The Writing Reader
Currently viewing the tag: "communication"
He liked to start sentences with, okay, so. It was a habit he had picked up from the engineers. He thought it made him sound smarter, thought it made him sound like them, those code geeks, standing by the coffee machine, talking faster than he could think, every word a term of art, every sentence packed with logic, or small insights or a joke. He liked to stand near them, pretending to stir sugar into his coffee, listening in on them as if they were speaking a different language. A language of knowing something, a language of being an expert at something. A language of being something more than an hourly unit. -Charles Yu, Standard Loneliness Package (free to read online at Lightspeed Magazine)
Writing Prompt: Spend some time listening to someone’s speech pattern. Write a poem, scene, or story using their speech pattern.
Journaling Prompt: How do you feel about the way that you speak? If you could change, how would you want to speak different?
Art Prompt: Speaking
Photo Credit: Sam Cockman on Flickr
On Wednesday nights, I talk to my dead sister though a silver mirror. -Mari Ness, The Shadow in the Mirror (free to read online)
Writing Prompt: Write a story, scene or poem using the first line above.
Journaling Prompt: Do you ever talk to your dead relatives?
Art Prompt: Ghosts in the Mirror
Photo Credit: Dia™ on Flickr
“There are two ways you can make an error as a man,” says Perilloux. “Either you think, ‘Oh, wow, that woman’s really interested in me’ — and it turns out she’s not. There’s some cost to that,” such as embarrassment or a blow to your reputation. The other error: “She’s interested, and he totally misses out. He misses out on a mating opportunity. That’s a huge cost in terms of reproductive success.” The researchers theorize that the kind of guy who went for it, even at the risk of being rebuffed, scored more often — and passed on his overperceiving tendency to his genetic heirs. The casual sex seekers “face slightly different adaptive problems,” says Perilloux. “They are limited mainly by the number of consenting sex partners — so overestimation is even more important.” Only the actually attractive men probably had no need for misperception.
The research contains some messages for daters of both sexes, says Perilloux: Women should know the risks and “be as communicative and clear as possible.” Men: “Know that the more attracted you are, the more likely you are to be wrong about her interest.” Again, that may not be as bad as it sounds, she says — “if warning them will prevent heartache later on.” -Science Daily
Writing Prompt: Write a scene or story about speed dating from the point of view of a man.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a dating experience where you misread the intentions of your date.
Art Prompt: Speed Dating
Photo Credit: Ed Yourdon on Flickr
The silence of the Asonu is proverbial. The first visitors believed that these gracious, gracile people were mute, lacking any language other than that of gesture, expression, and gaze. Later, hearing Asonu children chatter, the visitors suspected that among themselves the adults spoke, keeping silence only with strangers. We know now that the Asonu are not dumb, but that once past early childhood they speak only very rarely, to anyone, under any circumstances. They do not write; and unlike mutes, or monks under vows of silence, they do not use any signs or other devices in place of speaking.
This nearly absolute abstinence from language makes them fascinating.
People who live with animals value the charm of muteness. It can be a real pleasure to know when the cat walks into the room that he won’t mention any of your shortcomings, or that you can tell your grievances to your dog without his repeating them to the people who caused them.
And those who can talk, but don’t, have the great advantage over the rest of us that they never say anything stupid. -Ursula Le Guin, The Silence of the Asonu (free to read at Lightspeed magazine)
Writing Prompt: Write a story or scene from the point of view of someone who never speaks.
Journaling Prompt: Write about your experience with silence. Would you voluntarily give up speaking?
Art Prompt: Silence
Photo Credit: AlicePopkorn on Flickr
Psychopaths used more conjunctions like “because,” “since” or “so that,” implying that the crime “had to be done” to obtain a particular goal. They used twice as many words relating to physical needs, such as food, sex or money, while non-psychopaths used more words about social needs, including family, religion and spirituality. Unveiling their predatory nature in their own description, the psychopaths often included details of what they had to eat on the day of their crime.
Past as prologue: Psychopaths were more likely to use the past tense, suggesting a detachment from their crimes, say the researchers. They tended to be less fluent in their speech, using more “ums” and “uhs.” The exact reason for this is not clear, but the researchers speculate that the psychopath is trying harder to make a positive impression, needing to use more mental effort to frame the story. -Science Daily
Writing Prompt: Write a monologue by a psychopath explaining their crime using the language cues above.
