Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Left Brain, Right Brain

The subject in school that I struggle with the most is writing. It was a surprise to me when I realized this, because it used to be my strongest, not the weakest part of my schoolwork. I was trying to figure out how this had happened, and I decided that there could be one or two reasons why I have to work so hard to write a good essay.

#1. I used to write all the time, whether creative writing or a school composition. The last few years I had very few writing assignments, and my writing muscles slowly atrophied. Could the simple reason that I dislike writing so much be that I didn't exercise my composition skills?

#2. I've learned a lot recently about the differences of the right and left brain. They say that if you use your left side of the brain mostly, you think in words. (or something like that.) I used to see my words in my head as I talked. It was like those screensavers where you have a phrase run across the screen...I would see the words run through my head in consistent motion...and I think that you use the left brain for writing. However, a few years ago I learned that when you draw pictures you have to look at shape, something which the left brain doesn't do. Seeing the negative and positive spaces is a skill of the right brain. I taught myself how to use my right brain, to see shapes and colors etc. As I became more adept at that, my drawing skills increased, and I seldom used my left brain. Aha! Maybe I used my right brain so much that my left brain isn't use to the exercise! hmmm...

Or it could just be that my writing book is more challenging...which is probably what it is, but the other solutions sound more interesting.


I have watched a lot of movies recently, being sick and all. Probably my favorite one that I saw was War of the Worlds. Those of you who have seen it are probably wondering what's wrong with me. At least, I've had a few people ask me that already. Teehee. I've always been a fan of the science fiction and fantasy section of the library. (Though some gets a little too strange for me.) I just read some H.G. Wells this summer, and I was interested to see what a movie about one of his books would be like. Sometimes though, I wonder what Wells had gong on in his mind. Some of his stuff is very strange. I read The Time Machine at twelve o'clock a.m., and I did not sleep well that night. (And I'm not one to be scared, either.) Anyway, I absolutely was contented with War of the Worlds. The blood spraying everywhere was disgusting, but it didn't bother me that much. The part where the ferry tips over and all the people are in the water trying to escape the tripods made me want to become a really fast swimmer. That way if a tripod was ever chasing me, I'd escape. Yeah right. But I'm thankful that tripods and aliens aren't invading the earth.

9 comments:

Booker said...

how did it compare to the book? that is the only question I have :)

Cara said...

That's one H.G.Wells I have yet to read...but it's coming up on my book list! It's a "modern day" version, so I bet there are a few differences.

wideyed said...

speaking of sf, I just finished reading Ender's game...really disappointing, since the kids in it were EXTREMELY foulmouthed, and the ending ruined the whole thing for me--oh well. and as for hg wells, rather cuckoo, but still a good writer, i suppose.

wideyed said...

p.s. who is your profile pic?

Claire said...

YAY for YOU! Exercise those writing muscles more, please! It's fun to hear from you again.

Right now I'm listening to some old Christmas music- like Bing Crosby and Perry Cuomo - and it reminds me of driving you and Aaron to music lessons and you guys singing: " Jingle Bells, ja-ja- jingle bells" like the Andrew's sisters...I miss you guys! Give a hug to your mom for me...

Unknown said...

I'm posting again in case you're interested! Yes, you can definitely get 'out of practice' when you don't write for a while. It happened to me, but luckily I'm back in the mood, and am having the time of my life!

Cara said...

Wideeyed- It's Kate Winslet as Marianne in the movie Sense and Sensibility.

KW said...

Yay Cara! Great to have u back. You should see the new Pride & Prejudice!

Aaron said...

Oh, Claire, you're making me feel all nostalgic!