Writing broadens the mind

Thoughts dashing here and there, in and out of a roundabout of consciousness.

Push button A, click here, race past before the lights change, hit the brakes, swerve to avoid, jump in before the doors close, feed the dog, clean my teeth, zone out ... How can you escape the compulsory narrow thinking that governs our daily lives?

Matt Jackson takes on the exercise of writing with a strong sense of why he writes and what he gains from it.

Writing broadens my mind in three key ways. 

The first and most obvious is through the attempt to place myself inside the head of characters whose perspective is radically, often fundamentally, different to my own. In envisioning these differences I perceive worldviews that would otherwise be foreign to me. Even with perspectives closer to mine, I come to understand myself better. 

The second is through the attempt to take these different perspectives and make them relatable to a general audience. In doing so I often perceive the shared threads connecting all people. 

The third is in the broader transferable skillset of communication - the ability to break a wide variety of ideas down into an accessible and digestible format. 

Combined, the three can create synergy and enable access to more enlightened states of being. 

Matt Jackson

Copyright: text - Matt Jackson; photos - cv williams.

Posts on this SSOA blog are published to showcase the work of emerging writers who meet weekly to workshop their short stories, memoir or novels. The posts comprise just some of the responses written in just 10 minutes as a warm up to the meetings.

If you'd like to join any of our groups, contact us at sydneysoa.com.au or email sydneysoa@outlook.com