WTF is “Dissociated Writing”?

I went on a trail run today along the lush, green, damn-near tropical Columbia River Gorge.

The “Gorge” as we call it up here is a (way too) popular hiking and recreation spot in northern Oregon. The river that cuts through it is the boundary line between Oregon and Washington.

So … why was I on a trail run? And why does it matter?

Well … mainly because I love trail running. I’ve been running in some form since I was 17 years old, and discovered trail running about 5 years ago.

But it’s also because my wife and I just moved back to Oregon after a couple of years of renovating a house in the high desert of Southern California.

And now that I don’t have the constant pressure of home renovations, I have a little more free time to do what I want.

Like … take the afternoon off from my hectic “secondary” job as a freelance copywriter, drag my ass out into nature, and high-tail it up a 1,400 foot cliffside.

To me, these sort of adventures are a breath of fresh air.

But they also serve a much more important purpose.

A copywriting-specific purpose, in fact.

It’s something I call “dissociated writing.”

Iit’s a practice I’ve been following for at least 5 years now that allows me to reduce my writing stress significantly while constantly generating new, fresh ideas.

Here’s how it works.

First, imagine the mind like a big ball of string.

When ideas are flowing, the string is untangled and copy just flows right out onto the page.

But … when you work too hard on a specific copy problem, that string tends to get tangled … and forms a big ol’ knot in your brain.

You keep trying to find that hook, that angle, that headline.

But the harder you try, the more tangled your brain becomes.

The dissociated writing solution is simple: Stop working and go do something else.

For me, this is usually a trail run.

But it could be any “solo” activity you like.

The science, as I understand it, is that when you step back from a problem and stop focusing on it, the brain is able to make easier associations that solve the problem … without much work.

And that’s exactly how I ended up writing the sales page for this newsletter … after nearly 3 months of not being able to figure out how to approach it.

So there you have it.

Dissociative writing.

The next time you have a copy problem, try doing nothing at all.

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David Patrick