Nyet Thinking, My Way of Creative Thinking

2 days ago, 27 November, Friend NC sent me a YM (Yahoo Messenger message) asking me about the kind of logical framework, if I remember right, that I use when I write. She was going to explain what she had written to her class (or classmates, I forget which), and would I help her? I would if I could, but I said, ‘Sorry, I don’t think logically!’ (I was thinking ‘logframe,’ and I don’t like it at all. Logframe, the scientists who have a sequential frame of mind are very fond of it, while I’m very wary of it – it helps you think critically; it will never help you think creatively.) And she said, come on, how come you can write so well (she meant logically). I didn’t explain how I do it; I just told NC to use Tony Buzan’s mind mapping approach to thinking; he now has ‘software that helps you think’ (Tony Buzan, imindmap.com). Buzan invented mind mapping.

As for me, today, I just invented a name for the creative thinking approach I didn’t realize I had invented for myself more than 30 years ago. (See my earlier post, ‘Nyet thinking. Not yet, thinking’ in this same blog.)

My way of creative thinking is very different from Tony Buzan’s mind mapping, different from Edward de Bono’s lateral thinking, different from Ray Bradbury’s word association, and different from Julia Cameron’s Artist’s Way (see also my ‘Virtual Thinking,’ May 2008, frankensteinmindster.blogspot.com). My own ‘virtual thinking’ has now been overtaken by my own new idea of ‘nyet thinking.’ The name has it all.

Since 1955, when I was 15, in effect I have been thinking nyet after I read my first copy of the Reader’s Digest in my 2nd year of high school, even as I just thought of the words ‘nyet thinking’ today, 29 November 2008. If you are an aspiring writer and you can afford to buy and read only one book, make it a copy of the Reader’s Digest. Not only 1 or 2 articles but the whole little book is excellent and inspires creative writing in the sensitive soul.

10 years later, 1965, I read Rudolf Flesch’s book, How To Write, Speak And Think More Effectively (1963, Penguin Books). He may indeed have taught me to write better as if I were actually talking to the reader and not writing, which I have mastered, but I could have learned that earlier from the Reader’s Digest. What I remember profiting most was one of the techniques of creative thinking Flesch wrote about, which was how to generate new, interesting ideas by adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, splitting, removing, amending the materials you have, and what else that I don’t remember. While the title says ‘think more effectively,’ what Flesch taught me with that book is how to ‘think more creatively,’ and I thank him. It was my good friend and dorm mate Manny Alkuino who introduced me to Flesch and in fact gave me his copy of the book when he saw I was excited about it, for which I also thank him.

10 years later, 1975, I am working as a copywriter for Pacifica Publicity Bureau in Makati City, and my good friend, Orli Ochosa, gifts me with a copy of Edward de Bono’s The Mechanism of Mind (I remember the date of publication, 1968), which teaches me lateral thinking, and for which I also thank him. Lateral thinking is De Bono’s approach to creative thinking, where the main technique is to say ‘Po’ and not ‘No’ to any idea that comes to mind, whether preposterous or not. In fact, the more preposterous, the better for Po thinking, which is brainstorming with no holds barred, with all logic suspended in mid-air. In the same year, I begin work as Information Editor for FORI (Forest Research Institute) based at Los Baños, Laguna. I proceeded to found all the publications of FORI: Canopy, the monthly newsletter; Sylvatrop, the quarterly technical journal in forestry; Habitat, the quarterly color magazine of the institute which I patterned after the National Geographic.

10 years later, 1985, I am learning to use the desktop personal computer. The PC does not teach me anything about creative writing, but I didn’t need any more lessons – what I needed to learn was how to write fast, very fast, and the PC was going to provide me that system.

10 years later, 1995, I am Editor of a monthly newsletter of BLD (Bukas Loob sa Diyos) and displaying the rare ability to think and write creatively even in the religious sense. However, my editorship didn’t prosper, as some non-writing people thought they could do better at it and took over. They did not understand the power of words; they understood only their power.

10 years later, 2005, I am writing in my first earnest blog, ‘The Ten Commandments of Blogging’ patterned after the Roman Catholic list of course (01 August 2005, braggingrights.blogspot.com):

1. I am the load, your blog; you shall not have strange blogs before me.
2. You shall not take the name of the load your blog in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the sabbatical.
4. Honor your fodder and your madder.
5. You shall not kill.
6. You shall not commit adulteration.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wile.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s gods.

You will see there punning, one of the early gifts I received as a would-be writer from the Reader’s Digest.

Also in 2005, in December, I come out with my first book, indios bravos! Jose Rizal as Messiah of the Redemption (187 pages, 8-1/2x11, self-published, Los Baños, Laguna).

Early in 2006, I begin writing for the American Chronicle (online). The first one published, 11 February, is ‘’Fuzzy logic & the avian flu. Or, Murder most fowl! A study in the language of science’ (americanchronicle.com). Now I don’t get rejection slips anymore.

In early 2007, I began writing about ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) in the manner of what I called the Franciscan essay, and they liked it very much. In late 2007, November, ICRISAT published my book of essays on that non-profit organization in science, Team ICRISAT Champions the Poor (129 pages, 8-1/2x11, Patancheru, India).

Mid-2008, I contracted the writing of a book to celebrate the Golden Anniversary of the UP Los Baños Vanguard Class 58, who were the Publisher; the book has grown bigger and bigger so that now it has almost 40 people featured and the subject has expanded into the heroism of ROTC boys: CONVERSATiONS WiTH ROTC HEROES, iMPERFECT (I just finished my 4th revision of it, all of 182 pages, 8-1/2x11). We are now looking for a new publisher for the expanded volume.

Looking back at all that, I must say it was in 1975 when my nyet thinking began to take shape and the talent began to be recognized outside of my circle of friends. Those 2 popular publications of FORI, both of which I was the Editor, for which I wrote more than 50% of the stories, brought local and international attention and respect to FORI. This was the power of the nyet as seen the reading public it captivated.

So, you ask, how does nyet thinking work? It works like this (see illustration):

Stage A: First, you have random thoughts. You gather your random thoughts but you don’t attempt to put order to them, you don’t apply the rules of logic to them.

Stage F: Then you begin to connect the dots. In this illustration, you have 3 connections made: A, B and C. Note that the connection C is off-tangent at one end. (Between Stages A and F, anything could have happened. Stage F is just an example; it could be Stage B when you begin to connect the dots, meaning you were really inspired. As for me, it's usually about Stage F.)

Stage H: Finally, you have made the last connections. Networking ends. (Stage G for me could be a short time before Stage H; it usually is a long time, with so many revisions.)

And that’s just for starters!

PS: 

0800 hours 30 November

I have just uploaded my essay 'Reproductive Health 101. Let's make love as if it's just the animal in us?' (frankahilario.blogspot.com). Since you cannot see it, I will have to tell you that it was the 1-page ad of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines in the 27 November issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer that started my random thinking leading to the essay. But as you will see, I don't even mention the ad in the essay that I have published. That would be link A that you see is not connected to the network. That's how nyet thinking / nyet writing happens - no guarantee that everything will be connected, but you will be surprised at some of the connections found. Read my essay 'Reproductive Health 101' to find out!