Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Chemistry of Reading: Arousing your Reader
    The Chemistry of Reading: Arousing your Reader
    The Chemistry of Reading: Arousing your Reader
    Ebook92 pages1 hour

    The Chemistry of Reading: Arousing your Reader

    By Nikki Logan

    2/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The brain is like Google. It ranks things by referrals. The most engaging books trigger a response in multiple parts of the brain and thereby get ranked more highly by it. And books that get highly ranked become ‘must buys’. 'The Chemistry of Reading' explores how the body reacts during the reading experience and how writers can harness that to create an unforgettable story that arouses multiple parts of the readers’ brain.

    A craft book in four parts:
    1.How the chemistry works (in digestible plain-english)
    2.Why you should exploit that as a writer of commercial fiction
    3.The toolkit you’ll need to do that
    4.Some practical examples of the toolkit (and the theory) in action

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDark Pages Publishing
    Release dateMay 8, 2012
    ISBN9781476179179
    The Chemistry of Reading: Arousing your Reader
    Author

    Nikki Logan

    ERROR

    Read more from Nikki Logan

    Related to The Chemistry of Reading

    Related ebooks

    Language Arts & Discipline For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Dan Savage

      Apr 22, 2021

      Dan Savage
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Many Sides of Mercury

      Jun 24, 2021

      The Many Sides of Mercury
      9 min read

    • Article

      Editor’s Note

      Dec 1, 2019

      Bringing this magazine together this time has been particularly interesting. All the magazines are brought together very organically, over time, so you never really know what will be the final outcome until you have everything in. This magazine has a

      3 min read

    • Article

      From The Editor

      May 11, 2023

      Your brain is a tough nut to crack. Psychologists have been trying to understand what's inside our heads for over a century (which actually isn't very long, as science goes), and there are still gaping cavities at the roots of our models. We have a p

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Things Science Has Taught Me

      Mar 11, 2020

      The Things Science Has Taught Me
      6 min read

    • Article

      Have A Disgustingly Good Memory

      Sep 20, 2022

      MANY OF OUR memory systems are driven by one single, powerful urge: to survive. We seem to be hard-wired to remember routes, so we can navigate our local environments safely. We’re also naturally talented at recognising faces. Ever since we lived in

      1 min read

    • Article

      Antonio Damasio Tells Us Why Pain Is Necessary

      Jan 18, 2018

      Following Oliver Sacks, Antonio Damasio may be the neuroscientist whose popular books have done the most to inform readers about the biological machinery in our heads, how it generates thoughts and emotions, creates a self to cling to, and a sense of

      12 min read

    • Article

      THE SCIENCE of Curiosity

      Dec 28, 2021

      THE SCIENCE of Curiosity
      4 min read

    • Article

      Perceptual Triggers

      Nov 7, 2020

      Perceptual Triggers
      20 min read

    • Article

      Autistic Scholar Temple Grandin: ‘The Education System Is Screening Out Visual Thinkers’

      Oct 15, 2022

      Temple Grandin is perhaps the world’s most famous scholar living with autism. In more than 50 years working in animal agriculture – specialising in designing more humane livestock handling facilities – she has improved cattle treatment internationall

      4 min read

    • Article

      Love Is Biological Bribery

      Feb 14, 2022

      Love Is Biological Bribery
      12 min read

    • Article

      Emotional Intelligence Needs a Rewrite

      Aug 3, 2017

      You’ve probably met people who are experts at mastering their emotions and understanding the emotions of others. When all hell breaks loose, somehow these individuals remain calm. They know what to say and do when their boss is moody or their lover i

      9 min read

    • Article

      Emotional Intelligence Needs a Rewrite

      Mar 12, 2020

      You’ve probably met people who are experts at mastering their emotions and understanding the emotions of others. When all hell breaks loose, somehow these individuals remain calm. They know what to say and do when their boss is moody or their lover i

      9 min read

    • Article

      Distraction Rules

      Mar 1, 2023

      Distraction Rules
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Marie Myung-Ok Lee

      Dec 19, 2021

      At about the time, as a child, I learned my parents could die at any minute (and so could I, but that was beside the point), I became obsessed with time, especially since I learned it passes. The post A Year in Reading: Marie Myung-Ok Lee appeared fi

      3 min read

    • Article

      My 3 Greatest Revelations

      Dec 5, 2023

      My 3 Greatest Revelations
      4 min read

    • Article

      Opening The Doors Of Depression

      May 28, 2020

      Opening The Doors Of Depression
      6 min read

    • Article

      Consciousness Is Just a Feeling

      Mar 3, 2021

      When he was a boy, Mark Solms obsessed over big existential questions. What happens when I die? What makes me who I am? He went on to study neuroscience but soon discovered that neuropsychology had no patience for such open-ended questions about the

      12 min read

    • Article

      Times Of Distraction

      Mar 1, 2023

      Times Of Distraction
      17 min read

    • Article

      My 3 Greatest Revelations

      Nov 17, 2023

      My 3 Greatest Revelations
      4 min read

    • Article

      BOOKMARK THIS read…listen…stream

      Oct 26, 2021

      Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention, Invest 12 Minutes a Day Amishi P. Jha, PhD • Harper One This long-awaited book from the leading neuroscientist studying the effects of contemplative practices on our attention system doesn’t disappoint. It’s an in

      3 min read

    • Article

      Student Edition

      Sep 30, 2017

      WITH EMMA LAW RANCE HOMETOWN: Adelaide CURRENTLY LIVING: Oxford RESEARCH: Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience “The first project for my PhD explored how we make decisions when we are missing information, and how this uncertainty influences our c

      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Chemistry of Reading

    2/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Chemistry of Reading - Nikki Logan

      The Chemistry of Reading (Arousing your Reader)

      Nikki Logan

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2012 Nikki Logan

      (Illustrations: Copyright Jodie Davidson 2012)

      Discover other titles by Nikki Logan at

      www.nikkilogan.com.au

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Introduction

      PART I – How Arousal Works (The Sciencey Bit)

      The Brain

      Arousal

      Arousal and Motivation

      Arousal as it relates to reading

      Mirror Neurons

      PART II – Why You Should Aim to Arouse Readers (The Mercenary Bit)

      Books are like candy

      Readers as sensation seekers

      Emotional arousal – Why women devour romance

      PART III – How to Arouse Readers (The Practical Bit)

      The Toolbox

      Social Kinship

      Vicarious Emotional Experience

      Exploiting Impulsivity

      Seven ways to make your reader’s brain think your book is as important as a snarling Rottweiler

      Summary

      PART IV – Deconstruction (The Workshoppy Bit)

      The End

      Attributions

      About the Author

      Introduction

      The first thing this book is not is a scientific paper. The second thing this book is not is a how-to on writing sex and sensuality in fiction.

      When I set out to develop a practical workshop on the importance of arousing readers, I planned a shortish examination of the different ways that readers can be aroused by fiction. The visceral arousal of a good thriller, the emotional arousal of romance, the intellectual arousal of a mystery/intrigue novel, the sensual arousal of erotic fiction, or the creative arousal of an interplanetary fantasy.

      As I researched it, I realised that would be telling only one third of the story. Before I could look at the technical aspects of how to increase the arousal of your readers, I had to examine why you would want to. And before why, it was important that participants understood what they were trying to achieve.

      And so Arousing your Reader became The Chemistry of Reading: Arousing your Reader.

      It will become abundantly apparent very shortly that I’m not a scientist. I have a couple of years of high-school human biology behind me. So if I can understand this then anyone can. I searched and searched for information on the chemistry and biology of reading (specifically) and there wasn’t a lot out there. I read papers and trawled websites, pulled what I could together, chewed it all up and regurgitated it in what I hope is plain English. I’ve glossed over much of the hard science and just focussed on the most digestible bits.

      So, the first thing this book is not is a scientific paper.

      The second thing this book is not is a how-to on writing sex and sensuality in fiction. If you were looking for that, you’ve made a bad call. Arousal is about so much more than physical titillation.

      The Chemistry of Reading: Arousing your Reader seeks to help you to understand how reading impacts on the human brain and how to make the most of that knowledge to enrich your writing.

      Arousal and writers of commercial fiction

      Writers of commercial fiction rely on repeat readership in order to build a following large enough to let them continue feeding their families. While commercial fiction is well-endowed with blockbusters compared to other kinds of fiction, stunning success of that kind is still a mythic rarity. It is said that 99% of fiction is never picked up by a traditional publisher, and of the 1% that is, less than 5% of those books ever bust out of the mid-list, let alone achieve blockbuster-status.

      Authors of commercial fiction need to be prolific, consistent and visible in order to begin building a following, and if they want

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1