Writing from bits of your brain

As I've been looking at right and left brain functions for writers, I dug up some information I'd found in an old post and wanted to share. Some writers claim to be creative and prefer to write without plots or plans, others like their lists and outlines, thinking themselves more analytical. Is it just in our heads that we are wired for either organisation or creativity? No (and yes).

Just as different parts of the brain are used for seeing as for hearing, we use different sections of our brain for fiction and non-fiction. We have to exercise both sides of the brain so one doesn’t get lazy. Would you like to know if you are more of a right brain thinker or a left brain thinker? Have a look at this website here and take the test. For me the dancer goes clockwise, my youngest daughter (Matilda) also sees it clockwise - we are righties. My husband and eldest daughter (Emily) see the figure go anti-clockwise - they are lefties. 

But you're not locked in. The trick is, if you stare at it long enough you can usually change the direction and therefore change the side of the brain you are using. If you wanted to harness the skills of both sides of your brain you can exercise the 'lazy' side.


How do you exercise the other half of your brain? Easy, try this:

Left side: Look at a picture of any animal. Then, quickly write as much as you know about that topic for 10 minutes straight. E.g: How much do you know about ducks? You may start off thinking you know very little, but as you write your mind will prompt memories of data. This is a good warm up to do before writing essays.

Right side: Look at a picture of a place or animal (not your own photos). Now write freely and imaginatively for 10 minutes about that picture, whatever it inspires.
E.G: If you have a picture of a cat, write what the cat is thinking and what it plans to get up to later.


None of us have a dormant side of the brain, but sometimes I think we rely heavily on the side we're already comfortable. It can be freeing for our writing to push ourselves outside of our usual box. What side of the brain do you lean towards? Or does yours switch back and forth constantly?

Want to find other ways to exercise your brain? Try this link:

Does Your Brain Need Exercise

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Make It Happen

Time to crack that whip and get writing!

I'm on a kick of making writing time, rather than trying to find it. And it's working for me. As I force myself to write something everyday, I'm finding more creative ideas arising. It's like Paul Newman once said, "The more you do it, the more you can." (although I don't think he was referring to writing).

How can you make yourself write? Here's a few tips I've picked up from other blogs, books and my bossy little voice in my head:

• Set a daily minimum word quota (500 seems to be popular). Keep a note of your highest number of words too, you HAVE to reach your minimum, but you might feel like aiming for your high-score some days.
• Turn off the internet. Seriously, don't just 'say' you'll ignore it. No Facebook, emails, Farmville, Twitter or blog-visiting until your writing is DONE. If you can't resist temptation (like me). Turn off the computer and use a notebook and pen.
• Make an appointment with writing friends or join a critique group. This way you'll have to produce something to share with them by your scheduled date.
• Give yourself short sprints of time to write throughout the day, like little writing breaks. It doesn't matter if you can't fit in a block of an hour a day - shorter writing spurts make you more productive, because you have to work fast.
• Use prompts to get your writing started. No sitting and staring for ten minutes. Just start anything until you're ready to write your WIP. That pen should not stop moving!
• Bribe yourself. If you beat yesterday's high-score word count, you bake some cookies.
• Hold your day to ransom. Write first. House is a mess, and you better get onto it or you are a bad bad mum (or it feels that way), but, you are not allowed to put those dishes away until you've done a ten minute writing stint or you've written one page. This method works best for me.
• Record your dreams in the morning. They may not seem relevant but there may be a spark of an idea that can merge into your WIP.
• You can stay awake for just ten more minutes, you're in bed, drowsy, write your random thoughts.
• Plot out an idea or conflict in your novel while you do menial tasks. As soon as you're done the task, jot it down.
• Choose the time of day that works for you, find your natural flow, perhaps you have more imaginative thoughts in the morning, or, like me, you're better after the first cup of tea.

Hope some of these get you writing today. I'll even forgive you for not commenting if it's because you're rushing offline to write. :-)

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Start Again, and Again, and...

After a week of little or no writing because I was too busy, I realised I had my mindset all wrong. I was thinking that I needed spare time to write. When is that ever going to come? No, instead of waiting for spare time, I needed to make writing time.

I revisited the audiobook Writing Down The Bones by Natalie Goldberg (because I don't think I gave it enough attention the first time and I've been going a little overboard with my book purchases lately). One of the exercises suggested sounded interesting.

