What do penguins have to do with pleasure in writing? Everything!
Researchers have found that when we come to a writing task in a positive frame of mind, we are likely to perform it more skilfully, creatively, and with greater enjoyment than when we arrive at the task burdened by anxiety, anger, or doubt. Behavioral psychologist Barbara Fredrickson calls this phenomenon the broaden-and-build cycle of positivity: our successful performance of a task generates an ever broader base of confidence and enjoyment that we can build on, in turn, the next time we undertake that task.
Crucially, we can access the broaden-and-build cycle even when the positive emotions that get us there have been externally rather that internally induced. I call this the happy penguin effect, based on a study in which Fredrickson and her colleagues invited student volunteers to perform a simple writing task immediately after watching a short video calculated to induce either neutral emotions (autumn leaves gently falling), negative emotions (two people engaged in an escalating argument), or positive emotions (penguins at play).
The researchers reported that the study participants who watched the playful penguin video went on to write significantly longer, livelier, and more inventive responses than those in the other two groups. In other words, playful penguins can help you become a more productive writer -- not to mention a more creative and colorful one. (The penguin study is described in Fredrickson's aptly titled book Positivity: Discover the Upward Spiral That Will Change Your Life).
Here's what John Ruskin, the famously curmudgeonly Victorian art critic, had to say about the power of penguins to cheer up even the grumpiest of writers:
When I begin to think at all, I get into states of disgust and fury . . . and have to go to the British Museum and look at penguins till I get cool. I find penguins at present the only comfort in life. One feels everything in the world so sympathetically ridiculous. One can't be angry when one looks at a penguin. (John Ruskin, letter to Charles Eliot Norton, 4th November 1860)
The sooner we can hoist ourselves and our writing onto that upward spiral of positivity, the higher we will climb. And penguins -- or any other stimulus that shifts our pre-writing mood from gloomy to joyful -- can help us get there.
To get started, check out my new Happy Penguin video, featuring the voice of my fabulous friend Caitlin Smith and a cameo appearance by my dog Freddie. (Freddie loves penguins too!) If Caitlin's soaring jazz vocals don't put you in the mood for writing, I hope they'll at least get you up and dancing. Check out my other YouTube videos while you're on the channel (especially the Purple Penguin), and please don't forget to subscribe.
What are your happy penguins?
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