I recently took one of those half-brained quizzes. Er, um, right-brain/left-brain quizzes 😉 . I was a little surprised at my result (though my husband guessed what I was right off the bat. Go figure.).
There are positives and negatives to both sides. Traditionally, left-brained people are the analytical and logical. Right-brained people are the “creative types.” Personally, I didn’t want to be left-brained—who wants to be characterized as someone completely devoid of emotion and creativity?—and I didn’t want to be right-brained—who wants to be seen as flighty and incapable of reason?
Thinking about all this got me wondering whether “brainedness” had anything to do with whether or not you plot your stories in advance. Are right-brainers less likely to plot? Are left-brainers more likely to? So, I’m asking you:
Because the quiz I linked to always gave a “whole brain” 16/16 result, I reset the poll. Please answer again, and if you need to, here’s a quiz that gives real results.
Click through to take the poll!
(If you’re not sure where you fall on the brainedness spectrum, this quiz—that quiz is rigged, try this one only takes a couple minutes. On the plotting spectrum, I tend to be quite generous—if you’ve written down a plan for the course of your story with specific events, even if you don’t follow it or the events aren’t super specific, I consider that plotting.)
What do you think? Did your results or the poll’s results surprise you?
I’m dead in the center – 16/16. No wonder I manage to confuse myself! I should have suspected it though – I’m creative, but an obsessive planner, too.
WTF:
Left Brain Dominance: (16)
Right Brain Dominance: (16)
They couldn’t have asked an odd number of questions??
Andrew—LOL, face it, even if it were 17-16, you’d still be “whole-brained.” Better than being half-brained!
But maybe that test is rigged. That’s the same result I got.
Anyone not get 16/16?
16/16 as well. The fix is in.
Yep—I just did some tests and it’s most assuredly rigged. (I tried to pick the left-brain answers and got 16/16, so I went back and switched the first eight to the opposite answer—and still got 16/16.)
Here’s another quiz: http://web-us.com/brain/braindominance.htm (although I got 9 left & 9 right, and it told me I was left-brain dominant… yeah….)
I did the second quiz, and got 12 right, 6 left. That surprised me a little. I have a solid creative streak, but I am also very analytical. In fact, I’ve been accused of being TOO analytical. (I’ve also been accused of being too nice, but that’s another discussion.)
Come on folks you know if you’re right or left brained without taking a test. I am basically right, but can drift to the left if I’m doing technical work (I’m a network engineer as my full time job). I have a real hard time writing if I’ve been working on something like a database all day. Painting or drawing on the other hand gets my creative jucies going. And, you guessed it, I’m a panster.
No, you don’t always just know if you’re right or left brained, especially not if you’re really in the middle (as I was on two other tests that I took). Please try to be respectful.
I meant no disrespect, it was written playfully. Sorry.