So Reading Can Change Your Brain…

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books, brain studies, characters, fiction, novels, reading

In recent days, there have been articles going around that reading fiction can make changes to your brain. It leads to connectivity changes in your brain, which can change your perspective and alert the sensory parts. This is based on a study done at the Emory University, which was published in the journal Brain Connectivity last month.

Photo by Spirit-Fire on Flickr, found via Creative Commons

Now some may agree with Nature editor’s Noah Gray’s snarky tweet: “Reading a novel induces connectivity changes in the brain … But so does everything else you did or are doing today.”

There’s been plenty of articles, studies and op-eds that discuss the effect of reading a novel. Some argue that reading novels makes us more empathetic, and therefore more human.

I think reading a novel all depends on how you approach it. Sometimes I read fiction to escape my world. Sometimes I read because I hear the prose is incredible. Or I’m interested in how an author will re-tell a famous story (as I was when I picked up A Song of Achilles, which retold the Iliad by making Achilles and Patroclus lovers last year) or what they have to say about certain social issues.

I admit that I don’t often read a novel because of a character. I guess that will be strange to some, but the above examples is what drives me to read fiction. I don’t aim to be more empathetic or be a better human being. I tend to read to learn or be entertained. I wonder if that means I am poorly affected by fiction, unlike other readers.

I want to change that. I want to try to read a novel based on the characters. I want to start reading blurbs and try to focus on the characters rather than the setting and the plot. That could be my New Years’ resolution as a reader – however there are books I’d like to read that go along with my usual habits. But I’ll try my best.

Inventing Names for Your Characters

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authors, books, characters, cultures, languages, names, naming characters, vampires, what's in a name, writing

I love choosing names for my characters. I once said that I choose my characters’ names

Image via Wikimedia Commons

very carefully, especially if they are an important person to the story.

But what happens if I need to come up with names of some of the characters? As in, they are from another world, dimension or time period almost forgotten to history?

When writing my book, I came up with the idea that the first vampires would be millennia old. That meant I would have to invent names for them. This required a little creativity and consideration on my part.

When I read books where the characters have invented names, I think it is imperative that the names are simple enough to pronounce. I don’t like it when authors create names that sound more like gibberish than something where some thought was put into it.

I also think that if by chance the invented name(s) may be difficult to pronounce, I think the author should provide a pronunciation guide at the beginning or end of the book. I simply don’t want my readers to be confused or annoyed if they are stumbling over names.

But not all authors do this. The author of the Kushiel’s Universe series, Jacqueline Carey, doesn’t have a pronunciation guide in her books. Instead she explains this on her website: I’d rather let each reader decide what sounds right to his or her own individual ear than dictate it to you.

I like that idea a lot, but I feel like I owe it to my readers to understand how to pronounce invented names. Maybe in future books I wouldn’t do this, but now I feel like I should.

Which sounds a bit hypocritical because I never explained how the names of the original vampires, the Five Brothers, in “The Dark Proposal” are to be pronounced. Part of me felt like I should’ve done it, but I told myself that they are secondary characters, so don’t worry. No one has complained or asked questions. But if anyone wants to know, feel free to drop me a line.

But for those who wonder how I came up with their names, I’ll explain. I was inspired by other languages and names from other cultures. Sometimes I took a name or word, and tweaked it to make it more original. Or I actually did take a name from a lesser known culture, mainly because I liked the way it sounds and/or the way it looks spelled out. And on some of the names, I actually did make up a name off the top of my head. But I didn’t base that name on gibberish. Instead I came up with something easy to pronounce with a touch of a foreign language to it.

Names are fun. Making up names is fun too. But my belief is not to have too much fun and to remember your readers.

I’m curious about your thoughts on this. As a reader, writer or both, how do you handle invented names?

I’d Say Writing is Like Acting

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acting, actors, authors, characters, writing

I have a few actor friends and sometimes they tell me about their craft. They talk about getting into character and trying to understand the thoughts and feelings of that person in order to bring them to life. When I hear them describe this process, I can’t help but notice the similarities between writing and acting.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Now, writers don’t perform in front of an audience. Whatever “performance” we do is done when someone reads our work, usually unbeknownst to us. We don’t know of their reaction until they leave a review somewhere, if they do.

For actors, they don’t need to bring to life the whole scene with the description of whatever place a scene is taking place in or the vibe in whatever room. They’re responsible for bringing to life their characters.

But for us writers, so are we.

When I write my characters, I do feel as though I have to get into not only their heads, but their skin. I need to feel their feelings, know their life history, know their thoughts in order to make them come to life. I analyze my characters – especially the main ones – similar to my actor friends. I need to understand them in order to make my readers understand them.

