Tag Archives: left brain

“Brainedness” and plotting

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?