Love is a Powerful Brain System
"Men are so adulterous!"
"What makes you think men are more adulterous?"
"Men are definitely more adulterous."
"Well... who do you think these men are having sex with?"
I have become a new fan of TED online, which is this amazing website that gives all of us the option to watch amazing performances and speakers for free, so that good ideas can proliferate. Helen Fisher on Romantic Love really got me thinking, both as a person, and as a writer. It's about ten minutes. Fisher discusses what she says are the three brain systems of love:
- Sexual love
- Romantic Love
- Attachment
I found this video so interesting. Fisher talks about the differences between men and women in terms of how they think, gather information, and how we are moving toward a collaborative society. She talks about the recurrence of the "companion marriage," and "romantic love," which is a throwback to one of my favorite 19th century authors, Margaret Fuller.
She mentions how the three brain systems aren't always connected to one another, which explains how one can feel attached, and yet not have a romantic love, for someone. Or to be sexually attracted, but not feel attached. And these feelings can change from minute to minute. She asks why it is that we fall in love with one person, rather than another.
Isn't that the real question all romance authors are asking? I feel like that's my question, anyway.
As a romantic author, I felt like this video really helped me first to understand, perhaps, the underpinnings of love from a biological standpoint, with an emotional filter layered on top. This, I feel, is important to understanding what, really, is important in terms of writing about love, in any of its forms. I'd love to hear what you think about this video.
Do you agree with what Fisher has to say? And how are your projects coming along?
Researching Your Setting Using Google Earth
If anything deserves more attention in my research, it's the setting. Not for lack of trying, though; it's something I tend to obsess about, if you'll remember, but the resources about my little village are sparse at best. This concerns me because character histories often depend on the character's environment, so it's risky not to know the nooks and crannies hidden in your location.
Enter Google Earth. I finally caved in and installed the free application on my computer. This, despite my misgivings that I would waste hours studying the landscape rather than studying how the structure of a material changes depending on the number of vacancies at the atomic level. (I'm so glad I graduated.) Heaven help me, I was at the computer for two hours squealing about all the little physical details that, without technology, I would have had to journey to the UK to see it myself.
Thanks to the internet, I did manage to find 1885 maps of the area. But seeing actual color photos of the landscape around the manor house, and the relative locations of local ruins Mary walks to when she needs to let off some steam... and then to see photos taken by other Google Earth users living in the area! Oh, when I found Wayland's Smithy, I knew, I just knew, that Mary spent hours there as a child, and returned there when bereft as an adult.
And if this isn't enough, I also installed Google Sketch Up, a 3D modeling application. People use it to make 3D renderings of buildings on Google Earth... you know what I'll be doing in my free time pretty soon. Yes, that's right, making mock-ups of my characters' not-so-humble abodes.
For those of you struggling with details about your setting, take a peek at Google Earth. It's free and works on all major platforms, it seems. If you're writing historical fiction, you might have to imagine what the city looked like during your era, but many places (especially in Europe) still have the old streets and some of the old buildings to give you a better understanding of what is within walking distance, etc. If you're writing a contemporary piece, you can watch traffic patterns, the weather, and more.
A great resource for anyone curious about the world, Google Earth is an awesome research resource for writers.
Thursday Thirteen: Tools to Research Setting
I often find interesting bits of information floating around that don't necessarily correspond to an entire blogpost. To compensate, sometimes I'll have a Thursday Thirteen to collect and spread the knowledge-love, bringing me back to the original point of Worderella Writes. But I reserve the right to have a Thursday Seven, Thursday Two, Thursday Whatever-Number-I-Manage-to-Get-To... even though they don't sound as good. Today's theme is tools to help you research and/or write your setting. #1 - 7: Everyone can enjoy. #8-13: Probably for historical fiction writers only.
- Google Maps, MapQuest, etc. Use these websites for distances to known locations, driving routes, etc.
- Google Earth. This is great free application for those of us who are writing about places we may never see. This application allows us to see landscapes, weather patterns, traffic, and more, with the added benefit of seeing the pictures other Google Earth users took of the area and posted online.
* Disclaimer: Don't blame me if you find yourself spending hours staring at the local landmarks of your chosen location. I can't help it if Google Earth is that cool.
