Writing the Natural Way: Using Right-Brain Techniques to Release Your Expressive Powers

Rating:
Summary: 'Writing the Natural Way' lives up to its name
Review: Consider this: all writing begins with an idea. The art of writing is the act of expressing that idea as succinctly and wholly as possible. And that's the hardest thing for many writers ~ getting on screen the right words, in the right order.

Whether it's a lack of inspiration, an overload of information or just muddled thinking, writer's block is a very real affliction that affects most writers at some stage.

The good news is that 'Writing the Natural Way' offers a solution for those faced with this problem.

Put simply, psychologist and author Dr Gabriele Rico has developed the concept of 'clustering', which essentially circumvents the left hemisphere of the brain (what she refers to as the 'Sign Mind'), so that you can release raw creativity from the right hemisphere (or 'Design Mind'), which is responsible for artist pursuits.

Her book contains a variety of simple exercises and strategies that stimulate the left and right hemispheres to work individually or simultaneously to solve problems. They are also designed to enhance a writer's potential, by accessing latent language, story-telling abilities and natural styles.

Rico's work is ground breaking but it is not new. In fact, this book was originally published more than 15 years ago. This new edition has been completely updated with inspirational quotations, 'before and after' writing samples from her students as well as a range of techniques and activities to help the reader make the transition to this new way of thinking and writing.

Admittedly, I had not heard of Rico's 'clustering' technique before reading her book. However I had used for a number of years a similar technique, called 'mind mapping'. The two techniques essentially work in the same manner. What I like about Rico's approach are the many examples and exercises she includes.

Her tools allow anyone to think laterally and to write with greater power, focus and effect. It's all about excavating ideas from seemingly dormant recesses of the mind and shaping this raw material into powerful forms of communication . . . something the author does well.

This is an excellent guide and painless workshop manual for any new or experienced writer who wants to discover a new dimension in their work.

Rico offers a simple but powerful tool that any writer can understand and apply to their work. Once you've used it a few times, you'll find it indispensable for brainstorming and writing literally any kind of work.

-- Michael Meanwell, author of the critically-acclaimed 'The Enterprising Writer' and 'Writers on Writing'. For more book reviews and prescriptive articles for writers, visit www.enterprisingwriter.com

Rating:
Summary: A left brain approach to right brain activity
Review: Here's the scientific way to becoming a writer -- that is, by using right brain techniques to release your expressive powers: clustering, recurrence, revision (meaning re-seeing), image and metaphor, creative tension, trial web and language rhythm.

Rico begins by teaching the reader how to release the "inner writer." Her method is one of brainstorming, but she calls it clustering. It's free association designed to call the subconcious into creative action. It works. It's the modern and scientific adaptation of a technique Dorothea Brande wrote about in the 1930s in BECOMING A WRITER.

Most writers like to watch their words appear on paper -- or on the computer screen. Then we read them to see what we think. I call it writing from the heart; Rico calls it right brain activity. Whatever you call it, it works, it's useful and learning to use it can change your writing -- for the better -- forever.

No serious writer should be without this book, no matter what he/she writes. Don't just read it, do the exercises. They're fun, they'll surprise and enlighten you and whether you're a novice or a pro, they'll make you a better writer.

Rating:
Summary: It engaged my mind
Review: I hunkered down with this book the weekend Hurricane Frances was creeping across Florida. It helped to keep me distracted from the uncertainty of waiting for the storm to arrive. I even did some of the exercises. Here is the product of one of them:

Portrait 09-05-04
(with posthumous apologies to e e cummings)

Hurricane Frances
has passed
who used to be
a category 4
with winds of a hundred and tentwentythirtyfortyfifty miles per hour
in the eastern Caribbean
and what i want to know is
how did you like your eye-walled storm
Mr. Weatherman

But even if there is no hurricane in your immediate vicinity, this is still a good book to read, especially if you are one of those people whose blood runs cold at the sight of a blank sheet of paper (or a blank computer screen).


