Comments on: Lighting up your reader’s brain: Can neuroscience teach you to be a better writer?

By: Yael Gourlay

Yael Gourlay — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:33:55 +0000

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By: What happens in the brain when you read « 40kBooks

What happens in the brain when you read « 40kBooks — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 08:45:02 +0000

[...] is author of From Words To Brain. Read also: Can neuroscience teach you to be a better writer?. Twitter: @lkblackburne.Tom, experimental psychologist, is the author of The Narrative Escape. [...]

By: Cynthia Haggard

Cynthia Haggard — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:24:47 +0000

What readers need to do is activate the memory processor in the hippocampus, because that is where new memories are formed. The best way to do that, as many have noted, is to use sensory descriptions. The sense of smell is a particularly powerful prompt, because the entorhinal cortex, which processes smell, sits right next to it. Read the description of the memory evoked by eating a Madeleine in Proust’s SWANN’S WAY.

I loved the article and discussion as a former neuroscientist, and now novelist.

By: What does reading or writing mean to you? « 40kBooks

What does reading or writing mean to you? « 40kBooks — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:42:39 +0000

[...] "Hmm", wrote Alan Rinzler, "Intrigued, I phoned up Livia in Cambridge to ask if writers could really manipulate readers’ brains so their books might have greater success." Here you can find the interview. [...]

By: Friday To Friday: Can neuroscience teach you to be a better writer? « 40kBooks

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:45:46 +0000

[...] «Hmm», wrote Alan Rinzler, «Intrigued, I phoned up Livia in Cambridge to ask if writers could really manipulate readers’ brains so their books might have greater success.» Here you can find the interview. [...]

By: Tools For Contemporary Writers « 40kBooks

Tools For Contemporary Writers « 40kBooks — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:30:06 +0000

[...] # Lighting up your reader’s brain: Can neuroscience teach you to be a better writer? Fascinating stuff. Livia suggests that writers can use information about brain regions as a source of ideas for details to include in their narratives. Are you using all five senses? What about movement? Are your characters complex enough for the reader to infer motivations, thoughts, and feelings from their actions? Read more. [...]

By: Livia Blackburne

Livia Blackburne — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:33:17 +0000

Bernard — that’s an interesting thought. There are certainly brain responses to errors– different ones for grammatical vs. pragmatic errors. It’d be interesting to see how those affect the rest of the processing.

By: terena

terena — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:19:52 +0000

Fascinating. And a good way to look at using sensory details. I think this will help writers understand the depth of the sensory details they need to use and why. If you can actually make the reader smell the raspberry tea your protagonist is brewing, then you’ve written a great scene.

By: Bernard S. Jansen

Bernard S. Jansen — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:58:04 +0000

Thanks Alan, for another great article.

I think there are some areas of the brain that you certainly don’t want to “activate”. I think we are all “jarred” out of that semi-hypnotic book-reading state when something isn’t quite right (factually, grammatically, realistically, etc). There must be an “analytical” part of the brain that activates at that time. You don’t really want that sort of analysis going on when you (or your readers) are reading fiction.

By: Gail Handler

Gail Handler — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:24:05 +0000

A fascinating topic! As a 30 year elementary school teacher I totally agree. Brain-based research teaches us the importance of engaging children emotionally and physically, as well as both halves of the brain. Now as a children’s book author, it drives me toward expressing more interconnectivenesss within my characters.

Great post!