Journaling Prompt: Write about something that you feel guilty about.
Art Prompt: Crimina
Photo Credit: Sebastian Anthony on Flickr
Of course everyone agrees with me. I’m always right. Right?
We like to think that others agree with us. It’s called “social projection,” and it helps us validate our beliefs and ourselves. Psychologists have found that we tend to think people who are similar to us in one explicit way — say, religion or lifestyle — will act and believe as we do, and vote as we do. Meanwhile, we exaggerate differences between ourselves and those who are explicitly unlike us.
But what about people whose affiliation is unknown — who can’t easily be placed in either the “in-group” or the “out-group”? A new study finds that we think the silent are also our side. -Science Daily
Writing Prompt: Write a scene between two characters who have just met. Include their internal monologue
about the assumptions they are making about the other person.
Journaling Prompt: Write about how you feel when you find out that someone who you thought agreed with you actually disagrees.
Art Prompt: Mind Reading
Photo Credit: DerrickT on Flickr
The day I get the call that changes my life is a Thursday. -Helen Smith, Alison Wonderland
Writing Prompt: Create a scene or poem using the line above as an inspiration.
Journaling Prompt: Write about a phone call that changed your life.
Art Prompt: Phone Call
Photo Credit: eelke dekker on Flickr
I grew up in a small town in Michigan where there were no fences between houses. Now, I live in the Phoenix area, where everyone has a 5 foot high block privacy fence separating them from their neighbors. It was interesting to read this new study.
A new study from the University of Missouri shows that increasing trust in neighbors is associated with better self-reported health.
“I examined the idea of ‘relative position,’ or where one fits into the income distribution in their local community, as it applies to both trust of neighbors and self-rated health,” said Eileen Bjornstrom, an assistant professor of sociology in the MU College of Arts and Science. “Because human beings engage in interpersonal comparisons in order to gauge individual characteristics, it has been suggested that a low relative position, or feeling that you are below another person financially, leads to stress and negative emotions such as shame, hostility and distrust, and that health suffers as a consequence. While most people aren’t aware of how trust impacts them, results indicated that trust was a factor in a person’s overall health.”
“I was surprised about the direction in which relative position was linked to distrust. If affluent individuals are less likely to trust their poorer neighbors, it could be beneficial to attempt to overcome some of the distrust that leads to poor health,” Bjornstrom said. “It is possible that shared community resources that promote interaction, such as sidewalks and parks, could help bridge the neighborhood trust gap, and also promote health and well-being. Residents of all economic statuses might then benefit if community cohesion was increased. Additional research can address those questions.” -Science Daily
Writing Prompt: Create a community in your world and write about how the trust/distrust of the inhabitants relates to their health.
Journaling Prompt: How is your community laid out? Does the design of your community affect your relationship with your neighbors?
Art Prompt: Community
Photo Credit: Mike Babiarz on Flickr
You’ve met this person. The guy who is always on edge, always waiting to be offended, always building walls that block any communication.
…you get the impression that you are addressing an elaborately wired security system. If the conversation edges toward areas in which he feels ill at ease or unwilling to commit himself, burglar alarms are triggered off, defensive reflexes rise around him like an invisible stockade, and you hear the distant baying of guard dogs. -by Kenneth Tynan, FIFTEEN YEARS OF THE SALTO MORTALE
Writing Prompt: Create a character sketch about a defensive character. What happened to make him or her this way? What triggers the defensive mechanisms and why? What questions is he or she trying to avoid?
Journaling Prompt: What topics bring out defensiveness in you? Why?
Art Prompt: Defensiveness
Photo Credit: ell brown on Flickr
Sometimes you just get a gut feeling.
She did not know why she had lied, but she was sure it was a wise decision. -Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium Trilogy)
Writing Prompt: Continue the story. What situation was she in and what were the consequences of the lie?
Journaling Prompt: When have you lied because it felt unsafe to tell the truth? How did you feel about it? What happened because of the lie?
Art Prompt: Lie
Photo Credit: bandita on Flickr
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