Writing, it's just brain science!

    

     We know that our brain develops rapidly during our development from conception until "adulthood". We have two hemispheres, and we know that one side is our creative side, and the other is the analytic side.  There are people we meet who we sometimes can immediately identify which side is working for them by their personality, the creative writer or the analytical book editor.
       We also have a new term of "neuroplasticity".  This means that we have the potential to continue to learn and adapt regardless of age. The key to plasticity is the introduction of a stimulus or event over and over again.  We use this in therapy for patient's who have suffered a hemispheric stroke to teach surviving brain cells the control lost by the damaged brain cells. We used to think that after two years the patient couldn't regain any additional motor control.  We know know that they developed "learned disuse" of the extremity.  Their brains learned that their arm was not useful and therefore eliminated the use of the arm with activities.  The old adage, "Use it or lose it" really is true.
     In therapy we also know that to gain proficiency you must push the patient beyond a threshold of comfort.  The brain needs to be challanged to make those synapses grow a new pathway. The path may be rocky and lumpy, but the arm won't work at all if that head to hand connection isn't made.
    
So what does this mean for the writer?
      I follow author blogs, and the most successful writers will tell you to write, and write and write some more. Write every day. The more you write, the easier it will become.  It doesn't matter that you think you are too old, you aren't!  Lee Child of the  Jack Reachers series is an example of someone who didn't publish a book until much later in his life.
     Most writers will tell you writing is a love/hate relationship.  This means that they are pushing themselves out of their comfort zone.  How else will their creative synapses spread into a new thought of what their character does next, or the situation they are put into develops?  An author can't improve their manuscript if they don't receive feedback of grammer or context.  The pain of edits can help to produce a much better story in the end.

Coming next:  Digital dementia

Really, Kim?

Ok, so I showed my friend Kim my first public "writing".  I put that in parentheses because although that's what it is I am no author. But anyone who can put one word in front of the other can write. Right?

Even so, I found myself defending what I wrote.

"Why do you need me to say I was folding laundry, Kim. What else do you fold? You fold clothes. Dishcloths. Whatever. You don't have to say you are folding laundry. I don't want to take away from the conversation."

 "Ok, fine." Kim argues. Yes,she did not agree with me. What she really meant was "You are wrong, and I am right."  I can tell because she looks over her magnified glasses and glares at me as if to dare me to say anything more. And mainly because she isn't done. Not yet.,

"I can't tell who did the hair swirl. Who is saying what? It doesn't make sense to me!" Now she is finished.

 

I sigh. Yes, I did. And I took a breathe because I realized that I needed to listen, really listen and respect my friend, my reader, who I asked to read and give me her honest opinion. And a writer should never ever write a running sentence like I just did.

So, here is my first edited writing based on a readers input. 

 

Sigh.
A breath.  Slowly inhale and hold for two seconds.
Purse lips loosely. A pause....and slowly exhale.
     "Mom, you're doing it again!"
     "What?" Head turns towards prickly teen. Eyes squint.
     "That. The sigh. this is the tenth time this morning." The girl neatly pulls her sharply ironed hair into
a tight perfect ponytail.
    "Really. Hmm, I didn't notice." I go back to folding.
    "Could you, like, you know, stop it?" The girl harps.
     "I reserve the right to sigh. This is the mom sigh.  It is sadness. It is resignation,
frustration, exacerbation, and wtf.."
     "Giggle, snort." Hair swirl and hand wave by the girl.
     "WHAT?!" I tensly grip the basket.
     "Exacerbation. It sounds like masterbation!" 

Sigh

Sigh-fi

Sigh.
A breath.  Slowly inhale and hold for two seconds.
Purse lips loosely. A pause....and slowly exhale.
     "Mom, you're doing it again!"
     "What?" Head turns towards prickly teen. Eyes squint.
     "That. The sigh. this is the tenth time this morning." The girl neatly pulls her sharply ironed hair into
a tight perfect ponytail.
    "Really. Hmm, I didn't notice." Back to folding.
    "Could you, like, you know, stop it?"
     "I reserve the right to sigh. This is the mom sigh.  It is sadness. It is resignation,
frustration, exacerbation, and wtf.."
     "Giggle, snort." Hair swirl and wave.
     "WHAT?!"
     "Exacerbation. It sounds like masterbation."

Sigh

Just ask a reader, duh!

     Do you remember the 80's movie "Gung Ho"? It starred Michael Keaton who works for an auto company that closes it's doors down resulting in people losing their jobs.  He goes to Japan to beg an auto company to move to their community and keep the factory going.  What happens is the clash of very different cultures as they struggle to produce... cars.  The American workers and the Japanese business men have very different ideas on how to bring the public....cars.  Get the picture? The end product is the car but never once is the public car buyer even mentioned.  The car buyers are forgotten, and only the publishers and writers (oops) factory owners and workers are mentioned.
    So, is it important to even bring up the reader as part of the equation of book sales in today's conversation of indie/traditional book sales? Hell yes! How are the authors/publishers getting money from their books? Duh! Us, the readers. Yes, it is all about us. Us, us us.
     The books listed first in our kindle or nook book store are at the top of the sales list in the genre we are interested in. We are looking at the cover, the story, the price.  Probably in that order. Today's indie books have some awesome covers and chances are they are at the top of the heap because other readers have deemed them to be good reading. Authors simply don't have enough friends and family to push them up that far in the rankings. Indie authors reach out to each other and as they savor some success they are able to buy better covers and reach out to the reader by their websites, facebook and/or twitter. So what if they promote their books this way. (you mean traditional publishers don't use media to promote their books? Rigggght.)  Indie writers share information and are perhaps the friendliest people I have met on line.
  That doesn't mean I don't buy a traditional pubbed book on my kindle or nook (yes I have both!).   I have my favorite pubbed authors, but it hurts a little to pay almost 3 to 4 times the price of an indie book.  I love to read but in the past how much so was limited on my meager book allowance.  Eating and paying bills seemed to rise to the top of the heap in priority over my TBR list. I have read more books in the last 2 years than I have in the prior 10. Isn't this good for publishing world?  A reader who buys more books than ever?
   It also doesn't mean I only buy e-books.  I have been known to buy the hardcover of a book I  have already on my e-reader when I adore the story. I have been known to drive my husband crazy when I drive an hour to the closest indie book store to buy a hardcover book I have already read and get it signed by the author.  (BTW, it was Wool by Hugh Howey. Amber, do you have a treatment for us crazed fans?)
     So writers, give us readers a bit of credit.  Bridge the culture gap.  If you are traditionally published, continue to do so.  If I like your writing, I will buy your book.  But don't diss the indie author.  I like their writing also.  And I will buy their books.
    I do think traditional pubbed authors need to get off their high horse and stop trashing the indie wave  (Mr. Green).  It kind of makes them look like whiners You all are a lot more alike than different.  It's just a culture. The readers are the same.

And so writers: in the words of the Japanese CEO Soh Yananura, "I like you. You make me laugh."