{"id":29704,"date":"2025-08-05T03:00:48","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T10:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/?p=29704"},"modified":"2025-08-01T10:04:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T17:04:29","slug":"habits-of-mind-openness-by-bailey-lang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/05\/habits-of-mind-openness-by-bailey-lang\/","title":{"rendered":"Habits of Mind: Openness by Bailey Lang"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Habits<\/a>Let’s welcome back Bailey Lang<\/a> as she shares with us \u201cHabits of Mind: Openness.\u201d Enjoy!<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

As writers, habits of mind<\/strong> — our thought patterns and orientation to learning — shape our external activities, like our writing practices.<\/p>\n

In this series, we\u2019re talking about eight crucial habits of mind for writers.<\/p>\n

Curiosity, which we talked about last time, Habits of Mind: Curiosity by Bailey Lang \u00b7 Writer’s Fun Zone<\/a> is a drive to learn more about the world.<\/p>\n

Today, we\u2019re talking about openness<\/b>.<\/p>\n

What is Openness?<\/h2>\n

The framework<\/a> for this series describes openness as \u201cThe willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see why this habit<\/strong> of mind is important for writers, especially (though not exclusively!) novelists.<\/p>\n

Unless you want every character you write to be a thinly veiled version of you (bo-ring — not that you\u2019re not lovely, of course!), you need to be able to \u201cconsider new ways of being and thinking\u201d and figure out how to represent them as authentically as possible on the page.<\/p>\n

Openness will help you get inside your characters\u2019 heads and make them feel like real, flawed, interesting people.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lot harder to write<\/strong> compelling villains if you\u2019re not willing to consider why those villains think they\u2019re doing the right thing, for example.<\/p>\n

However, I want to be clear that openness doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s okay to write caricatures as a way of representing difference, or that deeply considering other ways of being excuses stereotypes or cultural appropriation.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll come back to these ideas in the article on responsibility.<\/p>\n

Openness also keeps us from intellectual stagnation.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The online world, in particular, is algorithmically driven to corral us within ever-tightening spirals of stuff we probably already like (or stuff that makes us angry enough that we can\u2019t walk away from our screens.)<\/p>\n

The more time we spend in those loops, the more closed-off we become.<\/p>\n

We become less open to new ideas, perspectives, and ways of being in the world.<\/p>\n

We see our own interests<\/strong> reflected back to us again and again, as if they\u2019re the whole of the human experience.<\/p>\n

Cultivating openness as a habit of mind is a way to challenge the ways social media algorithms try to box us in while also becoming better, more interesting writers.<\/p>\n

Openness and curiosity go hand in hand in this pursuit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Curiosity encourages us to ask questions and seek information — openness encourages us to engage with the answers without rushing to judgment.<\/p>\n

As a habit of mind, openness encourages writers to:<\/p>\n