Editor, author, and educator, Shon Bacon suggests that there are two fundamental aspects to a writer’s process. One is the purely creative aspect. The second involves the analytical dimension of crafting a story.
Psychologists and scientists have long theorized that humans accomplish varied tasks by utilizing either one or the other side of our brains. Creative, artistic tasks are directed by the right side, didactic practical and analytical objectives utilize the left side of our brains.
Writers who are the business of writing and selling our work must develop the ability to wear to hats, perhaps not at the same time. We certainly benefit from the capacity for interchanging those hats as our goals of writing and then marketing and promoting our work demands.
Yet even before we reach the stage of presenting our work to the world market and place it before the eyes of our would-be consumer, the challenge of writing and crafting our work, our novel and/or short stories asks each of us to use qualities involving both the right and left sides of our brains.
Writing fiction is both a creative and didactic achievement.
The basic elements of fiction involving characters, setting, plot, dialogue, point of view, theme, just to name a few are all necessary components to any and every short story or novel.
And yet we have the more elusive aspects to a writer’s work such as voice, pacing, and dramatic edge.
Each story or novel must have an arc or transition, tension that climaxes, conflict that excites, transforms and ultimately renders the major and supporting characters changed and anew.
As many variations on out these present in a story exist as there are stories people have read.
An author’s perspective on the tension arising from her or his protagonist’s major dilemma is the most unique piece of any writer’s work. And from this rises her or his voice, the author’s style.
Yet that style must be clear and consistent in nature of character and the protagonist’s development and the transformation that occurs throughout the trek of the book.
How we accomplish this involves utilizing and pulling on qualities rooted in both sides of our head.
Awareness of this aspect of the process, and more specifically our unique take on this as a writer, allows us to better utilize these same qualities involving right brain activities and left brain activities when creating and establishing a platform on which to launch our stories into the world and a crafting promotion notices that inform would be readers and consumers about us and an our work.
Today’s writer is both a creator and a marketer, an artist and businessperson.
Knowing our strengths and challenges in each are and in which side of our brains the abilities to address each are rooted gives us knowledge and power to accomplish our goals, both the writing and crafting of our work and the marketing, promoting and selling it.
We begin to understand this process by observing the primary task of how we transform idea for a story into a well-written piece of fiction and then delineating our unique process for achieving the former.
What is your process for writing a novel or short story or poem?
Do you plan ahead? If so, how–by thinking, outlining, etc?
How much planning involves right brain activities?
How much is left brain oriented?