Becoming A Writer Means Learning How to Program Your Subconscious Mind

Have you ever found yourself walking into a room only to forget what you were looking for? You glance around befuddled and slightly embarrassed. If somebody happens to notice, they ask, “What are you doing?”“I have no idea,” is your confused response.This is the type of thing that happens all the time. We often drive home from work without any memory of the trip. For me, this is so extreme that if I’m not deliberate in where I’m going, I might end up some place completely unexpected.All of these examples represent instances where our subconscious mind is at work. We use our conscious mind to program our subconscious mind so it can perform all manner of complex tasks. This is true for writing as well. To become an accomplished writer, you have to learn how to put your conscious mind to sleep.Don’t get in the way of your workLet’s go back to the example of being confused about why you walked into a different room. Have you ever realized that if your conscious mind hadn’t awakened, your subconscious mind would have completed the task?How many times do you think you’ve gotten up, gone to another room, performed a task, and returned without ever recognizing it? You only notice this happening when the process is disrupted. Maybe you do this fifty times a day.“Wait a minute, where did this piece of pizza come from?”We use instinctive processes to accomplish a lot of our daily activities. If you catch a ball, you don’t think about it. You simply put your hands where they need to be. Human beings don’t have to be mentally present for every little thing.You aren’t going to believe this, but that includes writing.You don’t observe the totality of yourselfOur conscious mind is what we consider our identity. The weird part is that other people interact with you even if your conscious mind isn’t awake. They see parts of us that we’re not aware we reveal. For example, they’re the ones who tap you on the shoulder and ask you why you just came into the kitchen.We use our conscious minds to train our subconscious minds. This is why we can drive without being fully aware of what we’re doing. This is also why it’s so important to be deliberately kind. If you train yourself to be kind when your conscious mind is awake, you’ll continue to be kind even when your subconscious mind takes over.Again, people have to deal with the totality of you even if you’re not consciously present. If you hit somebody with your car while you’re driving, you’re the one that killed them even if you weren’t even aware that you were driving.Through forced repetition, you can train your subconscious mind to echo your behavior. If you’re casually cruel, the echo will also be cruel. If you allow that to happen, you’ll hurt people without any memory of the moment.Casual kindness changes livesI’ve had people thank me for helping them through tough times only to discover I had absolutely no memory of what they were talking about. When you train yourself to be decent, decent actions flow out of you without your awareness.This is in contrast to the type of people who are casually cruel and then have to make up for it with expensive gifts. The programming of your conscious mind applies to thoughts as well as actions. If you think you’re clever because you stop yourself from speaking harsh words in public, you might not be as clever as you think.Just thinking those thoughts programs your subconscious mind. In moments when you’re not fully in control, they might come out. Writers are particularly vulnerable to this since most of their work is composed in the flow state.In the flow state, your conscious mind is awake, but barely. The subconscious mind is allowed to work with the tiniest amount of direction. It’s similar to lucid dreaming. That’s why you can make a mistake and read it ten times without noticing. Editing requires the conscious mind, composing requires the subconscious mind. Writers constantly flip back and forth between the two. Sometimes they get up for more coffee only to forget why they entered the kitchen. The subconscious mind needs caffeine!Training your subconscious writer mindTraining yourself to become a writer requires conscious effort. You have to learn about grammar. You have to learn about story structures. You have to make the elements of storytelling part of your fundamental identity.Nobody dreams like a writer.When you sit down to compose, the trick is to get your conscious mind out of the way and allow the story to come forth. Your subconscious mind did all the work. If you’ve spent all your conscious hours thinking kind and charitable thoughts, the work you produce will be beautiful.Stay out of your own wayYou have to avoid that “waking up” moment as long as possible. Let your subconscious mind shuffle your body into the kitchen for more coffee, and let it return you to your writing desk. Keep your finger off the scale.It’s important to be mindful in your conscious hours not to practice deceit. As the old saying goes, it’s better to be truthful because there’s less to remember. If you train your subconscious mind to deceive people, that unconscious bias will be revealed in your work.Your writing is representative of the totality of you. That’s why you might read one of your own compositions years later and have no recollection of its creation. Writing is perhaps the only way a human being can get a glimpse of how other people perceive them.We live in our conscious minds and that’s how we perceive the world, but we’re more than that. The truth of who we are comes out eventually. We have both more and less control over ourselves than we realize.If you are deliberate about choosing a path of decency, you’ll be rewarded in more ways than you can possibly know. Also, you’ll write the kind of stories that people most need to hear.You all make this newsletter happen! Thanks for your sponsorship! I have payment tiers starting at as little as twenty dollars a year.Upgrade at 30% offUpgrade at 40% offUpgrade at 50% offUpgrade at 60% offI’m so happy you’re here, and I’m looking forward to sharing more thoughts with you tomorrow.My CoSchedule referral linkHere’s my referral link to my preferred headline analyzer tool. If you sign up through this, it’s another way to support this newsletter (thank you).I'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe