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Monday, June 4, 2018

THE KEY TO WRITING _ IWSG post


THE KEY TO WRITING  
is found in 

SELFIES

No, really.

Why people read is linked to why people take selfies.

The readers project themselves into the life of the protagonist.  

They see themselves through the eyes of their thoughts and actions.

Like they choose to post the selfies that project the image by which they wished to be seen,

 they pick the characters whose lives they wish to vicariously live.

If Kim asks herself really honestly why she takes her selfies,

 she’d say it’s part of showing everyone Brand Kardashian. 

'This is what I look like (after a bit of photoshopping) 

and this is how I spend my time (obviously I’ll have chosen the coolest thing I’ve done all week).'



 Dr Terri Apter, psychology lecturer at Cambridge University, 

says taking selfies is all about people trying to figure out who they are and project this to other people. 

“It’s a kind of self-definition,” says Dr Apter.  

“We all like the idea of being sort of in control of our image and getting attention, 

being noticed, being part of the culture.” 



Reading fiction draws people who wish to live vicariously through the characters' lives ...

to be as witty, as charming, as brave, as capable as those characters or 

endure struggles, becoming as successful and triumphant in the end as the heroes.


It is much like why audiences are drawn to apocalyptic dramas, 

imagining they could survive like the actors.


We often read to lose ourselves in the lives of people we wish we could become.  

Many lifelong readers read simply because reading makes them feel good, or because it's familiar. 

Many famous novelists confess to being steered towards books 

by a single transformative reading experience during adolescence.


When writing our book, we should ask ourselves where do our prospective readers want to go and why ...

and get them there in the most entertaining way possible.

 HOW IS YOUR WRITING GOING?

14 comments:

  1. I still don't understand selfies. I don't want a photo of me! I'd much rather read. and live through those characters.

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    1. Alex, you and I belong to a different mind-set where "Look at Me!" seems a bit narcissistic. :-)

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  2. Hi Roland - I agree with Alex and you ... selfies - what for - on occasion yes for posterity ... but not otherwise. Cheers Hilary

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    1. I used to take pictures to put in a photo album so that Mother and I could recall good times -- but that was private not projected to the world. :-)

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  3. With all of the apocalyptic books out there, you'd think readers want to go to hell in a hand basket.

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    1. They want to fantasize that all the rat race restraints are off them perhaps?

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  4. I DO want control over my photos since I am NOT photogenic. Much better in person. :) When I attempt a selfie, it never goes wells.

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    1. Don't be hard on yourself, Teresa. Haven't you taken a photo of a person good looking in person, only to have the photo not do her or him justice? Photos are static not dynamic like real people. :-)

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  5. I love your interesting topic today. It's so very relevant. I think it's interesting reading and adolescence is so tied together as that's the reason I became an avid reader. I couldn't relate to all the required reading of the classics but found my love strangely in science fiction as a teen. True, everyone looks for that selfie in a book. Have a lovely rest of your day Roland :)

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    1. My day was made lovelier by your comment. :-) As a pre-teen and teen my sense of wonder and awe drew me to Sci Fi and fantasy much like you.

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  6. It's going. And to think I thought I was bonding over a shared feeling. hehehe

    Anna from elements of emaginette

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    1. But do any of us ever know what our pictures, or posts for that matter, evoke in those who view them from the internet? :-)

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  7. Thanks for the interesting post. Lots to think about, for sure. Let me ask a slightly antagonizing, devil's advocate question, though. By your reasoning, we read because we want to "become" the hero's of the story. Why, then, do we read tragedies? I'm thinking Stephen King's Pet Cemetary. I sure as heck up I make better decisions than that MC! Or how about "The Godfather?" Beloved book and epic film about Michael Corleone's fall from moral grace. Do we want to be Michael? I know I don't. Just poking the bear with this question. Thank you, though, for helping me better understand the selfie-phenom. As a high school teacher, let me tell you... ugh!

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    1. Tragedies and true crime fiction elicits the interest much like a car crash on the interstate or all those horrendous reality shows.

      As for horror novels, Stephen King wrote that we settle into them to feel the fright in a way that is not literally threatening -- since the real world is all too scary and dangerous.

      His entire essay can be found here:
      https://www.scribd.com/doc/87844780/Stephen-King-Why-We-Crave-Horror-Movies

      I was once a high school teacher but thankfully before the selfie craze --

      although whenever I walk into my blood center department, everyone's head is down hunched over their cell phones studying Facebook and YouTube! :-)

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