Unlock Creative Potential: Elevating Your Writing Through Freaky Thinking

Consider changing your thinking habits for a stronger, healthier brain and more skilled writing

Freaky thinking can make us more aware of stories around (photo by MK Pelland—used with permission)

Publisher’s note: Here’s another in our chain of guest posts from outstanding writers. I encourage you to get to know Chris and consider subscribing to his stack.

You’re a writer who takes their work seriously. And you want to grow your audience or revenue. So, it's important to maintain a healthy brain and a strong, flexible thought process. That's how we avoid writers block, find compelling story ideas, and write high-quality material.

When we think of physical health, it’s health by numbers these days.

In a day, you should walk 10,000 steps, eat five portions of fruit and vegetables, drink eight glasses of water, and get at least seven hours of sleep. There are other numeric targets too, like limiting your intake of alcohol to 14 units per week.

However, guidelines for keeping our brain healthy seem noticeably absent.

For a healthier brain

Should we introduce some new laws on this under the banner of Thinking Hard is a Good Exercise? Every day, everyone:

1. Must have three original thoughts on a predetermined topic of the day.

2. Must change their mind on two beliefs they have that are outdated.

3. Must have ten mind-blowing ideas on a topic that’s important to them personally.

That should get us all exercising our minds and putting them to good use.

For a healthier body, you change your eating, drinking, and exercise habits. But have you ever considered changing your thinking habits for a healthier brain?

Thinking hard—about things you don’t know the answer to—improves your brain. It increases neural connectivity and boosts memory and recall. It stretches your mind like blowing up a balloon. The more you expand it, the more space there is for new ideas to float inside.

Thinking is something all of us do. All the time. Even when we sleep.

So, when was the last time you upgraded your thinking in any way?

Fast thinking and slow thinking

That updating might possibly be more important to us as writers than it is for other people. You think before you write—always. What’s the story you’re telling? What’s the point you’re making? What problem are you solving for readers? The subject needs to come first and be as clear as daylight.

Daniel Kahneman's book Thinking, Fast and Slow describes two types of thinking. System one and system two. Fast and slow.

Both are essential for writing. While slow thinking shapes the whole story, it’s fast thinking that sharpens the moment.

With fast thinking, you pick your words like an artisan picks their tools—a hammer for nails, a brush for paint. What are the words that cut the length? What are the words that build the character? Tactical thinking that’s clean and sharp.

And once you’ve got them tight in your mind, you lay them down on the page. Straight and true. Left to right. No clutter. Every word fights for the right to exist. Every sentence acts as a foundation for the next. Like bricks in a wall.

Good writing doesn’t happen by accident.

System two thinking—the slow thinking—is thought ahead of pen time. The thinking that shapes your story. Call it strategic if you will. But it’s something that can elude us.

Writers’ block. A lack of topic ideas. Wanting a fresh approach but unable to source it. With a compass heading, the writing can flow. Without a heading—there’s no flow.

It’s a system-two thinking failure that prevents us from writing.

When in this situation, take a Freaky Thinking approach.

If I ask you the best way to get new ideas—what will you tell me? Get some people together and brainstorm? For decades, brainstorming’s been proven ineffective time and time again. Research has shown there are better ways to think to get better ideas on your topic of choice. Freaky Thinking is something different. It’s a refreshingly new way to think that’s long overdue.

Pause for a moment.

Think…

Where are you when you get your best ideas? What are you doing?

Maybe it’s while having a shower. Walking the dog. When driving. Or at the gym. That’s what many people tell me in larger organizations.

It likely happens when you’re alone with your thoughts. Doing an undemanding task of some kind.

Not in meetings. Not in an office. Which surprises business leaders. They say they want you to bring your best self to work, but they forget about your mind. And that’s the problem.

The best ideas

In 2012, researchers at the University of California figured something out. They found out why the best ideas come when we’re doing something simple. They ran a test. They gave people creative challenges and let them take a break in the middle.

Some people sat quietly. Others had to do something demanding. But the ones who did a simple, undemanding task—those people? Their creativity shot up by 40%.

