right brain: creative / left brain: analytical
I read Write it Down, Make it Happen around 20 years ago, and it made a deep impression. I’ve written the phrase on the first page of all my notebooks and journals ever since. But while I’ve revisited it multiple times the funny thing is I never looked into what else Henriette Anne Klauser wrote.
Well.
Writing On Both Sides of the Brain, published prior to Write it Down Make it Happen, is incredibly helpful, unique, fun to read and fun to work (the little assignments she gives the reader). If you write anything at all – memos and reports, legal briefs, novels – Klauser’s advice can help you improve your writing, quiet your inner critic, organize your thoughts, and optimize your creative and analytical sides.
Here’s a concept I immediately took to: branching vs. outlining. I am a dutiful outliner, it’s the way my linear brain works. But branching out from a central point somehow makes the outline flow more cohesively and it’s easier to see how things group together. I’ve been using the method for first drafts of reviews and it’s working, example below. Klauser even recommends it for taking notes in class or at a conference. Try it!
Another gem for me was the advice to write and resist the urge to edit as you go. Writing and editing engage both sides of the brain and it’s better to use one half at a time and write without worry, then go back later to make changes.
Klauser is a great writer herself: expressive, precise, the kind that starts every chapter with an interesting quote. Even her chapter titles are fun, like The Hair of the Dog That Bit You, Procrastination: Not Just Around but Behind It, and Assertiveness Training: Dealing With the Caliban Critic.
These books are decades old but that doesn’t matter, Klauser’s advice and encouragement are timeless.
bookthrasher 