430
3. Basadur M, Runco MA & Vega LA. (2000) “Understanding How Creative Thinking Skills, Attitudes and Behaviors Work Together: A Causal Process Model”. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 34: 77-100. doi:10.1002/j.2162-6057.2000.tb01203.x
4. https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/science-fair/steps-of-the-scientific-method
5. https://lifehacker.com/science-explains-why-our-best-ideas-come-in-the-shower-5987858
6. https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-dopamine#1
7. Boot N, Baas M, van Gaal S, Cools R, & De Dreu CKW. (2017) “Creative cognition and dopaminergic modulation of fronto-striatal networks: Integrative review and research agenda”. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 78: 13–23. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.04.007