When it comes to villainous characters, some actors say they have fun playing the bad guy. Judging by some performances, they do appear to enjoy themselves. I didn’t enjoy writing Daniel like that. That’s because to me, he is not a villain to have fun writing about. I have plans to do that for other villainous characters in my vampire trilogy. However, I didn’t totally hate him. I mean, yes I did, but I had to understand why he was the way he was and why he did what he did in order to tolerate him. Even now I do that. I guess writers and actors have to take a neutral stance sometimes with their characters in order to tell a story.

So, I take it this is another sign that writing is an art.

How about you? Do you see the similarities between writing and acting, or is it different for you?

NOTE: I won’t be posting this Friday, as it is the Thanksgiving weekend here in the U.S. To all my American readers, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Disclaimer: This is a Work of Fiction…

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authors, book disclaimer, characters, developing characters, disclaimers, novelists, the writing process, writers

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

We’ve all come across this when we opened to a new book, right? Maybe most of ignore it or barely think any of it, but it seems there are some people out there who need to read that disclaimer.

I suppose many authors deal with this: people thinking the characters they wrote about are actually the author themselves, or the conflict the characters face is something the author actually went through, minute by minute. It can be true. Some authors may write about an event in their lives, yet tweak a few people or scenes to make it more fictitious. When I took a writing course a few years ago, a few people in the class were doing that. 

But some stories are born out of a writer’s imagination. There may even be some aspects of the event or character that resemble the writer, but not all of it. We all know Stephen King’s novels all take place in Maine, where he is from. But that doesn’t mean everything he’s ever written about has actually happened to him.

I just bring this up because a few people in my life who have read my book have actually asked me if parts of it are reflection of me. They ask if, like Claire McCormick, I am agnostic (nope). They ask if I’ve been in an abusive relationship (no, and I made that clear once before). The hysterical part is when I’m asked if I really do have sex on the first date (I do not, and I’ve explained why I wrote that part). It’s funny because it is usually a guy who asks that question. Ha!

So while a few things about Claire may sound familiar to those who know me (freelance journalism, struggling to find work in a lousy economy, Irish heritage, living on Staten Island), many things about her are not like me. I don’t have a brother, and I also would’ve handled the terror Daniel put her through in a different way – and that would’ve been by ending up in a psychiatric unit.

When I write my characters, they develop and grow on their own. You can’t micromanage characters, especially main ones. They become their own persons to the point that nothing of you is able to penetrate them. With that, it is impossible for a book to reflect it’s author – unless it is that author’s intention all along.

So yeah. I’m just bringing this up for lighthearted fun because recently a guy I went out with did ask about the sex on the first date part. He seriously thought he had struck gold with me. Oh, was he disappointed!

My Take on Vampires

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characterization, characters, Christopher Pike, traditional vampires, Twilight, writing

It seems as if each book and each movie portrays vampires differently. Most of the time, these paranormal creatures are very pale, bone cold, have fangs, are undead, sleep in coffins, and so on and so on.

Of course, we all know the Twilight series broke away from the usual vampire depiction (ie: they sparkle, they have no fangs, they somehow manage to produce offspring). But I’ve come across some other vampires who broke the mold on how a vampire should be.

Most notably in my case was Sita in Christopher Pike’s YA series, The Last Vampire, or Thirst, as it is known these days. Sita was a 5,000 year old vamp who is able to crush boulders, jump very high, has rather sensitive hearing, and can move around in the daylight, though not all day long.

She also does not need to survive on blood each and every day of her existence and can consume human food and drink. Sita also does not sleep in a coffin and doubts she is dead because at one point, she mentions hearing her heart beat loud in her ears (I believe that was Chapter 1 of the first book that mentioned this).

The Last Vampire had an effect on me, even though I last read those books back in junior high. Whenever I imagined or wrote about a vampire, Sita’s characteristics played a role on how I depicted the vamp. When I decided to write seriously and not just for fun, that influence remained.

Even when I wrote my forthcoming E-book, The Dark Proposal. I had the vampires in my novel not sleep in coffins and were able to eat and drink regular food, though they really didn’t have to. Furthermore, my vampires can move around in the daylight. However, that depends on how old they are and the weather conditions outside. If it is cloudy and rainy out, they can walk around in midday. The same if the sun is just rising or going down.

But how do they deal with the sun if they don’t sleep in coffins, you ask?

Well, they sleep in beds like you and I do, but they block the sun with heavy duty curtains from Sweden, a country nicknamed the Land of the Midnight Sun.

But, my vampires maintain the traditional depiction of these characters. They are very pale until they drink blood, which they need every night in order to survive. They are also very strong, are able to read and manipulate minds, and can move in nano-second speed.

So I blended the traditional characterization of vampires along with the nontraditional. I think if someone wants to write vampire fiction, they don’t have to strictly stick to tradition; they should feel free to break away a bit. This way the author gets to have more fun and create their own world rather than stick with convention. But they should only break away a little bit 😉