LEFT BRAIN, RIGHT BRAIN



A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Writer’s Workshop on Left Brain, Right Brain, and how this affects our writing. Honestly, I never thought about my brain. (Maybe that’s the reason I do such silly stuff sometimes.) That’s beside the point, however. The workshop was based on a book by Daniel H. Pink called Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. Pink is the best-selling author of Free Agent Nation (2001) and also former chief speechwriter for former vice-president Al Gore. The author says there are six human abilities that are essential for professional success and personal fulfillment: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning. He also explains how to master these skills.

Now, I don’t have a copy of the book; I just took notes. Here are some of my thoughts. Even though my sister is left handed and my husband was left handed, I have given little thought to what our handedness means. Left-handed people are usually right brained and the opposite for right-handed people. We did a fun exercise though that was embarrassing as well. When I tried to write my name with my left hand, it looked like a hen scratching in the dirt. Some of the attendees did quite well. So what does this mean to a writer?

An article from http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/a/left-brain-right-brain.htm says this:

For example, a person who is "left-brained" is often said to be more logical, analytical and objective, while a person who is "right-brained" is said to be more intuitive, thoughtful and subjective.

The Right Brain

According to the left-brain, right-brain dominance theory, the right side of the brain is best at expressive and creative tasks. Some of the abilities that are popularly associated with the right side of the brain include:
Recognizing faces
Expressing emotions
Music
Reading emotions
Color
Images
Intuition
Creativity


The Left Brain

The left-side of the brain is considered to be adept at tasks that involve logic, language and analytical thinking. The left-brain is often described as being better at:
Language
Logic
Critical thinking
Numbers
Reasoning

 
Here’s a neat article for teachers from Scholastic:

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/left-brainright-brain


In the workshop, we did some activities to help us determine what we are. My conclusion to the workshop is that it takes the entire brain to be a writer. What do you think?

Which are you? Left brain or right brain?

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