Juiced On Writing

Via the Wright Creativity Blog, I was led to read an article at WebMD which suggests that certain findings have been found towards some colours effecting our creativity, equally applicable towards writing I’m sure. I decided this was worth further investigation.

The experiment documented at WebMD sampled only red and blue, and colours of the same intensity, and found that

The color red makes people more detail-oriented, the color blue boosts creativity, and those color effects often fly under people’s radar.

Red was found to benefit focus (memorising information, detailed work) , blue made the test subjects more creative (design, imagination, brainstorming).

The sample and findings were quite small, but possibly not new information to some of the creative world. For a long time the study of colour and colour’s effects have been part of many hobbyists and artists, with some well known implementations of certain colours ie. red is often used in restaurants because it makes people more hungry, and pink has famously been used on prison walls because of its calming effect.

Colour Therapy itself is a big business – do a search on the internet and you’ll find many practising consultants who will apply various colours to heal our ailments. Without getting into the world of chakras and silks applied to the body, we do have a good base knowledge of what colours signify what feelings or emotions for many human beings.

Colour Meanings

Generally accepted amongst colour coaches and others are the following interpretations of colours, although these can be different amongst cultures.

__Red____________

The colour of fire and blood. And because of high visibility and connotations of danger- it’s used for stop signs, stop lights and fire safety equipment.

Red is associated with anger, rage, heated feelings, danger, war, passion, erotiscm and desire. Oh, and love and Valentine’s Day, of course. In heraldy it’s often used in shields and flags to signify courage. And red often is associated with energy.

As an extreme colour it’s not a great idea to go into negotiations or debates wearing red. That’s like a ‘red flag to a bull’. Red is worn as an attention seeker, and says something about the person’s personality if willing to wear it.

Because of the intensity of red, it has been found that it can affect the human metabolism – stimulating respiration rates, and raising blood pressure. No wonder it’s associated with human desire then (and the appetite, if you’re in that restaurant).

With all of this energy, and quickening of metabolism  there remains little doubt that the effects on many humans are towards quicker decisions and increases of focus and concentration levels, as the MedMD study may have found.

Light red represents joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love.
Pink signifies romance, love, and friendship. It denotes feminine qualities and passiveness. And with the mixture of white, which calms down the intensity, is known to have calming qualities on human beings.
Dark red is associated with vigour, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath.
Brown suggests stability and denotes masculine qualities.
Reddish-brown is associated with harvest and fall.
Dark-brown can be very sombre, sad or wistful.

__Yellow____________

The colour of sunshine, and therefore happiness.

Yellow is also associated with energy (which makes sense as sunshine gives us energy), alertness, and intellect. It gives a warmth, and warming effect, and arouses us, stimulating our mental activity.

The happiness aspect of yellow is used in cohesion with bright red in a famous brand of fast food restaurants we all know.

Too much yellow, though,  can have a disturbing affect – babies in bright yellow rooms have been found to cry more often, and people are so stimulated, that they often find more arguments break out in yellow rooms. Bright yellow acts as a warning or attention getter also – it is used in the U.S.A for taxi cabs for this reason, and for hardhats and safety equipment in the U.K. Conversely, yellow is not seen as a stable colour at all.

People often associate yellow with either cowardice or as a babyish colour. Adult products, particularly selling to men, are very rarely found in yellow. Paler shades of yellow, although useful in cheering up a room, can easily become seen as being dingy also.

Because of the alertness and energy effect, yellow can stimulate concentration. It is used on legal pads for this reason.

Dull (dingy) yellow represents caution, decay, sickness, and jealousy.
Light yellow is associated with intellect, freshness, and joy.

__Orange____________

Orange, as a combination of red and yellow, combines the energy of the first, and happiness of the second. In this combination, orange is thought to provide a ‘balance’ – use it for balancing your life or feelings for instance.

The colour is associated with joy, sunshine and warmth, and often used to symbolise wonderful tropical holidays. People understand orange as being hot – but not aggressive as a red may be. From an emotional level, orange is understood to symbolise vitality with endurance.

As a citrus colour, orange is associated with health, and stimulates the appetite. In heraldry, orange is symbolic of strength and endurance. And with a high visibility, orange is used often to catch people’s attention – you will see it used in product designs, highlighting particular features, and for promoting food and toys. This can have a negative effect, particularly with orange being used to promote many Halloween toys. Sometimes orange can be seen as cheap.

As a good hot colour, orange still stimulates the metabolism – increasing blood supply, making people feel refreshed, and increasing mental activity.

Dark orange can mean deceit and distrust.
Red-orange corresponds to desire, sexual passion, pleasure, domination, aggression, and thirst for action.
Gold evokes the feeling of prestige. The meaning of gold is illumination, wisdom, and wealth. Gold often symbolizes high quality.

__Green____________

Green is the colour of nature. It symbolises growth, harmony, nurturing, healing, fertility and freshness. In Japan, the colour green symbolises ‘life’ itself. It is used to therefore symbolise new-ness, a new beginning, hope or birth  and sometimes to the negative ie – in being ‘green behind the ears, or a ‘greenhorn’ – somebody a little naive, or inexperienced. With the Irish, green – as in leprechauns and four-leaf clovers – now has a ‘lucky’ connotation also.

With green’s ecological connotations – nowadays the colour is associated with safety (perhaps of self) and spirtualism. Dark Green is commonly associated with conservatism, masculinity and money – yes, even outside of America. In heraldy, green denotes growth and hope.

Green has tremendous healing powers – it is restful and calming on the human eye, the easiest on the eye, in fact. Many people also speculate green can improve vision. Green can make people feel calmer and more in touch with their own feelings. People waiting to go onto television programs are sat in ‘green rooms’ to relax; and hospitals use green to also relax patients.  Green is safety – the opposite of red’s danger connotations.