Rating:
Summary: Buy It!
Review: Is this book any good? Well lemme put it this way. I read it once or twice back in the mid 80s when I was a teenager. Since then I've: (a) remembered the mindmapping technique, (b) used it a countless number of times in research projects, writing ads, writing poems, writing book reports, coming up with new ideas, finding the connections between seemingly unconnected things, working out the pros and cons of any given proposition, and for practically anything that requires taking a huge amount of information and breaking it down logically. (c) i've also taught the mindmapping technique to dozens of people, including such diverse groups as advertising execs and 5th graders. (d) they've all benefitted enormously. why? because the mindmapping technique serves to BOOST YOUR CREATIVITY AND UNLEASH YOUR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION. so any person who complains that this book is strictly about learning to write poetry is being VERY SMALL-MINDED INDEED! i suggest these people do a mindmap ON MINDMAPS THEMSELVES (!) and see what comes up! A superb book in every way, I give it my highest recommendation. AN INSTRUCTION BOOK FOR YOUR BRAIN. that's what it's really all about.

Rating:
Summary: Great Idea But Tough Read
Review: It's like broccoli. Good for you, but you don't enjoy eating it. Rico has some great ideas for tapping the creative power of your "right" brain, but you need to be fairly "left" brained to read the book without dozing. I think her ideas and techniques ARE effective, but the book reads like a college text. Also, the book is clearly written with the poet in mind. Most of her examples and exercises center on poetry. Other writers will probably walk away from the book feeling a little left out and wondering exactly how to apply her techniques to longer forms of writing (i.e., short stories and novels). Still, if you've ever had trouble writing because your left brain overpowers your right and forces you to hit the DELETE key after every other sentence, then this book will help you establish balance -- if you stay awake long enough to finish it!

Rating:
Summary: Helpful for writers who are more visually oriented
Review: Right-brain studies have been used for years (well, okay, the last ten-twenty years) to enhance the teaching process for visual artists, but Rico was the first to extend this research into the realm of the writer. You cannot deny her scholarship nor her science--the brain hemisphere theory is quite accepted today, and has been proven in a number of ways. So how does this theory help one become a writer.

First off, as any author will tell you, writers write. Rico cannot give you a magic spell that will somehow change you into a New York Times Bestseller overnight. But if you have ever suffered from the dreaded "writer's block" or had difficulty in spurring yourself to write on a particular subject, Rico provides some exercises here that will help you "tap" into the creative side of your brain. The basis for all her exercises is what she terms the cluster--a free association on the subject that brings in emotions, colors, sounds, and taste to the visual world of your subject. Getting you past your left-brain adherence on perfection and sequential order is her first goal, then awakening you to the connections that you are capable of through creative tension, recurrences, and rhythm.

Okay, I'll admit that I my personal view of Rico is not as positive as the above might appear. While I saw the advantages of everything she puts forward, I found her presentation of these ideas to be tinged with a slight "new age" flavor, and the only new thing she really brings to the table is the "cluster" idea. I have used it since reading about it, and I have found it useful, but I'm not sure it was worth the 280+ pages to obtain this one idea. On the other hand, I've never really been "stuck" for words (I'm sure you could not have guessed that).

A new revision of this book is due this year, and I am interested in how Rico responds to the 90s (or, even, if she does).

Rating:
Summary: Inspirational and practical
Review: This book inspired me to write, and it offered great practical advice with the technique of clustering and writing with my Design mind. Rico helped me to realize that anything I wanted to write was already inside, waiting to be tapped. Using Rico's techniques, I am able to write in ways that continue to astound me. I have used her techniques to write papers as a student in classes, as well as to write on my own. I am now a published writer of fiction and non-fiction, and I continue to use her ideas and inspiration.

Rating:
Summary: Changed my life (really!)
Review: Want to be a better writer? You're not going to find a better resource than this. This is not an advice book, it's a practical course of instruction -- suitable for self-study or classroom use. If you go through the exercises and put your heart into it, you WILL come out the other side a better writer...there's no avoiding it!

Rating:
Summary: Inspirational and practical
Review: Writing the natural way wasn't really my cup of tea. It's a bit out there for my tastes and I didn't find it overly helpful. However, there's some tidbits in there that may prove to be useful to other aspiring writers.