I have a question that might not come up that often. You see, I am a right and left brain person. I can do math and create art. I was wondering how this ties into your writing. My left brain thinks up the facts about what I'm writing while my right side distorts these facts and put twist onto them to make them more interesting. I was wondering what type of brains do most writers in general have. How this effects their writing styles. And what type of brain do you have? If there are any examples of writers that you know of feel free to share. Also, is there a successful left brain fiction writer? I would be hard pressed to know any. That would be an interesting read. Especially if they wrote about elves and dwarfs.
Since the right side is responsible for creativity, I would assume that most writers are right-brain thinkers. There are a few writers that are both left- and right-brain thinkers, but from my experience reading them, all of them tend to write science fiction, fantasy, or mystery. The most prolific people in history were those who lived many hundred years ago. They had a much broader education than people have today. Da Vinci is the most famous example of someone who made contributions in both science and art (among other things).
Mathematics makes my head spin. Even basic stuff can get me in a twist...that and i've never had love for numbers. They tend to irritate me and aren't too flexible when you answer questions. I pronounced my left brain dead long ago so my right brain could take over.
I don't really think the issue's as objective as that. right/left brain is used more as a means of.. 'dispositional attribution', or trying to understand ppl's behavior as innate to them, as opposed to acquired over their life-time, than ppl tend to realize.. semantics n all. i guess im right brained, probably - im left handed - tho i can still read and write, so i don't see why its really worth saying unless someone is exceptionally one or the other. meh
Well I'm left brained, I know because I am "goofy" on any board sport e.g. I lean forwards onto my right foot. But I am definitely better at English and creative subjects rather than maths. Recently I did a psychometric test and it told me my English skills were recorded as higher than my maths, but I'm definitely left brained. I don't really think you can trust brain hemisphere preference to know what you are good at.
i thought regular was like being right handed? so goofy would be left, thus right brained i think. true tho, hemispherism is a pretty weak concept from what i kno
No I'm right handed, it is that I prefer to lean on my right foot, even though I also prefer to kick with it. The right brain controls the left side of the body and vice versa.
that's true, ive never thought of it in terms of foot preference. but either way, i think regular is called regular b/c most ppl are it - as in equivalent to right-handedness in a way. i don't think the correlation is nearly as strong for feet as it is for hands, & ive known a handful of right-handed goofies, but i think there is some hemispherical basis to the phenomenon regardless. deep subject. i'm a lefty goofy myself edit: Not super credible, but a case in point "Just like most people are right handed, most people are regular footed. That's why it's called regular." http://skateboard.about.com/od/skateboardingdictionary/l/aa031203.htm
You can be right handed, but still think like a left hander and have a strong right side brain. And vice versa. If you write with your hand crooked above the line of writing it usually indicates this. We had a reading comprehension in my class about this subject recently, which seemed to be current and had interesting data.
I totally agree. except that right/left-handers think fundamentally differently, like i said good point
Dividing people into left and right brained is like dividing people into left and right in politics. It's a crude simplification of something too complex to fall into two categories. Da Vinci probably didn't know he was supposed to be one of either so he excelled at both. At any rate, such simplified pseudoscience could only possibly serve to limit people. I prefer to use my whole brain.
I've never thought about it. But now that I am, i'd have to say i'm a little from column A, a little from column B. I love to know things. I love to be logical, and to know what I'm talking about. If I applied myself to maths or physics or biology etc etc then I know that I would be great at it. On the other hand, I love all things creative too. From photography, writing, art and music, I love it all, and am relativaly good at all of them. Also, following the trend of this thread, I'll say that I'm right handed.
Exactly what I was about to say. Both sides of the brain are used for most things anyway. How could an artist paint something without using both their mathematical/spatial skills as well as their creativity? If there was one thing I got out of my psychology course it is that nobody is really either right or left brained.