- Google SketchUp. If your WIP is at an existing location, together with Google Earth you can actually render a 3D model of the building. Not only that, but it has the capability to render floorplans and you can put little people in there, too. You'll never accidently put your character in the drawing room when you meant the library ever again.
- Architectural Details. Can't remember what that one arch is called on your building? This is the layperson's guide to architectural elements to help you describe the places your characters visit/live.
- Wikipedia. A good place to start when you're beginning your research on a particular location, but not something that should be the end-all-be-all for what you know about the place.
- Writing the setting. A nice essay on things to keep in mind while working on setting.
- Setting > Worderella collection. Sadly, I don't have a lot about setting, and I should have more, but this will give you all the posts that pertain to setting in some way.
- A Dictionary of Victorian London. A collection of articles, journals, and diaries posted online and in book format, I've been meaning to buy the book because I reference this site almost as often as I check e-mail. Which is to say, religiously.
- Dickens's London. Predictably, London as Dickens knew it in the 1880s.
- History Link. A subscription website supposedly full of links that guide you through your research for your novel. I'm not sure whether this is better than trolling the web and library for information, so if anyone has experience with this place, please comment.
- Victorian Web. An indispensible website full to the brim of information about Victorian England.
- County Maps of England. This is where I found my 1885 maps of Berkshire, and how I know that Compton Beauchamp belonged to Berkshire at the time, and not Oxfordshire as it does now.
- Edwardian Promenade. A blog focused on a series of essays about Victorian and Edwardian life.
I know I missed some resources. Let me know in the comments what you use to get a handle on your setting!
Guest Post: Writing on the Go
A guest post by Blair Hurley from www.blairhurley.com listing some hints on how to make sure you're writing on the go.
Writing on the Go by Blair Hurley
Writers use their own environment constantly to enrich their stories. We draw upon our settings and the people around us to create worlds. So when we travel, it's crucial to take advantage of the new environment and use it to improve our fiction. But when you're on the go in a new place, how's a writer supposed to get down information? Read on!
Get a notebook! It's hardly rocket science to decide to have a notebook handy, but when you're traveling it's especially important. Find a small, easy-to-handle notebook (I suggest a Moleskine, which are very popular right now and are affordable and tough) and slip it in your purse or back pocket. While on your trip or just during your usual daily travels, you should get used to being attached at the hip to that notebook (and a pen, too). Whenever you leave the house, take the notebook with you. Eventually it will become a habit and then you'll never be without writing material when an idea or an interesting observation strikes.
Write down even the obvious. Our brains are pretty extraordinary and we're all used to storing a tremendous amount of varied information without writing it down. But once you start writing down your observations, you'll realize how much you actually lost before. Whenever you see an interesting-looking stranger, a beautiful building, a food you've never seen before, or an unusual event, jot down some notes. Later, when you're wondering what to write or how to make it seem genuine, you'll have these interesting details to call upon.
Use all your senses, and participate in your world. When we travel around, too much these days we shut ourselves out from all external stimulation by putting on headphones. Listening to music is great, but it closes us off from the world, as evidenced by the number of traffic accidents that are iPod-related. The more you engage with your surroundings, the more you'll notice and the more material you'll get. So if you're going to a new place, turn off that Mp3 player and look, listen, smell and touch. Remember not just how a place looked, but how it smelled and felt as well. These sensory details are invaluable material for your fiction.
So in conclusion, whenever you're on the go, you don't have to wait until you get back to write about it. Take down notes on all aspects of the experience -- while you're on a subway, while walking down a street, even on a plane. Use your small moments to pull out that notebook and record the details of your environment, and it will prove a gold mine of resources for your next stories.
Blair Hurley is a creative writing student at Princeton University. She writes the blog Creative Writing Corner at blairhurley.com, which offers daily writing exercises, how-to's, and thoughts on the writing life.
Next week, a guest post from Bethany (Word Nerd). She's going to give us a guide to reading science fiction/fantasy!
