Science Says Writing Is Good For Your Brain

If you are a writer, you’ve heard the saying: The more you practice your craft, the better you get. Doing an activity over and over helps your brain grow — hence, you get better in your skills. Just as professional athletes have trained their muscles to perform at a high level, a writer can train their brain to do the same. How? By practicing their craft often. Writing isn’t just a creative activity. It also offers amazing benefits for your brain.

Let’s look at what happens to your brain when you write.

Your brain is active when you write

Writing is a stimulating yet strenuous activity for the brain, especially when you are working on a first draft. If you’ve ever felt muscle pain and exhaustion after physical activity, you know what I mean. And this is because, during the writing process, many parts of the brain become engaged. The more you write, the more a brain responds by establishing new neural connections within these regions.

Barry Gordon, a neurobiologist writes in Scientific American that when you write, your brain is fully “active most of the time.” As he says, “It turns out though, that we use virtually every part of the brain, and that [most of] the brain is active almost all the time.” And because you engage many parts of the brain, here are the benefits you can expect to get from writing.

• You develop organizational skills — from crafting and sequencing your thoughts and ideas
• You boost your reasoning and problem-solving skills
• You integrate a wide range of vocabulary words and grow your word bank
• Writing helps your brain grow

Thanks to the brain’s plasticity, your brain can and will change over time. But that change won’t happen unless you write regularly. Have you heard of the expression: “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” It applies to writing too. Given that many areas of the brain are engaged, the more you write, the more neural connections are formed within your brain. What’s more is that when you pen words on paper, the neurons in your brain fire signals at rapid speed, thus enabling you to make more connections.

New research shows the more you use your brain, the more it will grow like a muscle. Scientists uncovered that nerve cells have branches that connect them to other cells. The more you practice a skill, the more these tiny connections multiply and become stronger. That means anyone can improve their abilities with practice, even in an area in which they had previously struggled. And this applies to writing too. For some writers, depending on how much they’ve practiced their skill, it may take less time, for others it may be longer. Everyone is different. But regardless of how much time it takes to train your brain to write better, you have to be patient and stick with it. Training takes practice and commitment to your craft.

How you can train your brain to write

Freewriting

For starters, one of the ways you can do this is by freewriting every day for 5–10 minutes. This method works best if you don’t have a solid topic idea in mind and just want to write whatever comes to mind. You tap into your imagination and let it follow its course. This method will also help you to be creative and get in the habit of writing.

Reading

To get a head start, start reading the content you like the most. Doing that will activate your brain and help fill your brain with ideas. Reading also allows you to build your vocabulary and learn the art of writing.

Pro tip: if you want to be an active reader, don’t just read for content — go deeper and pay attention to how the text is written — the wording, the style, phrasal expressions, syntax, etc. If you stumble upon an unknown word or expression, look it up in a dictionary. The more things you look up, the more you’ll learn. It is the best way to expand your vocabulary, especially if English isn’t your first language.

The same applies to the expressions you’ve never heard or used. Take some time to analyze them and see how you can use them in your own writing. Or maybe you have a grammar book somewhere that you can put your hands on. The more you’re eager to learn about your craft, the more you’ll grow as a writer. Trust that your brain will grow — if you put work into it.

The takeaway

Writing is a stimulating yet strenuous activity for the brain. When you write, all parts of your brain are actively engaged. Thanks to the brain’s neuroplasticity, it can grow and change over time. Just as athletes train their bodies, writers can do the same with their brains. Training yourself to write will help your brain grow and establish neuronal connections. The more you practice your craft, the more connections are formed within the brain, which will help you grow in your skills.