In this quiet week between the last Wayward class, Empty Vessels, and the upcoming Monsters & Mirrors, I find myself returning a concept I learned once from a very smart psychology teacher. She taught her students about what Gestalt-ists call “the cycle of experience”. This cycle charts the healthy rhythm that human activity will take if not interrupted by 80-hour work weeks and an industrial culture that values “productivity” above all else.

Here is an awkward graphic to illustrate how this works:

The way I learned it, the cycle “begins” with Sensation. I think of this as where I might write from when I don’t know yet what I’m working on–in touch, taste, hearing, smell or sight–in other words, an image. (“Green light in a gray sky. The thuk of slush hitting the tires…)

Awareness might be character consciousness (“He wasn’t late yet but drove fast anyway. He…