  Short Stories
This week: Brains....brains! Edited by: Legerdemain  
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The purpose of this newsletter is to help the Writing.com short story author hone their craft and improve their skills. Along with that I would like to inform, advocate, and create new, fresh ideas for the short story author. Write to me if you have an idea you would like presented.
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Brains...brains
Nope, this is not a newsletter about zombies. It's about your brain and writing. Which side of your brain are you using? I'm hoping you're using both for such things as body function and subconscious work, but as a writer, which side do you write from? The conscious mind often favors one side over the other.
“Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully.
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever."
"And he has Brain."
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain."
There was a long silence.
"I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never understands anything.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
Right brainers write with feelings, emotions and imagination. From the right side, they play with language and emotion. Right-brain writers usually write on the fly. They create as they go, unfortunately right-brain writers often become disorganized and lose their way. They often know what they want to write or say, but have trouble expressing it. The right-brain is generally weaker than the left, but necessary for creativity and imagination. The right side recognizes patterns from apparent random universal experiences and sorts them into unique personal meaning.
“I like living in my head because in there, everyone is kind and innocent. Once you start integrating yourself into the world, you realize that people are nasty, mean creatures. They're worse than zombies. People try to crush your soul and destroy your happiness, but zombies just want to have a little nibble of your brain.”
― J. Cornell Michel, Jordan's Brains: A Zombie Evolution
Left-brainers prefer action-based writing. They write plot, outline and plan their story as a sequence of scenes like cars on a train chugging down the track. Lefties are more able to create more complicated stories with twist and turns. If you're a more logical, analytical and rational writer, your strengths are in your left-brain. From the left-brain, you have no trouble expressing words or feelings. The left side of your brain also governs detail memory, sequencing and retrieval.
Using this knowledge as a writer can be helpful. If your strength is action and plot, try to quiet the left part of your brain when you need your right-brain's imagination and emotion. If you are good with emotions and language, encourage your left by trying outlines and plot diagrams.
Now, if we can walk and chew gum at the same time...
“There's someone in my head, but it's not me."
― David Eagleman, Pink Floyd
Thanks for letting me stop in and rattle around inside your head for this week's newsletter. Hopefully I've spurred a little insight into our creativity as writers.
This month's question: What side of the brain do you use to write? Send in your answer below!  Editors love feedback!
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Excerpt: Sigmund Meerschaum sighed.
He stood at the lectern, tall and gaunt, sporting his horn-rimmed glasses and graying goatee, holding his Peterson pipe while peering out across the stage at the hushed audience--an audience of fellow professors and researchers from all over the world.
All waited with breathless anticipation to hear this respected man of renown, the foremost authority on both brain chemistry and geophysics, give his talk and present his novel hypothesis.
Excerpt: Ribald laughter broke the clang and clatter of dishes hitting oak as the serving staff hustled to satisfy every need of every guest. For the first time in over twenty years, Sedyr played host to the High Games - contests of skill, strength, and intelligence commemorating the fabled competition between the Children of the Allfather, Frey and Freya.
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Excerpt: Gunner thought in that particular instant, that the noise was being created inside his head; but almost immediately, he trashed that idea as the silly notion of a numbskull guy who had drunk too much Pinot Noir.
Excerpt: The radio woke me. I smiled when I heard the song playing. They’re coming to take you away, haa, haa, hee, hee . . .
Excerpt: THERE ARE SEVEN DOGS on my street. One day they started barking and they haven’t stopped since. I can hear them wherever I go. It does not matter if they appear to be barking or not; Inside of my head they never stop.
Excerpt: I’m you, Angus. I’m that little voice inside your head.
Excerpt: Repressed anger. Its unhealthy. It leads to unhealthy thoughts, unhealthy behavior. As someone who’s dealt with it on a constant, I am someone who knows. Repressed anger is like a bomb just waiting to explode.
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Excerpt: It was either my intelligence or my hunch that informed me that I was going to make it this time round, the same way I had always made it. To make things better, Miranda was on my side, sitting beside me.
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b}This month's question: What side of the brain do you use to write? Send in your answer below! Editors love feedback!
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Short Stories: January 11, 2017 Issue [#8078]
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