We did an experiment in pyschology where the teacher gave the class a test and based on our scores, lined us up around the room. The person on the far left side of the room was the most left brained, and the person on farthest right, the most right brained. I was the most right brained person in the class (by ALOT!). It was crazy to see how opposite I was from the left-y. She is a math wiz, and I was struggling through the lowest math class offered, yet I excelled in art and things creative. (in english, she was a wiz at grammar tests and I was a failure, yet on essays, I made far better grades than she did.) She was a neat freak, I'm more on the sloppy side. She lined her clothes up in her closet based on color and season, I'm lucky if I hang mine up. She is very meticulous and organized, where as I am a bit more scattered. I'm left handed, and I write with my hand curled over (for the person that said that). I love science and biology, but it's math that's my huge weakness. My husband still makes fun of me for doing math on my hands. haha I like to think I use my whole brain, most of the time. However, I do think it's more obvious in some people which 'side' they think from.
Its true that you can't be exacly one side over the other. But there is a preference non the less. And when i say left and right. I'm talking about the part of your brain that is mathematical and the part that is creative. Motor functions actual have nothing to do with what side of the brain you use. When you write your signature it has more to do with what type of brain you have rather then the motor function you have. Since a left handed person can right very neatly and precise. When babies walk before they crawl it doesn't mean that they aren't as smart as the crawlers because they use their left and right brain to crawl. What it means is that their motor functions are more dominant than other babies. Crawlers are more rounded. While Walkers are more precise. If anything it tells the person who will decide what they want to be when they grow up first. No other comments.
I'd like to think my hand writing is nice and precise and I am right handed. Again, this is not a discussion on which side of the brain you 'use'. You use both sides all the time. It has to do with how you 'think', though can anyone here positively say how much? Genetics, environment, all influence this as well. On a side note, I guess ambidextrous people are the only people who use 'all' of their brain. Joke! Best, Whiskey
I don't know the science behind left/right brain influences, although I feel as if such influences do account for uniquely separate approaches to life and how we make sense of everything. Anything I've ever done to figure out where I "fit" shows me smack dab equal in both right and left side (so I can't say if or how exactly it could matter). But I do have the very real sensation of dipping into distinctly separate parts of my mind (if not geographical locations within my brain) to accomplish certain kinds of things. And I'm also aware of battling between different aspects of my nature in order to produce an outcome of some kind (including writing). I think it's kind of interesting to imagine how brain physiology influences how we think, and I have no doubt it does. I wonder about it sometimes when we speak of different approaches to creativity writers have. I guess I don't much think a given brain side identity is required in order to accomplish what we set out to do, so much as it may influence what we aspire to do and how we get there, in the first place. Surely brain function in whatever constellation gives rise to the unique way in which we each use our minds, which--along with circumstance--accounts in some way for what defines a given author.
Of course things are laid out geographically. Six brain layers, four main lobes, hemispheres, etc, etc, etc. It's fascinating! Though studying it for exams MAKES my brain hurt. Lol. Best, Whiskey
testing showed me to be just a hair off being equal-sided, brain-wise... i'm right-handed, but that has no bearing on the brain-use issue...
@Neopatt - I mostly agree i guess, except for: "...it has more to do with what type of brain you have..." There arent really 'types', that's what im saying. preferences and specialization, yes, but not types. semantics and such id correlate personality traits such as creativity/orderliness/ect to the personality long before i would hemispherism. but the fact that there is some such basis is pretty koo. interesting
right and left brain I think most people are a combination of both but the percentages differ. I'm probably about 65% right brain, 35% left brain. When I am forced to focus for a long time on things such as mortgages, taxes or the details of buying or selling one's home, I get a headache, then I actually crave music. I find that music augments the right brain and allows me to write.
I think you're right about the "typing," although that is a construct that's used to sort out why folks behave in particular ways. It's more like a compilation of a (seemingly) endless number of factors that all affect behavior in particular ways, only one of which is the difference between how right- and left-brained thinking influence thought and so forth (which, from what I've read, is still being argued out even among scientists and researchers). The outcome is that we're each unique in how all that comes together. And thankfully so--otherwise, all literature (for those of us who write) would look pretty much the same, and it most certainly does not.
