Metaphorically, imagine that the great writers who move humanity: Stephen King, JRR Tolkien, and J.K. Rawlings, for example, know what the rest of us don’t yet know: that there’s a secret radio station, if you will, that they can tune their brains into. No machine, no technology, has ever been able to pick up this radio station. Only certain human brains can tune into it. Once tuned in, the Great Stories of Humankind are downloaded through that human’s brain, and onto their writing page. Once downloaded, the human will go back over and make sure his or her spellings are correct, that grammar is presented appropriately, and so on. But it was that radio station that poured out the original content that would shake the world through novels, award-winning columns, perhaps even movie rights.
Everywhere, people are wanting to tune into the same station so that an as-yet untold original story can download through them, but instead, they use a part of their brain that’s not wired to that station. They use their left-brain hemisphere, and try to work on spelling and grammar, participate in fear-based critique groups, and try to copy what others have already done, but they still can’t tune into that flow themselves. Those who are tuned in may have been born wired to it. They themselves may not even know it exists, because for them, there’s no other way of thinking. Why would one need to “develop” anything?
The above metaphor describes why successful writers are either born with, or have found a way to develop their right brain hemispheres, and have also developed the “highway” between the right and left brain hemispheres, so they work as partners instead of in isolation from each other. The right hemisphere “hears” great stories, is plugged into the Great Radio Station, and the left hemisphere then serves the right hemisphere by polishing with proper grammar and editing.
This explains why some professional writers do strange things: Gather for “free writing” sessions where the pen must keep moving across the page and yet nothing of apparent value will necessarily be produced. Engage in “clustering,” or mind-mapping, another form of right brain development, or “sing” their stories aloud, which merges the left-hemisphere verbal with the right hemisphere’s musical ability, strengthening the highway between the two hemispheres.
Not all writers find workshops or writers’ groups helpful, some even find them detrimental. But some believe that certain group activities and solitude writing practices were what helped tune them into that Great Radio Station. When considering a writers’ group or workshop, find out what they will be emphasizing: Learning to edit? Critiquing each others’ work? Freewriting? Clustering? From that point, decide what you’re most in need of, and whether such a gathering would serve you.
Barbara Adams
Feature writer for national magazines;
Book author with traditional royalty publisher;
Writing coach and professional editor
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