Science Shows Something Surprising About People Who Still Read Fiction. They tend to be more empathetic toward others.
It's not news that reading has countless benefits: Poetry stimulates parts of the brain linked to memory and sparks self-reflection; kids who read the Harry Potter books tend to be better people. But what about people who only read newspapers? Or people who scan Twitter all day? Are those readers' brains different from literary junkies who peruse the pages of 19th century fictional classics? Short answer: Yes — reading enhances connectivity in the brain. The study: A 2013 Emory University study looked at the brains of fiction readers. Specifically, researchers found heightened connectivity in the left temporal cortex, part of the brain typically associated with understanding language. James D. Best: Too much information. Speed bumps take readers out of the story.
The final throes of revising Jenny’s Revenge reminded me that too much information doesn't help a story. Nothing bores a reader more than needless explanations about trivial matters the reader can fill in for themselves. Pointless factoids, excessive description, and extraneous words make an otherwise good novel clunky and laborious. This old lesson has special application to my writing because I have a need to neatly tie up every little thing. My brain somehow requires an explanation for every action by every character. Writing and RPG-Related Generators. How Long Should Your Story Be? By Lee Masterson Recently FictionFactor received several emails asking the question: "How long should my story be?
" The simple answer is: As long as it takes to tell the whole story. The Psychology of Writing and the Cognitive Science of the Perfect Daily Routine. 7 Ways to Become an Editor’s Best Friend (And 3 Ways to Drive Her Crazy) How Many English Words Do You Actually Know? What’s Up With That: Why It’s So Hard to Catch Your Own Typos.
Getty You have finally finished writing your article. 50 Commons Things You Probably Didn't Know There Was A Word For. This Is Your Brain on Writing. BookEnds, LLC — A Literary Agency. Active Voice Versus Passive Voice. Today's topic is active voice versus passive voice.
Here's a question from Brian in Iowa. He writes, “It drives me crazy when people write in passive voice. How can I teach people how to tell the difference between passive and active voice and to stay away from passive voice?” 18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently. This list has been expanded into the new book, “Wired to Create: Unravelling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind,” by Carolyn Gregoire and Scott Barry Kaufman.
Creativity works in mysterious and often paradoxical ways. Creative thinking is a stable, defining characteristic in some personalities, but it may also change based on situation and context. Inspiration and ideas often arise seemingly out of nowhere and then fail to show up when we most need them, and creative thinking requires complex cognition yet is completely distinct from the thinking process.
Neuroscience paints a complicated picture of creativity. As scientists now understand it, creativity is far more complex than the right-left brain distinction would have us think (the theory being that left brain = rational and analytical, right brain = creative and emotional). Mark Forsyth's top 10 lost words. Everybody has, on occasion, looked up a word in a dictionary and let their eye wander to the next word and thought: "Really?
There's a word for that? ", whether it's the little plastic aglets on the end of your shoelaces or the nurdle of toothpaste squeezed onto your toothbrush in the morning. 10 Writing Tips. Super excited to be speaking at the second annual REWRITE conference in Austin, TX on October 18-20.
Get a $150 discount with BATTERSON2013 code. Register here. Thought I’d share a little bit about my writing journey and ten lessons learned. I’m in a writing season right now so I have to remind myself of these all the time! Love to connect at REWRITE. I felt called to write when I was 22, but it took 13 years to write my first book. I feel as called to write as I do to pastor. The 6 Stages of Writing a Book. Advice to Hopeful Writers - Bo Stern. *Photo credit.
Writing tools. In the olden days—like four years ago—Kindle and Nook readers were fairly tolerant of formatting errors.
The technology was brand spanking new and early adopters always accept a few lumps with hot innovations. Times have changed. DRAFT - Opinionator. John Wells and I have been together a very long time.
If you haven’t heard of Wells, he’s a C.I.A. operative who plays the starring role in a series of espionage thrillers that I started writing a decade ago. Random House published the first, “The Faithful Spy,” in 2006. Story Cartel — Stories are meant to be shared. Promoting writing as an art and a profession. Beautiful photo books and book printing. Make your own book. Grammarly. 10 Great Literary Late Bloomers. It seems like the literary world is forever in awe of the young writers, the wunderkinds, the 20 under 40, the 5 under 35, the 30 under 30.
It makes sense, of course — there’s something extra impressive about pulling off a great feat, literary or otherwise, when you’re young — but what about those authors who got started a little later in life? If you ask us, there’s something pretty impressive about that too. We recently discovered Bloom, a cool website dedicated to the discussion of writers who published their first major work at age 40 or later, and inspired, we decided to poke about a bit on the topic ourselves.
The Writing Mind: How to Find the Words. Grammar & Writing. Creative writing prompts . com ideas for writers. ScreenwritingU: Screenwriting classes, Screenwriting articles, screenwriter interviews, and screenwriting videos. Endings that Ruin Your Novel. Could you tell Basic tips to follow for new (beginner) writer of fiction stories?
Funny Metaphor And Simile Contest: So Bad, They're Good! About Smashwords — NaNoWriMo. Publish, Share, Track and Promote your NaNoWriMo Work-In-Progress About NaNoWriMo NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, takes place every year in November. Writers are challenged to start and complete a 50,000 word novel between November 1 and November 30. Presents of Mind.
A Simple Plan for Writing One Powerful Piece of Online Content per Week. Vonnegut's Rules for the Short Story. 14 Punctuation Marks That You Never Knew Existed. Www.brickcommajason.com. Scrivener. Paulo Coelho: How I Write.