Relating to my Characters: Penmanship and Fountain Pens
I envy my own characters even though they live in my head and therefore, are technically me anyway. Why the envy? They have distinctive penmanship and can wield a fountain pen with a flourish. I silently wail against the loss of the importance of penmanship in the real world, and especially the loss of my own penmanship, due to the efficiency of computers and e-mail, and the rising cost of snail mail. Or rather, I wail against the fact that I had no real patience to excel at penmanship in the first place. I could blame this on the now-now-now of today's culture, but I won't. I love to get mail, so I should write more of it, which should encourage more people to send me mail in the first place.
Sometimes I think that the historical fiction part of me is entirely at odds with the computer scientist part. For instance, despite my obsession with efficiency, I would love to write in a scrawling hand that visibly defines my personality. I want to take the time to create evidence of my handwriting that, years later, my children and grandchildren can gawk over and infer that I was a determined woman given to fanciful thoughts... or something sentimental like that.
So I decided the other day to buy a fountain pen set and train myself to write the way my characters do. I did some research about fountain pens and found that today, if you want a nice fountain pen, it will cost you at least fifty American dollars. And that technology has advanced the pen so that you can actually buy them in a disposable format, the way you would buy a Pilot rollerball pen. (I, of course, bought the disposable kind. And I love them!)
However, I couldn't stop there with the modern fountain pen; I had to go back to first fountain pen thanks to my thirst for irrelevant knowledge. Sadly, there is a discrepancy between how old the fountain pen is. Some claim the oldest known was created by a Frenchman in 1702, whereas other resources say Egyptian caliphs commissioned the first one in the 10th Century, and still others say there were experimentations as early as the 1st Century.
The fountain pen that we know today, where a capillary feed regulates the ink flow, was first patented in 1884 by Lewis Waterman. He invented this capillary feed after his new, extravagant pen leaked all over an important contract that he subsequently lost to a competing broker. Funny how desperation and irritation are the true mothers of invention.
Today, there are multiple ways for filling the ink cartridge of a fountain pen. There is the traditional way of filling it with an eyedropper, and then there are button, lever, coin, and click mechanisms which alter the internal pressure of the pen, allowing it to "suck up" the ink. In the 1950s, pre-filled replaceable cartridges became all the rage because they were easy to insert and cheap to buy...but the invention of the ballpoint pen overshadowed the improvement and I don't think the fountain pen has gotten over the shock yet.
Even though modern fountain pens are expensive compared to ballpoint pens, there is still a valid use for them in the pen market. For instance, many arthritis/carpal tunnel sufferers feel it's easier to write with a fountain pen because of the effortless ink flow and large diameter of the pen (to allow for cartridge size). There is a larger variety of colors in comparison to the ballpoint pen. And then there's the snob factor: There's something classic, regal, and elegant about writing with a fountain pen. People respect a person who writes with a fountain pen because it's assumed to be a harder instrument to write with.
...Or maybe that's just what I like to think people are thinking about me when they see me writing with my fountain pens.
*Information compiled from Wikipedia, About.com: fountain pens, and About.com: Lewis Waterman.
*Fountain pen nib image found at Wikimedia Commons, cartoon found at Cartoon Stock.
From the Notebook: All About Lovers
In the fall I read many wonderful texts from American Lit (circa 1820 - 1860), especially some great things by feminist writers of the time. To celebrate the coming of Valentine's Day, here is Fanny Fern's hilarious satire of lovers and love.
For a little bit of background, Fanny Fern was the pen-name of Sarah Willis Parton, a woman writing in the 1850s onward. Sarah began her writing career because her second marriage was a bust (the first made her a widow, she left the second, presumably because he was abusive), and neither her family nor her in-laws wanted to support her or her children. (To be fair, it wasn't their fault that she couldn't keep a husband... and... I'm being completely sarcastic.) Unable to support her girls, she sent her eldest to live with family, and began writing.
Sarah's best work comes out in the short narrative, often in her articles written for local newspapers. She had a huge following, both men and women, and had a healthy dose of critics who thought she was much too assertive and aggressive of a writer to be a true woman. She had a great sense of humor about it all, as exampled in one of her articles where she describes going to the theatre only to watch a more glamorous woman be pointed out as "that writer, Fanny Fern."
Sarah wrote both sentimentally and sarcastically, (read Ruth Hall for a great example of both), but I'm providing a sample of one of her more satirical works. The following article advises young women to test their young men with little annoyances, just to see how they might fare in marriage.
