Immersive storytelling: are books better than film?
After a recent post on Hild’s film/tv rights, I started a conversation in the comments with my friend Brooks, posting as Myseyeball….
Read moremirror neurons
The neurochemistry of story, the dramatic arc, and empathy
Neuroeconomist Paul Zak (author of The Moral Molecule: The Source of Love and Prosperity) has done some work in his lab tracking…
Read moreExciting writing
I taught a whole-day workshop* yesterday for twelve writing students. The topic was ‘exciting writing’. My aim was to pass along what…
Read moreWriters Manifesto
When I write, dear reader, I don’t want to build a careful tale for you to discuss with a smile in a…
Read moreHappy Birthday to us!
Hild is eating my life. (And I’m okay with that. Writers like to write.) But it means I have no brain to…
Read moreNoam Chomsky was wrong (and other science-of-writing tidbits)
If researchers at Northumbria University are right, Noam Chomsky was wrong when he declared that everyone in a linguistic community shares the…
Read morestory is us: fiction matters
This is a fabulous article from the Washington Post, a series of vignettes by the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano. The piece is…
Read morenovels make us better people
Bela Lugosi as Dracula (1931). Bram Stoker’s character embodied the worst excesses of aristocratic dominance. Photograph: Kobal According to an article in…
Read moreMIT Media Lab’s ‘Center for Future Storytelling’ (tuh)
I am so very tired of now! now! now! initiatives. So is the literary editor of the Daily Telegraph: Storytelling is under…
Read moreAud lives inside others
From: Anita Just wanted to tell you how much i enjoyed the Aud Trilogy… I DID get the ending of Stay and…
Read moredimmer than I think
Well, I was just basking in the general approval of yesterday’s comments and thinking that being me pretty much rocks the thunderdome…
Read morewriting highs and lows
I’ve been a bit under the weather the last couple of days. Partly that’s a result of the actual weather, i.e. rain…
Read moreYou’ve been warned
There’s an interesting article in New Scientist, “The science of fiction,” by Keith Oatley. For those who aren’t subscribers (they’re doing a…
Read more