During my time at university, although I wasn’t the most diligent student, I showed more interest in the subjects I liked. Especially when we took those courses in English, it motivated me to study more because it gave me the opportunity to improve my language skills in different ways. Some of my friends had problems with foreign languages, so they sometimes asked me for help. I would study with them, especially before exams.
Before I started covering the topics, I would study the subject like a teacher, explain it to them, take their questions, go through the material and give a simple explanation with examples for better understanding. They usually got higher marks than I did, but that’s not the point. I later learned that I was unintentionally using the Feynman Technique. I think it is an effective method that can be used to learn in many areas of our lives.
Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, was known for his cheerful personality and was recognised as a scientist, teacher, storyteller and musician. If you found this article interesting and would like to learn more about him, I suggest you do some research and watch documentaries about him.
Some of my friends who know that I write stories and a book sometimes show interest or ask, “How do you do it?”. In my opinion, there are two important aspects of writing: constant reading and constant practice. That may sound simple, but in practice, as you can imagine, it is not that straightforward. Consistency requires discipline and motivation, but let’s not go off topic.
To answer my friends’ questions, I sometimes preferred to do a little test. I would create a short story with them on the spot. I would ask them about the main themes and the characters and settings they wanted to include. Then, with a little help, I would ask them to develop the story. They found the result fascinating because they hadn’t practised it before. But if they wanted to, they could do it and develop their stories through reading. Our attitude to complex works is sometimes like listening to a skilled guitarist and saying, “This is incredible! How can he play it like that?”.
There is a common point in the example of helping my friends at university and the little test I did with my other friends. That is, the first step is to define a subject. The Feynman Technique also starts with this first step. We need to be clear about what we want to specialise in or learn about. It can be a general topic or a specific aspect of that topic that we want to study. Of course, it can make things easier if we have some basic knowledge of the subject we want to study. For example, if we want to learn programming, it wouldn’t hurt to have a general idea of the existence of algorithms and how their logic works. Just like reading a lot before writing a story and researching how the beginning of literary art works.
Photo by Pereanu Sebastian on Unsplash
Awareness of the Subject
Let’s move on to the narrative of the title. How do I use it when I write? First, I decide what I want to write about. Will it be a general narrative or will it have more in-depth elements? Can I add something of my own or will it be based purely on research? Do I have access to resources or do I know where to get them?
Clearly, after identifying the topic we want to learn, we should do some preliminary work and preparation. That way we know what to focus on and what to work on. From the point of view of my story, let’s say I’ve decided what kind of story I want to write.
Learning and Expression
We have all the materials and know where to start. We have some knowledge about the subject and are determined to learn more. In the learning phase we should use everything we have. It could be a video, an audio recording, a book, a documentary, etc. We should bring ourselves to a point where we can say: “I have at least some knowledge about this subject”. Sometimes this may involve uncertainty. It will also take time, of course. But this stage is a two-step process, so let’s keep improving without giving up.
Let me give you a personal example. When I first started writing, I decided what genre, characters, time and setting I wanted. Now I prefer to be more specific so that I can find a starting point. For example I can ask myself this, “What can I write about?” If it’s an adventure story, I should focus more on the characters. I can give them names and think about their background lore. Not only should I think about them, but I should take notes so that I can bring my work to life.
Then let’s choose a theme. Let’s say we’re writing a fantasy story, and if we deviate from reality, we shouldn’t see it as something absurd. This means that at some point I can introduce supporting elements such as magic. Since my main character is a young boy, he shouldn’t be too skilled at it, but he can meet someone on his adventure and learn from them. I’m making notes. “Does he have a friend, or when can his enemy come into play? Should I introduce his family?” For example, his father might be a former knight who was banished from the kingdom for various reasons and couldn’t return to his duties.
As you can see, things are starting to come together. Remember, if you don’t like your story or think there’s something wrong with it, you can always go back and change it. But when you do, pay attention to the connections it has with the interactions. I won’t continue with this example in the next section. I just wanted to give you a simple idea of what the process might be like.
We have mentioned that we are in a two-stage process. We are now at the stage where we are developing ourselves to a certain extent and we are beginning to share with others. If the person with whom we want to share what we have learnt has no knowledge of the subject, we have more work ahead of us, as expected. So it’s better if they have some knowledge or even more. Because in this process we will reinforce our learning by explaining and teaching what we have learned. Just like taking notes and reviewing what your teacher explained at school, by explaining what you have learned, you are reinforcing it.
