Forum / How does the act of writing affect your brain

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    Charlotte Hamrick
    Dec 27, 12:47am

    Just ran across this interesting graphic.
    http://www.visualnews.com/2013/05/28/how-does-the-act-of-writing-affect-your-brain/

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    Sally Houtman
    Dec 27, 01:07am

    I can't see the graphic, but I agree with this wholeheartedly:

    "...inserting clichés in writing can massively undermine its impact on readers brains. Studies have shown that our brains, familiar with the tired use of the phrases, no longer interpret the words with the sensory response they were originally intended to evoke."

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    James Lloyd Davis
    Dec 27, 01:07am

    Writing is like taking a long drag from a hookah. Love the images that bubble up, the stories that never end, and the high that comes from connecting, somehow, to pieces of life beyond my own.

    All the lonely people.
    Where do they all come from?
    All the lonely people.
    Where do they all belong?

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    Sally Houtman
    Dec 27, 02:32am

    "Writing is like taking a long drag from a hookah. Love the images that bubble up, the stories that never end, and the high that comes from connecting, somehow, to pieces of life beyond my own."

    ― James Lloyd Davis
    .....
    on the other hand...

    “When reading a book, one hopes it doesn’t turn into a painful process. Predictable is bad enough. Laborious is acceptable if the labor produces fruit. But with painfully bad writing, all one can do is grab a hatchet, slice off its head, and bury it.”
    ― Chila Woychik, On Being a Rat and Other Observations

    :)

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    James Lloyd Davis
    Dec 27, 05:04am

    ??

  • Rebel.thumb
    Sally Houtman
    Dec 27, 05:43am

    Now, there you go JLD makin' me 'splain myself.

    The above was a cleverly constructed statement re the effect of writing on the brain.

    Good writing = a pleasurable sensation or high

    Bad writing = urge to get the hatchet

    As readers and writers we live in hope of experiencing/producing the effect on the brain(the high) that you described.

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    James Lloyd Davis
    Dec 27, 09:43pm

    Thank you.

  • Frankie Saxx
    Dec 29, 04:49pm

    Nice link, Charlotte.

    Goes hand in hand with this one on how reading a novel changes your brain:

    http://www.futurity.org/reading-novels-leaves-shadow-activity-brain/

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    James Lloyd Davis
    Dec 29, 11:26pm

    Shadows on the brain... Love the idea.

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