Your brain on description Read the words coffee, camphor or eucalyptus, and the part of your brain most closely related to the sense of smell responds. Read the words bingo, button or bayonette, and they don't. The words you choose not only have the power to change your readers' minds. They can also change their brains, according to new neurological research. "Brain … [Read more...] about Read it; feel it
Description
Take me there
Observational stories put readers in the scene For his latest book, Uncommon Carriers, John McPhee: Rode from Atlanta to Tacoma alongside Don Ainsworth, owner and operator of a 65-foot, 18-wheel chemical tanker carrying hazmats Attended ship-handling school on a pond in the foothills of the French Alps, where skippers of the largest ocean ships refine their … [Read more...] about Take me there
Do sweat the small stuff
Find the telling detail There are two kinds of details: realistic and telling. “If someone is bald, that’s realistic detail,” writes narrative nonfiction author Lauren Kessler. “If someone chooses to deal with baldness by getting $3,000 hair implants, that’s a status detail. It is a particular that offers insight into character.” We want more of the latter and less … [Read more...] about Do sweat the small stuff