Yes, I'm Mental
Mar. 31st, 2011 10:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scribblemynameSo on the topic of why I make odd, sporadic progress on unpredictable fronts, let's go ahead and admit to having multiple brain modes.
1. Writer Brain | When She Was Good, She Was Very, Very Good
Writer brain is the side of the muse that gets inspired, generates story ideas, and on a good day delivers. My muse runs off the Longfellow rhyme:
This is the part of the brain that is focused on ideas, weaving together concepts, references, characters, and worlds in ways that surprise even me. Love the muse—when she's good that is.
2. Beta Brain | Reading is My Favorite Sport
This is the readerly brain and, frankly, it's rarely off. I used to get this confused with another part of the muse with detrimental results. To get beta brain, there are several requirements:
This is a useful indicator for me. If beta brain stays dominant, the story I'm reading is good. Or as I say, it gets me to turn off the editor—something writer brain doesn't do.
3. Editor Brain | But When She Was Bad She Was Horrid
This is the side of the brain that loves language, that analyzes the mess out of everything, that creates languages, and that, all too frequently, cannot turn off when I get a fic to beta. :headdesk:
This is the part of the brain that is radically different than the writer brain and that is only working when it's working and doesn't really care if I ought to get to the next chapter of somebody's work. This is not to say I can't do a good beta without the editor brain; it is to say that as long as I insist upon betaing fics which have such an awesome story I'm willing to wade through miles of punctuation, spelling, and grammar issues, I should expect the frequent balking of my writer brain at being asked to be supplanted.
The writer brain doesn't actually like the editor brain. Flipping back and forth between the two seems to have proven itself a recipe for a "horrid" day. Worse, I just figured this out yesterday.
On a brighter note, I understand why I don't write book reviews. I've wanted to a long time and even started fic reviews over at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ficspam because I've wanted to. But any time I review, editor brain wants to take over and beta brain doesn't like it.
Off to have a talk with my schizophrenic muse now.
1. Writer Brain | When She Was Good, She Was Very, Very Good
Writer brain is the side of the muse that gets inspired, generates story ideas, and on a good day delivers. My muse runs off the Longfellow rhyme:
There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead;
And when she was good,
She was very, very good
But when she was bad she was horrid.
This is the part of the brain that is focused on ideas, weaving together concepts, references, characters, and worlds in ways that surprise even me. Love the muse—when she's good that is.
2. Beta Brain | Reading is My Favorite Sport
This is the readerly brain and, frankly, it's rarely off. I used to get this confused with another part of the muse with detrimental results. To get beta brain, there are several requirements:
1. The story must not use cringeworthy English.
2. The story must not let me realize it's doing something wrong.
3. If I realize it's doing something wrong, the story must not allow me to care.
This is a useful indicator for me. If beta brain stays dominant, the story I'm reading is good. Or as I say, it gets me to turn off the editor—something writer brain doesn't do.
3. Editor Brain | But When She Was Bad She Was Horrid
This is the side of the brain that loves language, that analyzes the mess out of everything, that creates languages, and that, all too frequently, cannot turn off when I get a fic to beta. :headdesk:
This is the part of the brain that is radically different than the writer brain and that is only working when it's working and doesn't really care if I ought to get to the next chapter of somebody's work. This is not to say I can't do a good beta without the editor brain; it is to say that as long as I insist upon betaing fics which have such an awesome story I'm willing to wade through miles of punctuation, spelling, and grammar issues, I should expect the frequent balking of my writer brain at being asked to be supplanted.
The writer brain doesn't actually like the editor brain. Flipping back and forth between the two seems to have proven itself a recipe for a "horrid" day. Worse, I just figured this out yesterday.
On a brighter note, I understand why I don't write book reviews. I've wanted to a long time and even started fic reviews over at
ficspam because I've wanted to. But any time I review, editor brain wants to take over and beta brain doesn't like it.Off to have a talk with my schizophrenic muse now.
