Group brainstorming sessions can be effective forums for finding solutions to a problem or thinking of new approaches to a task. You have people with varying backgrounds and attitudes that will all think of different things, and when you collectively sift out the less effective ideas and further discuss the good ones, you’ll generally arrive at a solution that is beneficial for all concerned.

However, what can you do when you don’t have access to a group or you’re brainstorming about something personal?

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If you’ve read the About page on this site, you know why I chose a gryphon theme. Something I didn’t mention there is how the creature’s dual nature corresponds in a way to the dual nature of my writing and reading interests. I am a technical communicator by trade, but the pendulum swings about as far as it can go to touch another interest: fantasy literature.

The two seem incompatible and so far apart that it’s as if they’re on opposite sides of the Grand Canyon. One is analytical and dry, while the other involves creativity and imagination. How can interest for the two coexist in one brain?

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My manager and I were talking the other day about how people feel so strongly about their writing, even when they have no interest in writing as a profession or hobby. People can get defensive when their writing is critiqued, though the writing under scrutiny may be no more than an email or memo.

I encountered this frequently when I was a writing tutor at Utah State University. Some people who came in for help put up a resistance to suggestions. That sounds contradictory, but many students visited the Writing Center because a certain number of visits were required for the freshman- and sophomore-level composition classes. Even some of those who came just for credit didn’t like qualified peers giving ideas on ways their essays could improve.

Why is it that even people who couldn’t care less about English class get defensive about their writing?

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