Writing on the Brain
It might amuse me to have a neurologist study my brain (ideally while I'm alive), just because I write faster than I read.
That is, my fingers fly when I'm writing prose -- you'd be amazed how quickly I write, how quickly words come to me when crafting a scene.
Conversely, when I simply read, I'm notoriously slow in my reading. I don't know what that means, except I guess the neurons for generating text aren't necessarily the same as the ones for comprehending it, perhaps?
The thing is, I'm not willfully writing gobble-de-gook when I write; I'm aware of what I'm writing, where I intend for the text to go. Whereas when I read, I read more slowly.
Just a strange thing. I'm left-handed, too, and I think the way I process language is flipped, too, relative to left-brained folk. I've had some times in the past when a kind of aphasia might strike (it's been a long time since that's happened), but for example I pointed to a comb once (this was long ago) and said "could you hand me that...spiky hair stick?"
Now, when you break that down, what that looks like to me is my right-brain dominant mind is breaking "comb" down into visualized parts -- "spiky hair stick" -- because in that moment, "comb" eluded me, and my brain cobbled together the other words to create a meaningful gestalt.
Another one I remember is calling a television remote a "button box" -- similar situation -- you could certainly look at a TV remote as a button box.
Now, since I write way more fiction these days than I ever did when I was younger (although both of those examples were from me in my 20s), I find I have fewer moments when I might be fumbling for a word.
It's like I've trained my brain to process language more efficiently -- which, again, brings me back to the curiosity of simply reading is a slower process for me than writing.
Like I said, would be interesting for a neurologist to account for it.
That is, my fingers fly when I'm writing prose -- you'd be amazed how quickly I write, how quickly words come to me when crafting a scene.
Conversely, when I simply read, I'm notoriously slow in my reading. I don't know what that means, except I guess the neurons for generating text aren't necessarily the same as the ones for comprehending it, perhaps?
The thing is, I'm not willfully writing gobble-de-gook when I write; I'm aware of what I'm writing, where I intend for the text to go. Whereas when I read, I read more slowly.
Just a strange thing. I'm left-handed, too, and I think the way I process language is flipped, too, relative to left-brained folk. I've had some times in the past when a kind of aphasia might strike (it's been a long time since that's happened), but for example I pointed to a comb once (this was long ago) and said "could you hand me that...spiky hair stick?"
Now, when you break that down, what that looks like to me is my right-brain dominant mind is breaking "comb" down into visualized parts -- "spiky hair stick" -- because in that moment, "comb" eluded me, and my brain cobbled together the other words to create a meaningful gestalt.
Another one I remember is calling a television remote a "button box" -- similar situation -- you could certainly look at a TV remote as a button box.
Now, since I write way more fiction these days than I ever did when I was younger (although both of those examples were from me in my 20s), I find I have fewer moments when I might be fumbling for a word.
It's like I've trained my brain to process language more efficiently -- which, again, brings me back to the curiosity of simply reading is a slower process for me than writing.
Like I said, would be interesting for a neurologist to account for it.
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