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Words
"Use your conscious as a compass…use your
subconscious as a map." Killah Priest
I am dyslexic. I have learnt how to maximise the strengths
of how I think, and cope with (or not worry about) my
weaknesses. In fact, my strengths come from the same place
in my mind as my so-called weaknesses. My brain is a holistic
system, not a segmented beehive.
In order to make working with words work for me I use
various techniques and tools, including mindmapping,
a whiteboard, large coloured paper and coloured pens,
visualisation, a voice-recorder and spatial memory aids.
These techniques enable me to draw on (rather than shut
down or remedy) the strengths of my natural way of thinking,
which usefully leans towards: tangents, lateral thinking,
unusual connections, deep patterns, synaesthesia and
the use of spatial, visual imagination. Creative writing
isn’t about spelling and grammar, it’s about
embedding a unique way of seeing the world into language.
My word mistakes can be creative. What happens when
I am trying to find the word ‘feather’ and
I say ‘fire’ instead?
The idea of dyslexia is controversial. The term identifies
a person’s thinking through a lack. I prefer the
term ‘neurodiversity’. I don’t identify
with the word ‘dyslexia’, even though I
feel obliged to use it in reference to myself. Embedded
within the idea of dyslexia is a notion of a ‘normal’
way of thinking and relating to language, which is questionable
and uncreative. I think we need to have a wider conversation
about the labelling of thinking styles and their usefulness
(or otherwise) in people’s real lives.
See Dysbiog
for more.
Mindmaps
“I was using the map, in fact, not to find my
way but to get lost; to lose myself in the landscape.”
Waterlog, Roger Deakin
What are mindmaps?
They are pictures of thoughts, shapes of ideas, patterns
of thinking. They enable you to visualise the relationship
of ideas to each other through the use of scale, disorder
and multiplicity.
Mindmaps are organic representations of synap connections;
they show the spaces between thoughts, the useful gaps
and divides as well as the connections. They are frameworks
for making thinking happen, for showing the feel and
sound of ideas-in-progress. They are an explorative
form, which, in the process of making, creates questions,
clarity and direction.
If you are a dyslexic writer, I would like to hear
about how you work.
You can contact me here contact
or you can email me at: mailme@rebeccaloncraine.com
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