Golberg recommends taking a first line from a poem or novel (choosing randomly by just opening the page) and using it as a prompt to riff-write (I've done a post on riff-wriitng before, you can find it here). You just write anything that comes to mind, don't worry if it sounds irrelevant to your story at first. When you start to get stuck, or your writing goes off in a tangent that is unhelpful, stop. Then rewrite that first line and start again. A fresh start. Write until it no longer feels right, then stop. Write the first line again, and off you go.

I did this with a line from a poem; "I can't remember a time when I did not know you." I couldn't see the connection, but I put my trust in the task and wrote. Then I tried again. And again. What I found was a new subplot in my narrative that opens up my characters, creates conflict and explains motives for my main story problem.

So no excuses, must make writing time every day.

I also want to say a huge THANK YOU to Shannon from Book Dreaming for her wonderful post about my daughters' book review blog: Paper Dolls. Please check out the Book Dreaming post - it's beaut! (Aussie slang for 'pretty darn good!').

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Thinking About Writing

Some days it seems impossible to make something out of nothing.

When we get stuck in those foggy moments, there's a few ways we can attack the emptiness.

1. Write anyway. Most of the time the hardest part is getting yourself to sit down and do it. Anything, free-writing (riff-writing), brainstorm from a single idea or word (clustering) or do some character building.
2. Research. Pick your narrative's date, location or any significant element and start searching. You may be surprised at what inspirational background story or new plot ideas you can come up with (researching for inspiration).
3. Read. Read what you write and analyse the way the author has used opening hooks, descriptive passages, twists, etc. You can read books on the craft of writing (I've just finished Hooked by Les Edgerton - LOVED IT), or read from a completely different genre from the one you write, you may find some style that will fit within your narrative (post on reading for writing).
4. Put the pen down and refill your imagination with beauty, art, history. Anything. But keep a notebook handy incase your muse suddenly wakes up!

In this clip, Kseniya Simonova creates a rich narrative out of nothing more than sand. This is so much more than just creating pretty pictures, this artist had a story filled with emotion and history to relay and she knew how to reach her audience. Take some inspiration here (this clip is over 8 minutes, but well worth it):

You can also get crafty with something else, art, sewing, baking, macrame? My family made Mother's Day a day for me to potter about sewing - and they kept the cups of tea coming :-). I made a bag to protect my beloved Kindle:

Do you have days where it seems like the hardest thing in the world would be to sit down and write?

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When Riff-writing Works

Dog-gone, where'd my creativity go?

Some days one little thing happens and it's like your brain has had the delete key pressed (I imagine a little old man with glasses rummaging through the dusty, spiderweb-ridden storage room looking for that good idea, but ultimately just shaking his head at the sorry state of my mind's hopeless filing system). 

Today was like that for me. I have three dogs, and I'm constantly advising would-be pet owners, that is one too many. This is especially the case when you have one dog that decides to be mean to another. Long story short, there is now a lot of sulking and soreness in separate corners. This small but stressful event is enough to leave me brain dazed.

The unlikely villain: 'Fossil'

So what should I do? Stare blankly at the screen and not write? Nah. That's when it's time to see writing as a task and... just do it anyway. 

I started to write in my journal, just riff-writing (writing without control of the direction, just putting down whatever comes to mind) and I was surprised at what I got. At first it was all about the dogs fighting and how angry and shaken I was. Not surprising because that's what was on my mind, but then my thoughts wandered to my father's dog that passed away this week after an amazing 17yrs. I remembered all the funny stories about this dog and then started to remember things about my childhood dogs. I also remembered reading a newspaper story about my dad when he was a young boy and he adopted a dog from the local pound.

Although at the time this seemed irrelevant, now that I think about it, I would like my 12 yr. old protagonist from Warracknabeal Kids, to have a dog. He's a boy growing up in the country, he has no mother - he should have a dog. Some of my riff-writing will be of value to my story. I'm excited now too, because I love writing dog characters.

So I'm suggesting when you hit those times where you are stressed or tired and you just 'can't think', don't. Write instead.

I did get a nice treat this week when I received this pretty 'Silver Lining Award' from Niki at: 

Wool' N 'Nuts a fun blog about writing and farming and more :-)

It was most appropriate and reminds me to see the silver lining in today's events :-)

I'd like to pass the award onto (well, everyone really, but here's a couple I picked out):

Mary at Play of the Page

Ann from All Write with Coffee

Rosslyn at Inkhorn Blue

My Dad's Best Mate, Clancy 

(named long before I met my husband and became Mrs Clancy)

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