Personal Problem-Solving Style

writing
#1

So, reading Jim’s new article, linked below, has got me thinking:

Is it possible or likely that a person may default one way in daily life while approach problems the other way in writing? It wouldn’t surprise me, considering most art is considered what was once called a “right-brained” activity.

I know that I’m personally a very linear thinker in daily life. If there’s a problem, it needs to be solved. I’m a programmer, a planner, an “if-then”-er through-and-through. However, the “Being in a low state of emotion” style premise describes what I’ve been trying to write so much better than anything else I’ve come across and has made it far more approachable from a Dramatica standpoint than anything I’ve come across before. (So, thanks for another timely article @jhull).

I wonder if that’s from my taking or desiring a different approach for writing (not even necessarily intentionally), or if that is due to having an MC who might actually be Holistic, though I had thought he was Linear.

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#2

No one is 100% linear or holistic.

There are degrees of linear and holistic in each of us.

At some point in the future, we’re going to be able to approximate what the degrees of linear and holistic thinking are.

My approximations as of now could be something like, accommodating/alienating

Accommodating linear thinker
Accommodating holistic
Alienating linear thinker
Alienating holistic

#3

I’m fully aware of the consideration that no one is fully the one or the other. The question was meant to ask more or less whether the “default” style might swing from one end to to the other for a single person under a different context. My own answer, per my philosophy, is “Yes, they could”. It’s meant more as a thought experiment.

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#4

So in my case I found myself “vibing” with about every other line of Jim’s article. Not quite sure what that means.

I’ve been wondering this too. I think I’m a pretty linear thinker though I don’t think in all cases/contexts. But I’ve just assumed that when it comes to PS style I should just set it and forget it as linear.

However, my current MC is a woman, and I’ve wondered in places if I’m actually writing her as Holistic. Not that all women are holistic or vice versa, but I do remember reading an early Dramatica article suggesting that writers will often intuitively chose the PS style of their MC based on gender (as opposed to the advice that linear writers should just write linear MCs to avoid messing it up). BTW I don’t have any concrete examples from my story–just an occasional feeling.

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#5

Yes. According to theory, I believe, the problem solving style that one is locked into occurs in the Preconscious, which i assume is why we’re locked into it. It happens prior to being conscious of it. But consciously, one can choose to solve a problem either way-though that locked in Preconscious PSS still has a pull on how one is attempting to solve the problem.

I assume that’s also the reason that, no matter how hard I try to solve a problem holistically and no matter how deep into holistic territory I think I am, some holistic problem solver (read: my wife) will say or do something to show me that there’s still plenty of room left to explore (what a Linear analogy!) on the holistic side.

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#6

100% this. :laughing:"Room left to explore" is perfect…

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