Midnight Winds Through the Pages

The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain by Alice W. Flaherty explains what is known about the neurological mystery of how the brain works when it is being creative.

It fascinates me that we can put a man on the moon yet we can't really understand what is going on between our two ears. That mysterious gray matter nestled in our skull holds all the mysteries of space and we have only just begun to understand how it works.

Strangely enough it seems that most of what is known about how the brain functions is due to people that have a problem with the way it works. The extremes are the first things that can be identified so we begin to understand the madness to get a glimpse of how our "normal" dance of neurons do their thing.

"Memory and writing are intertwined. Writing tries to extend our memories infinitely." (61)

This book is fascinating but it is very clinical too. It reminds me of my psychology classes in college. But if you are really interested in what makes you tick when you are facing that seemingly insurmountable obstacle known as writer's block, it may interest you to learn what may be causing you problems. Plus, turning to another endeavor for a break and returning to your writing often jostles that block free.