FILLER: Cognitive Distortions

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting: Sun, 12 Feb 1995 00:26:34 EST

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy
David D. Burns, M.D.
1980 Avon Books
ISBN 0-380-71803-0

If you recognize some of these patterns of thinking in your life, you might want to read this book...

Even if you just recognize some of these patterns of thinking in other people, you might want to read this book--so you can give them some advice...

1. All-or-nothing thinking: You see things in black-and-white categories. If your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total failure.

2. Overgeneralization: You see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat.

3. Mental Filter: You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively so that your vision of all reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that discolors the entire beaker of water.

4. Disqualifying the positive: You reject positive experiences by insisting they "don't count" for some reason or another. In this way you can maintain a negative belief that is contradicted by your everyday experiences.

5. Jumping to conclusions: You make a negative interpretation even though there are no definite facts that convincingly support your conclusion.

a. Mind reading. You arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting negatively to you, and you don't bother to check it out.
b. The Fortune Teller error. You anticipate that things will turn out badly, and you feel convinced that your prediction is an already established fact.

6. Magnification (Catastrophizing) or minimization: You exaggerate the importance of things (such as your goof-up or someone else's achievement), or you inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny (your own desirable qualities or the other fellow's imperfections). This is also called the "binocular trick."

7. Emotional Reasoning: You assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are: "I feel it, therefore it must be true."

8. Should Statements: You try to motivate yourself with shoulds and shouldn'ts, as if you had to be whipped and punished before you could be expected to do anything. "Musts" and "oughts" are also offenders. The emotional consequence is guilt. When you direct should statements toward others, you feel anger, frustration, and resentment.

9. Labeling and mislabeling: This is an extreme form of overgeneralization. Instead of describing your error, you attach a negative label to yourself: "I'm a loser." When someone else's behavior rubs you the wrong way, you attach a negative label to him: "He's a goddam louse." Mislabeling involves describing an event with language that is highly colored and emotionally loaded.

10. Personalization: You see yourself as the cause of some negative external event which in fact you were not primarily responsible for.

(p. 42-43)

[OWC: Try writing a story to illustrate each type of distortion, and the results of viewing the world through those eyes...]

That's Obligatory Writing Content (OWC) in case you haven't seen the acronym before.

TECH: a pre-writing checklist

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Sun, 29 Aug 1993 10:35:18 JST

Let me suggest something I've been doing recently (before writing). Based on Barry Longyear's suggestions in Science Fiction Writer's Workshop I, although I believe his recommendations can be used for any kind of story. Mostly, I try to at least sketch answers to the following questions:

Background

1. Where are we? (setting)
2. Who is involved? (characters, strengths, flaws)
3. Where are they headed? (goals, motives)
4. What stops or blocks them? (obstacle(s))
5. What are they going to do about it? (plans to overcome problems)
   
   Story
   
   
6. What hook(s) or bait for the reader will I use? (where start)
   What story question do I pose for the reader?
7. What backfill is needed? (background that needs to be filled in)
8. What buildup do I want? (scenes)
9. What is the climax?
   - how does the character change? (overcome weakness, etc.)
   - how is the plot resolved? (overcome problems and achieve goals)
   - What answer does the reader get to the story question?
   
   Higher Level
   
   
10. What purpose, moral, or theme am I writing about?

I may do bits and pieces of writing as I'm answering these - jot down little sections or interactions when I happen to think of them - but I think the discipline of making sure I have some grasp on the answers to these questions before I do a draft is useful. Longyear also suggests using these (and some other points) as a way of reviewing stories that aren't quite working, and then fixing them once you identify the part that is causing trouble.

I want see those stories working! Get those words moving now, people!

Write, finish, submit, one!
Write, finish, submit, two!
...

TECH: Writing Well

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 01:00:03 JST

"How can I write well?"

This question repeats, again and again, under various guises. I won't swear these are the only answers, but with luck here are seven points to consider.

1. Get the mehcanics right.

First, last, and in between, get the little stuff right - spelling, punctuation, word choice, and all those nitpicky little things you dreaded in school. They are small, but you don't need the editor or the reader stumbling over them when it is right, the reader doesn't even notice the mechanics, but when they are wrong, they are hrad to reed.

2. Think about your audience.

There are lots of tricks, but the main focus for me is to think about your audience. Try to make it interesting and clear for them. If you get that right, I'm sure people will read your writing and say, "Hey, you really write well!" They may not know why, but this is the crucial difference between a piece that people won't read without being forced to and one that they can't put down.

I often do this by imagining one of the people I know, like you, reading the piece. I think about just what you know, and what is likely to surprise, interest, and please you. Just like picking out one person in an audience and speaking to them, picking out one reader makes it easier for you to make the writing lively and interesting. Don't you think so?

3. Bait your lines.

Of all the tricks, "bait" is what I consider most important in making the writing interesting to readers. What do I mean by this? Simple little puzzles for the reader, constantly making them ask questions and keep reading to find the answers. For example, if they read the first sentence and say to themselves "Why would anyone do that?" you have a very good chance of keeping them reading.

BTW - most people call these "hooks". To me, bait is clearer, so I prefer that term. Just remember that you want some in your lines to catch readers.

E.g. start with a sentence like "Mr. Gregor put his new television set in the trash this morning." and everyone wants to read more, because it seems like such a strange thing to do.

Before you answer (and be sure you DO answer the question for the reader!) you can introduce Mr. Gregor, describe the curb where he dumps his trash, etc. - adding in more puzzles for the reader to keep them reading.

Schematically, you want something like

puzzle 1 (hook)
other material
puzzle 2 (hook)
puzzle 1 (answer)
other material
puzzle 3 (hook)
...

Keep setting hooks before you turn loose the old ones, but don't tease the reader for too long before you give them relief.

4. Organize clearly.

Which brings up the next point - organization.

Keep it simple and clear, with each paragraph focusing on one clear thought. I often find myself putting together a little list of the points, and rearranging it, then straightening out the paragraphs (or parts of the paragraphs) to fit the "outline".

This, to me, is one of the key parts of revising the writing. Rearrange, delete, expand until the points flow smoothly and keep the reader involved. This is how I (at least) get the elusive "pacing" of the story - where it moves quickly or where the reader and I slow down and take a long, deep breath before plunging in again.

5. Make sure the reader knows where you went.

I often find at this point that I've left out transitions. These are the little phrases or sentences that help the reader from one thought to the next. When there is a jump, put in "steps" guiding the reader from thought to the next, and from scene to scene. Sometimes these are as little as "In 1966" or sometimes longer, but make sure the reader knows where you are going.

6. Spend extra time on the ending.

Finally, I often spend a lot of time working and reworking the ending paragraph. This is the summary, the place where you wrap up the whole thing in a climactic point. Make sure that point really hits the reader.