Right brain, left brain, which is the most creative brain for book writing?

When you go about your day, you use both sides of your brain. Perhaps your analytical, left brain balances your checkbook and navigates the road when you drive your car.

Your more random right brain might enjoy a painting, daydream a garden design, plan the flavors of a meal, or replay a conversation with a friend, trying to sense the meaning behind it. You’re listening to yourself, using all of yourself.

And just as you do this naturally during your every day, you must also listen fully to yourself as you write your book.

It’s not a new idea.

But it’s really not used consciously by most book writers.

I found that when I deliberately trained both sides of my creative self—the practical and the random, the editor and the creator—my book grew stronger and more able to touch a reader.

Then a writer passed along this link to a very cool article about the way we switch back and forth.

Let me know what you think! Especially if you try writing while watching the lady spin.

http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php?p=27

Exercise of the Week for Book Writers

E.L. Doctorow said, "Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader. Not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon." Set a kitchen timer for 10 minutes and write from one of the five senses: smell, taste, touch (texture and temperature), sound, sight. Underline your favorite sentence from what you wrote, one that "evokes sensation." Can you add it to a page in your book draft?

More about Doctorow's books and background: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writer.asp?cid=702302