The lesson? We think better when our hands or feet are busy, but our minds are free.

Here’s the thing about questions. A question begs for an answer. You can’t escape it. Ideas are answers, plain and simple.

If you want bold and powerful ideas, you need bold and powerful questions. In Freaky Thinking, we call these killer questions.

A killer question is one you haven’t been able to answer yet, but you know the answer is out there. It’s big, it’s tough—but it’s possible. And if you answer it, everything changes for you.

These questions light a fire within you. They make you want to find the answer, to chase it down. That’s what makes them powerful. If you can answer a killer question, you’re not just solving a problem—you’re finding something new. Something that matters. Like that strategic direction for your writing.

We often spend too little time shaping a great question. Once we have a vague idea of what we want—we’re into solution mode. This is where we deem the value to be— in the answers.

Change your thinking. Spend more time getting your question right. Pin it down and know that’s what you want answers to.

When possible, let the question incubate in your mind overnight. Does the light of a new sun spotlight something in your question that isn’t quite right? Change it.

There’s no value in finding brilliant answers to the wrong question.

Be definitive. If you try to answer a question that’s too vague, everything starts to look like an answer. But none of it really hits the mark. If you just let the question float around in your head, you’ll never pin it down. Your mind will wander, and you won’t get to the heart of it. That’s no way to get a clear answer.

But when you write it down, something changes. You see it for what it is. And if you work on it, sharpen it, draft it again and again, it starts to take shape. It becomes strong. Clear. You get a bold question you can tackle head-on.

Now, sometimes that big question—your killer question—is too much all at once. Too big to handle in one go. So you break it apart.

Find the pieces, the smaller questions hiding inside it. Answer them one by one, and before you know it, you’ve built your way back to solving the big one.

Write down these sub-questions to keep yourself focused. Keep moving. And always forward.

An exercise in clarity

Put this bit of paper with your questions in your pocket. Put on your shoes. And go for a walk.

Not just any walk. A walk without noise—no phone, no distractions. Don’t go near shops or busy places. Stay where there are few distractions for you.

Find a block and walk around and around. The aim is to occupy a small part of your mind with the exercise. And occupy the bigger part of it with answering your questions. You’re looking for clarity of mind.

Here are some example killer questions related to writing.

• Are you writing this so people can be you, or so they can be like you? There’s a difference. Subtle but powerful. One builds connection, the other makes you a mirror.

• What’s a radical new direction this story can take? One that still aligns to your bigger purpose. This engages the conflict of being different and the same in parallel.

• What if you did the opposite of what you’re doing now? Every element of your writing—your story; your characters; your style; your content; your methodology—is a process. Break each step down into the smallest components. Then challenge yourself to find novel value in reversing various components.

A few tips

I use a cheap voice recorder to capture every thought that comes.

Every thought.

Filter nothing in the moment. You’re thinking deeply. Your mind is working hard. If something strange comes up, capture it and move on. Don’t dwell on any idea that feels brilliant. You do that later. Be in the thinking moment. Stay with your mental flow.

Back home, Microsoft Word is now your savior. Upload the file. Use the transcribe feature to add it to a document. Let the value creation begin.

Don’t be shy about culling content—but consider this What connection in your mind would have suggested that as an answer to your question?

Remember, you posed yourself hard questions. Anyone can answer simple questions. Only you can answer your hard questions well. Some of your notes may form a second tier of questions and thinking for you. That’s for another day.

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A note from the author: I'm a newbie. I only lost my Substack virginity on 22 September this year. It’s why I subscribe to Maryan’s Pen2Profit stack—to learn from the best.

I write about better thinking in the workplace. Helping people get an edge through the way they think about issues at work.

Writing’s work—but not just any work. It’s the kind that matters. The kind that, if you don’t do it, things get worse. Like not keeping your house clean or letting the grass grow too long. Writing builds steadily. Get it right, and people pay attention. They subscribe or are willing to pay for your work. And that’s what you want.