Left or Right?

I am a list person. I like to make checklists for the things I have to do in my daily life. Then those lists are categorised into university, work, playwrighting, and other things. Basically, I like to plan out exactly what I need to do; I work much better when I can see these things written down in some form, and there is this lovely sense of satisfaction when you cross something off.

However, if you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself making these lists and not always using them. Or spending more time making the lists than actually doing the things on them! This was rather disheartening for me when I eventually came to this realisation (honestly, I try to ignore it most of the time to avoid disappointment!) and made me feel very unproductive. Being unproductive means letting people down, which makes me even more anxious, and it all goes downhill from there.

I find that I sometimes do this with my creative writing. I will make a checklist of all the things that I have to include in the piece, then constantly check it throughout to make sure I’m not going on a tangent. I’m even doing it right now! I’m checking for word count, paragraph length, sentence structure, unnecessary repetition with my word choice. I used to convince myself that this was just me being organised, which would mean a higher standard of work.

Imagine writing an essay or assignment for school or university. There are specific aims to meet and a structure to follow in order to get the best grade. In my quest to be a top student (which was both successful and unsuccessful, I might add!) I began to prioritise my logical writing style and lost a bit of my creativity.

Have you ever heard anyone talk about the left and right sides of our brains? They say that some people are more left-brained and others are more right-brained – like you’re either more analytical and logical or creative and imaginative. I sometimes feel like this works as an effective metaphor to explain how I’ve been writing. I have both sides, I know they are both there and working, but I’ve become used to pushing my creativity aside, maybe to ensure that I have the ultimate logical powers or something!

By the way, I should probably mention that I have read articles saying that we actually use both sides of our brains equally etc. and that this whole side thing is just a myth – I just thought it was an effective metaphor!

I am learning so many important things in the Young Playwrights Programme through workshops, gatherings, and other sessions. But I would like to discuss just two of them now:

Logic does not always belong in writing.

This goes against every writing instinct I have, making it such a hard lesson for me to learn. I have read some wonderful plays as part of this programme so far, but I have also read some outright crazy ones that seem to defy all the laws of nature, writing, and logic! But they are all brilliant in their own ways. Suppose I keep writing in this formulaic, robotic fashion. In that case, I may end up glossing over or entirely missing a potentially genius idea!

I need to let my messy, creative side take over sometimes.

I am striving to just let my creativity take over and decide what I write. Of course, I can always read and edit to my heart’s content after I am done, but I need to be open to just letting that control go. We have had these workshops to give us tools, not to replace creativity but to cultivate it; the same applies to all of the insightful feedback I have been given for my work so far.

I would say that these lessons have definitely influenced how I have begun to interpret the plays I have read over the past few months. One of the first plays I read was ‘The Wonderful World of Dissocia’ by Anthony Neilson and, at the time, it just baffled me. The plot made no sense to me, I didn’t understand the characters, and I couldn’t really follow the story along. Honestly, at the time it really frustrated me. I said then that I only liked plays that had an understandable plot, relatable characters etc. However, after thinking about it a bit more and doing some research, my opinion completely changed. I thought that logic was completely absent from the play, but it turns out it was not, I just didn’t see it. What is logical to one person is not to another, but creativity is always there.

I am making a resolution of sorts (it’s a bit early for New Year, I know!) to let my creativity speak first in my writing. Fingers crossed it lasts longer than my usual waking up earlier resolutions!

Erin Craighead

Erin is part of the Bunbury Banter Young Playwrights Programme 2020-2021