In other words, you do a second round of learning. What’s more, if it’s personal work like mine — as in my example — it helps you make a final decision about yourself this time by presenting it as a public performance. If you can explain a subject to someone else, either orally or visually, then you have a good understanding, or at least you have begun to have one. The stage of teaching or sharing what you know will be a very effective exercise.
Going back to our example, let’s tell our friends about the story we’ve created. Of course, when I told my friends, I was faced with questions. That’s actually the best part of this stage. Self-questioning. “Do I really know it? How well do I know it?” If you’re not sure, go back and look again. Of course, nobody expects you to learn everything at once. Don’t worry about that. But being sure of what you have learned will give you confidence. You can always go back and revisit what you’ve learned to learn what you don’t know or have forgotten.
My friends also asked questions about the parts they felt were missing. They had a broad view of my story. They were curious about some details, but when you’re working on your own creative work, you can be flexible, I won’t lie. However, if you’re working on a subject that requires precise information, and the question you’re asked is about a necessary detail, it will be beneficial to learn. In my situation, my answer was that some of the things they were curious about wouldn’t have much impact on the story. Nevertheless, they listened to what I told them about the story until the end. I listened to their questions. I went back to my story to edit the parts I thought were missing. This brings us to the next stage.
Returning to the Study Source in Missing Points
I don’t want to go into this part any further because, as I said, in the process of telling the story, we go back to our resources to check the parts that we feel are incomplete. There’s no need to be discouraged, because it’s very human to make mistakes. It’s also important to remember that not everyone has the same ability to learn. Different people have different learning styles. Some may be more effective in a visual, verbal or auditory learning process. When creating my stories, I prefer to work in a quiet environment. As I mentioned in one of my previous articles, listening to soothing music can be very helpful in concentrating.
In this section we learned that we need to repeat the process to address the shortcomings in our work. When I told the story to my friends, I made revisions by searching my mind for answers to the questions they asked. I always make sure I take notes, otherwise things can easily slip from my mind. I usually prefer to work through writing.
Simplification and Analogies
I think the most striking points of a story are the beginning and the end. This is because the middle can be filled in any way your imagination creates. However, the beginning and the end have an impact on the core themes created by your imagination. That is why we have come to the most important part of this work, the ending.
Let’s summarise quickly, because people tend to remember the last parts of what they read:
We know what we want to improve and learn, and we are determined. Preferably, we’ve done our homework on the topic in question, rather than jumping into it.
We have entered a period of courageous, determined and disciplined work and learning. We are constantly practising. At some point we start telling or showing someone else, trying to teach what we know. In the process, we observe our shortcomings or mistakes.
Based on our observations, we review all that we know. We do exercises to reinforce our knowledge.
If we assume that we haven’t been able to address the shortcomings in our work, we can choose to repeat the storytelling process and get new feedback.
We move on to the final step and look at how we can simplify everything we’ve learned and make it more coherent. And to make it more coherent, we use analogies if the subject we are working on allows it.
Now let’s look at the last part. We have achieved what we wanted and we have a certain amount of knowledge. However, what we have learned can generally be a work that follows rules. For example, a learner of a foreign language learns everything according to the rules. In fact, native speakers of the language may not even be aware of these rules because they haven’t had to learn them. What the learner needs to do is to see that the rules do not apply to every situation. They need to know that sometimes there are simple exceptions.
Continuing with the story example, I made my changes and filled in the blanks. However, when I read the story from the beginning, I realised that I had overused some words, repeated sentences in places, didn’t use punctuation correctly, or made mistakes while writing. Some analogies were also unnecessary and out of place. So I cut or simplified all that. Because a long story doesn’t always have to be right. Sometimes it is enough to be concise.
Since my example is based on literature, I’m very likely to use analogies. Instead, at this stage I have chosen to use analogies when telling my friends about it. Because I’m already working on a topic where I can make them. I explained to my friends what the characters in my writing represented, where some ideas came from, or what the events around the main theme corresponded to in our lives.
This is the part that made them say, “Ah, now it is completely fixed in my mind”. Because, especially in my example, I can say that the fiction and the whole story in your mind may not be conveyed to everyone in the same way. Because fiction stimulates the imagination, it will create different images in people’s minds. This is inevitable. However, by making analogies based on shared knowledge — preferably concrete and factual information — you add a more precise and solid meaning to this fiction and you enable the other party to understand the events.
Finally, I have to say, if possible, don’t rush into anything. Take the next step when you feel confident.
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