Wednesday, July 23, 2014

A Writer's Brain

Paula looks at how writers use different parts of their brains

Recently, I read an article about how writers use their brains, and here is my summary of the findings.

To begin with, the researcher and his team asked 28 volunteers to simply copy some text, giving him a baseline reading of their brain activity during writing.

Next, he showed the volunteers a few lines from a short story and asked them to continue it in their own words. They could brainstorm for a minute, and then write creatively for about two minutes.

The researchers found some regions of the brain, inactive during the copying session, became active during the creative process. During the brainstorming sessions, the vision-processing brain areas of the volunteers became active. It seemed they were visualising the scenes they wanted to write.

Other regions became active when the volunteers started jotting down their stories. It was possible that one region, the hippocampus, was retrieving factual information that the volunteers could use.

Another region near the front of the brain, known to be crucial for holding several pieces of information in mind at once, also became active as well. Juggling several characters and plot lines may put special demands on it.

However, this study was limited. The volunteers had no previous experience in creative writing.

The researcher decided to repeat the tests with full-time writers to see if their brains responded differently. He recruited 20 writers who were taking a creative writing programme at a University. They took the same tests and the researchers compared their performance with the novices.

What’s interesting is that the brains of experienced  writers appeared to work differently, even before they set pen to paper. During brainstorming, the novice writers activated their visual centers. By contrast, the brains of expert writers showed more activity in regions involved in speech.

The researcher concluded that the two groups were using different strategies. The novices were watching their stories like a film inside their heads, while the writers were narrating it with an inner voice.

Once the two groups started to write, another set of differences emerged. Deep inside the brains of experienced writers, a region called the caudate nucleus became active. In the novices, the caudate nucleus was quiet.

Evidently the caudate nucleus plays an essential role in the skill that comes with practice, including activities like board games. When we first start learning a skill, we use a lot of conscious effort. With practice, those actions become more automatic. The caudate nucleus and nearby regions start to coordinate the brain’s activity as this shift happens which suggests the experienced writers were using skills they had already learned.


This article intrigued me. I’ve heard other writers talking about how they see their stories being ‘acted out’ in their mind’s eye, rather like a movie, but I’ve never been able to do that. Yes, I can see my characters, but when I write, I’m not watching the movie. Instead, I’m playing a part in the movie, and seeing it through the eyes (and other senses) of whoever’s POV I happen to be in at the time. Maybe that’s what the researcher mean by ‘narrating it with an inner voice’.

I can relate to the hippocampus retrieving information, and also to the area of the brain that juggles the plot! The caudate nucleus is interesting too, as it presumably includes basic skills such as grammar, spelling, and punctuation, as well as the other skills we use when we write, including our vocabulary, and the various others things we’ve learned about what to do and what not to do!


Has this made you analyse how your brain works when you’re writing?

18 comments:

  1. Wow, that sounds like a fascinating study. Now I'm trying to figure out if I visualize or hear or both.

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    1. I think maybe we all do both, depending on the scene we're writing.

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  2. I watch like a movie. It would be nice to be a player, actually in the moment!

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    1. When you've mastered deep POV, you'll be a player, Ana!

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  3. Very interesting...and definitely food for thought. I think I tend to 'hear' the story rather than see it. May times the dialogue comes to me first and then I add the actions that go with it.

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    1. I'm the same, Debra. I hear my characters dialogue first and sense what my POV character is feeling, but I 'see' whoever they are speaking to!

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  4. My first love has always been screenwriting.. Everything I write is a movie to me.. Interestingly enough though, a piece of my real life is in everything that I write.. This is a thought provoking post Paula. Thank you.. :)

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    1. I'm sure you are also 'hearing' the voices as you write, Mimi! It's interesting that you use parts of your real life, as that is something I've never done, at least not consciously.

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  5. What a fascinating post, Paula - think I employ both methods, especially since I'm a visual person!

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    1. I think we all employ both at times, Rosemary, but my visualising is through the eyes of that character I'm 'playing' at the time.

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  6. Very interesting, Paula. I occasionally dream and envision my stories as movies. Thanks for sharing. :)

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    1. I've heard people say they dream about their stories, Rose, but I've never done that. My dreams are too confused and surreal to be in any story!

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  7. Well, how interesting. Truthfully, I don't know how I see my writing. But one I do is "see" something after I write it.
    A house, trimmed in Gingerbread, painted a pale yellow, with a wide porch all around. In writing this, I wrote "house" first, then pictured a vague house. Then I wrote about the trim..ahhh, that how it looks.
    The researchers really did a good job..

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    1. I think I picture places as I write them, Celia. They can be real places, or imaginary ones, but either way, they're very vivid to me.

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  8. See, I knew writer's were brainiacs. LOL I never gave thought to this process until I read this article. I like science, so I found this information very intriguing.
    When I'm developing a story in my mind, I usually envision bits and pieces like a movie, but when I'm deeply involved in writing it, I'm more into using the right words and thinking about layering the scenes with only an occasional pop-up picture. When I write dialogue, I'm on a roll with no visuals. This is the first time I ever did a forensic dissection of my writing process, but it was very interesting...and fun.
    All good things to your corner, Paula.

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    1. Sarah, that's a fascinating analysis. When I'm writing dialogue, I find myself frowning, smiling, shrugging etc, just like the character I'm 'playing' - and I can also see the person I'm talking to, and all their reactions too.

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  9. An interesting article, Paula, and also interesting to hear how other authors relate to it. Personally I visualise places but not my characters. I'm inside their head so I don't see them. Though I sometimes use photos cut out of magazines - especially for my heroes. There's no harm in having a handsome guy pinned to the pegboard right in front of me!!!

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    1. Hi Margaret- I can see places, and also the people my character(s) are talking to. I tend to have an 'inner image' of my characters, and sometimes find a picture and think, 'Yes, that's Guy - or Luke - or whoever!'

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