Flip Your Brain with 5 Simple Tricks

This week for our How I Write series, my accountability group asked, “How do you balance between your muse and your internal editor? (and/or) How do you make your internal editor work for you, and not against you?” In other words, how do you find ways to flip your brain back and forth?

There’s a lot of talk about right-brained and left-brained people where the labels “logical” for the left side or “creative” for the right are assigned. And there are just as many people claiming it’s utter rubbish.

My more Vulcan-esque left side frowns and is confused by the lack of research supporting this split, because in fact, both functions are present in both hemispheres. However, on the right, the flighty and timid sprite is feeling extra whimsical today so we’re going to run with this analogy anyway. You can even take a quiz if you’re not sure which side you exercise more.

The Spinning Girl Illusion Gif

I love this illusion. She has all the grace I lack and she can’t seem to make up her mind about which way to turn. Oh wait… does she only spin in one direction for you? You guessed it… this spinning girl illusion gif is a quick test. If the dancer turns clockwise, then you’re using more of your right side of the brain and vice versa. Can you make your brain flip and get her change directions? Is it easy, is it hard? Do you find it just spontaneously happens or can you flip your brain and make her switch at will?

I then found this similar gif on Twitter… it’s the same basic illusion, but the spinning girl has two partners, each marked with slightly different lighting effects. If you have trouble getting her to spin on demand, the gif below might help you see it better. For example, if you look at the figure on the left, all three should spin clockwise. Likewise, when looking at the right figure, they should all spin counter-clockwise. Can you set your focus in such a way that two figures spin in one direction and the 3rd in the other? Can you reverse that? Isn’t it fun to do brain flips like this?

 
A lot of artistic types talk about their muse or their characters speaking to them, of being unable to create until that spark of inspiration hits. But others claim there is no such thing and you can train yourself to be creative on demand. Another term that comes up a lot is “internal editor”. You know, that voice that complains when you use the wrong word or says it all sucks, or wants those paragraphs or scenes switched around. Yeah… that annoying pest. I don’t know about you, but they always seem to want to get to work when I want to just write.

5 Ways to Flip Your Brain

1. Practice with the spinning girl illusion gif(s) above This is kinda fun and feels like you’re wasting time, but only you can tell if it’s worth it. When I’m feeling overwhelmed by my internal editor, I’ll pull up this gif and wait until I can get her going clockwise before trying to write.
    
2. Visualization Sometimes before a writing session, I’ll visualize stuffing my internal editor into an iron-bound box and shipping her off to Timbuktu for a while. This, combined with a timer, helps me flip my brain and focus on the creation of new words instead of getting caught up in futzing with ones already on the page.
    
3. Give Both Sides Time To Play It might sound weird giving your worst critic time to play, but it doesn’t always have to be on YOUR stuff. A critique partner can benefit too! So… Give that IE a vacation (forced if necessary like above), but also give your analytical side some exercise too.
    
4. Compartmentalize Set boundaries for yourself. Maybe you can only allow yourself 30 minutes rereading what you wrote previously and make changes and catch typos. Maybe you feel more creative in the morning, so use that time to create and do your edits and revisions later in the day. You might even find alternating days or longer periods work better for you.
    
5. Prime the Pump Similar to compartmentalizing… do some warm-ups to help flip your thinking before jumping in to your project. If you need to be creative, try do something for 5-10 minutes that stimulates one or more of the items on right-side brain function list below. If you need your best analytical skills, pick something from the left side.

Left-Brained and Right-Brained Activities

Left Brain	Right Brain
uses logic	feeling
detail oriented	“big picture” oriented
facts rule	imagination rules
words and language	symbols and images
present and past	present and future
math and science	philosophy & religion
can comprehend	can “get it” (i.e. meaning)
knowing	believing
acknowledges	appreciates
order/pattern perception	spatial perception
knows object name	knows object function
reality based	fantasy based
forms strategies	presents possibilities
practical	impetuous
safe	risk taking

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YOUR TURN: Which way did she turn for you at first? How do you switch gears between creative and analytical tasks? Easily, consciously or do you need to wait for inspiration to strike?

And if you’d like to read about how the rest of my accountability group answered, you can find their blogs here:

* Alexia Reed * Kimberly Farris *
* Angeleque Ford * Danie Ford * Emma G. Delaney