Dark green is associated with ambition, greed, and jealousy.
Yellow-green can indicate sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.
Aqua is associated with emotional healing and protection.
Olive green is the traditional color of peace.

__Blue____________

The colour of the sky and the ocean or water. Blue is associated with stability, loyalty and depth. It symbolises trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, peace, truth, and heaven.

Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility. peace and calmness. It is one of the most popular colours. As opposed to emotionally warmer colours such as red or orange, the calmness of blue is thought to be linked to consciousness (meditation often involves images of the sky), and intellect, precision and knowledge.

It is thought to be quite a masculine colour, with dark blue – depth, loyalty and stability – being the colour of choice for Corporate businesses worldwide. Blue is used to promote products with a cleanliness or purity connotation, but not used on food products – the calming effect suppresses appetites. Some shades of blue are thought to be, however, depressing and cold.

Studies have shown that people are actually more productive in blue rooms. Weighlifters, for instance, have been studied and found to be able to lift heavier weights in blue gyms. Now the MedMD study has found that blue may affect or increase our own creativity levels also.

Light blue is associated with health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness.
Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.
Turquoise – calming, emotional healing, refreshing, sophisticated – a great combination between blue and green.

__Purple____________

Purple combines the stability of blue with the energy of red. It is associated with royalty, rulers, leaders and dignatories – with power, prestidge, luxury and therefore ambition. Purple suggests abundance, wealth and extravagance. It also has a feminine connotation, perhaps because of this luxury. Or perhaps because of the below.

With these connotations, there is no difficulty in seeing why one of the world’s best known chocolate producers, Cadburies, chose purple to wrap their chocolate into.

A study showed that over 75% of pre-adolescents preferred purple as a colour, however this must drop with adults, who sometimes see purple as being quite an artificial colour – it doesn’t make a huge appearance in nature, for example.

Light purple evokes romantic and nostalgic feelings.
Dark purple evokes gloom and sad feelings. It can cause frustration.

White and Black

White – snow, ice, coldness, purity, innocence, babies, virginity, goodness. And simplicity and perfection. Although white can signify coldness (as in temperature) the purity and angelic connotations normally mean white can produce positive symbolisms – success, cleanliness, beginnings, good intentions, safety, healthiness, coolness.

Combined with other colours, white produces pastels and paler tones, taking off some of the more negative connotations of most colours.

Black – space, holes, unseeing, death, grief, darkness, evil and mystery. Fear, the unknown, and mysterious forces. Black holds itself better when considering some of the other connotations – power, formality, elegance, timelessness,  – black is used for formal attire for instance – tuxedos and suits, ‘black tie’ functions, and in timeless fashion items such as ‘the little black dress’. And black is the colour of authority – many police forces throughout the world use black in their uniforms.

Black gives the feeling of perspective and depth, but black backgrounds reduce visibility and readibility. Black contrasts well with white and bright colours, of course. And when paled down with white to various tones of gray – the colour waters down some of the more negative connotations.

Applying Colour to Writing

Looking at the above, I can immediately see some applications to my own writing projects and work. As I write normally on a computer, I can use a desktop wallpaper featuring the colours chosen, sitting behind my writing software, for a start.

When thinking back, I realise I’ve already used some knowledge of colour meanings in my previous work. In writing my first novel – it was about fairies (okay, don’t ask) – I specifically went through and chose a green natural colour scheme for my writing software – it allows for different styles and themes. I also purposely chose images of nature to use in my in-line software gallery. And I downloaded and setup a playlist of Celtic music and natural sounds – waterfalls and the like.

I recently also bought myself a new moleskine notebook – in racing red. I’ve found that my entries in that notebook are very different from my main pink writer’s notebook. The pink one is obviously more creative, with story notions, even little poems, descriptions of places and events. In my red one I’ve got detailed lists, even with checkboxes and the like. Until now, I was wondering why.

I have therefore already used certain colours to stimulate moods and the feelings and actual types of writing I want to incorporate into my writing, in the case of my notebooks – quite accidentally. Using red for a romantic writing piece, or grey when writing something about a business or office seems quite natural.

Taking these theories away from specific themes in fictional writing, I must admit that I don’t like a bright red enough to use it in the way that the MedMD study suggests – for focussed writing. However, orange I can get on with, and orange inherits many of the stimulations of red, so I might hope therefore that it could increase my focus levels on detailed work.

I would suggest that orange therefore, may be useful as a background to the planning and outlining sessions for new novels or articles like this one. Whereas when looking to increase creativity, and stimulate more ideas, I may well turn to blue – a nice aqua or sky blue rather than something too bright.

Summarising Colours for Writing

Use these colours for certain writing tasks. Use as a background wallpaper, within a software skin or theme, or perhaps print out a large block of the colour to have beside you as you write. Choose the colours of your writing notebooks – maybe even the pens you use, accordingly also.

Writing Tasks :

• Red or Orange – detailed focussed sessions – planning, outlining, list-making, structuring, research.
• Light blues / Aquas / Sky Blues – creative writing, idea generations, brainstorming, brain-dumping, story generations.

Writing Themes:

• Red – when writing around romantic, erotic, war, fighting or anger topics or themes.
• Greens – when writing around nature or spirtual topics or themes.
• Darker Green – when you just want to relax into your writing and see what is born ie Timed Writing sessions / free-writing.
• Bright or Light Green – to freshen up your writing, to wake it up when you’ve been writing too long or hard.
• Blacks or Grays – when writing around death, fear or mystery;  or around businesses, sombre feelings or authority.

LinkMes:

• Kirsten Wright’s What Color is Your Creativity blog post.
• WebMD – Color Yourself Cautious or Creative article by Miranda Hitti

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