All About Lovers
Nothing like the old-fashioned long "engagements," say we. Then you have a chance to find out something about a young man before marriage. Now-a-days matrimony follows so close upon the heels of "an offer," that it is no wonder our young people have a deal of sad thinking to do afterward. There are a thousand little things in daily intercourse of my duration, which are constantly resolving themselves into test of character; slight they may be, but very significant.
Some forlorn old lady must have an escort home of a cold evening; she walks slow, and tells the same story many times: see how your lover comports himself under this. He is asked to read aloud in some home circle, some book he has already perused in private, or some one in which he is not at all interested: watch him then. Notice, also, if he invariably takes the most comfortable chair in the room, "never thinking" to offer it to a person who may enter till he or she is already seated. Invite him to carve for you at the table. Give him a letter to drop in the post-office, and find out if it ever leaves that grave--his pocket. Open and read his favorite favorite newspaper before he gets a chance to do so. Mislay his cigar-case. Lose his cane. Sit accidentally on his new beaver [hat]. Praise another man's coat or cravat. Differ from him in a favorite opinion. Put a spoonful of gravy on his meat instead of his potatoes.
Ah, you may laugh! But just try him in these ways, and see how he will wear; for it is not the great things of life over which we mortals stumble. A rock we walk around; a mountain we cross: it is the unobserved, unexpected, unlooked-for little sticks and pebbles which cause us to halt on life's journey.
New York Ledger July 30, 1859
When I first read this list of annoyances, I couldn't help but laugh, but Fanny Fern is completely right. For all her satire, she gives excellent advice for anyone in a relationship or about to start a new one. We "stumbling mortals" never seem to pay attention to the little things, but I know it's the build-up of the little things that make me just explode sometimes. So to those of you reading this blog, if the significant person in your life starts to really annoy you, take a second look. They might be doing it on purpose.
From the Notebook: Dickens’s Dictionary of London 1888
Things are definitely crazy here on campus (did I mention I'm a Buckeye?), what with it being my last undergraduate year (!!). Grad school applications are slowly going out, and I will admit that a couple of these posts have been timestamped ahead of time just to keep up.
On to the subject of this post. This past summer I found treasure: Dickens's Dictionary of London 1888 is amazing. It's written by Charles Dickens's son, Charles Dickens, and covers everything from how much admission will cost (according to where you sit) in every major theatre in London, to how a person should walk down the street if you don't want to get mugged. Here is an interesting article about fog that had me chuckling:
Fogs are, no doubt, not peculiar to London. Even Paris itself can occasionally turn out very respectable work in this way, and the American visitor to England will very probably think, in passing the banks of Newfoundland, that he has very little to learn on the subject of fog. But what Mr Guppy called "a London particular," and what is more usually known to the natives as a "peasouper," will very speedily dispel any little hallucination of this sort.
As the east wind brings up the exhalations of the Essex and Kentish marshes, and as the damp-laden winter air prevents the dispersion of the partly consumed carbon from hundreds of thousands of chimneys, the strangest atmospheric compound known to science fills the valley of the Thames. At such times almost all of the senses have their share of trouble. Not only does a strange and worse than Cimmerian darkness hide familiar landmarks from the sight, but the taste and smell are offended by an unhallowed compound of flavours, and all things become greasy and clammy to the touch. During the continuance of a real London fog--which may be black, or grey, or more probably orange-coloured--the happiest of men is he who can stay at home...
From Dickens's Dictionary of London 1888: An Unconventional Handbook by Charles Dickens © 2006 by Old House Books
So... I basically read this "dictionary" cover-to-cover. Shows how much of a research nerd I am, right? I still can't believe my luck that I found a guide to London published exactly in the middle of my novel's time line. Dickens is a wonderful writer, as you can tell by the passage above. Who knew fog could be so interesting? You can tell Dickens loved London, that he knew it intimately, and that he was probably a spirited conversationalist. The first couple of pages in the book include a detailed map of London, which is indispensable for a history writer like me.
So let me ask you writers, have you ever found that one source that proved to make the others pale in comparison? A primary source that gives you an insider look? What about sources that sent you on a wild goose chase? Do you even care about research?
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