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[yani dumyat]

**Caution** Thread Under Construction
Please wear hard hats at all times

Happy Minds
A guide to help writers communicate their ideas by controlling the emotions and expectations of the reader.

I'd wager money that most people who post on this site like shiny spaceships and epic storylines more than grammar textbooks, the problem is that you can't have one without the other. What I hope to provide is a set of tools for you to make your spaceships more shiny and your stories more epic.

[yani dumyat]

Part 1, Understanding the eye:

To understand grammar we must first understand how the eye and brain interpret the letters and marks on the page. The human eye is an amazing device however it has limitations and we need to work within those limitations to make the eye feel comfortable. Let's start with a practical demonstration:

Slowly turn your head from side to side and note how your eyeballs move, if you have normal eyesight you'll notice that your eyes fix on a spot then jump to the next spot.

Now try looking straight in front of you and keep your eyeballs as still as you can, without letting your eyeballs rotate in their sockets start moving your head from side to side. You'll notice that your vision becomes blurry and your eyeballs will try and move in their sockets so they can focus on something.

The reason for this pattern of movement is down to how your brain interprets information. Light enters the eye and triggers an electrical impulse in the optic nerve, this signal is split in two with one signal going to the amygdala (brain stem) and the other going to the visual cortex at the back of the brain, these are known as the short and long routes. http://northofneutral.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/amygdala-hijack.jpg.

The long route is what defines the movement of the eyeball and it works by taking a series of snapshots, the process can be broken down in to the following steps:

• Focus the eye.
  Electrical impulse triggered.
  Visual cortex becomes stimulated.
  Higher brain centers may become stimulated in response the visual cortex.
  Eyeball moves to a different location.
  Repeat process.

Note - When I use the word snapshot in subsequent posts I am referring to this process.

The short route is our fight or flight response and is triggered by the amygdala, this was one of the first parts of our brain to evolve and acts like an early warning system. Anything that triggers our fight or flight responses will cut blood flow to the higher brain centers and increase adrenaline levels, this is a very useful trait when trying to stay alive in a jungle.

So what the hell has all this got to do with writing? Grammar is how we organize information in to snapshots that fit the natural movement of the eye, it is a tool that will allow you to make people laugh, cry, smile and daydream. To unlock the beautiful stories in your head it is helpful to understand the brain responses caused by natural reactions to different types of information.

[yani dumyat]

Part 2, Conjunctions, Pauses and Warning Signs:

This post is a list of the basic tools you will need to become a devious bastard good writer. It is by no means comprehensive however it defines the terminology I will be using over the next few posts.

Positive Conjunctions:
These are words like "and / so" or any other word that can be used instead of a pause and has a cumulative effect on the mood of a sentence.

I like eating frogs legs and they taste better with mustard.

Twisting Conjunctions:
These are words like "but / however" or any other word that can be used instead of a pause and twists the mood of a sentence.

I like eating frogs legs but they taste better with mustard.

Pauses:
This is your comma, full stop or any other punctuation used to pause the reader.

I like eating frogs legs, they taste better with mustard.

Warning signs:
These are exclamation marks, swear words or shortened sentences designed to give your reader a jolt.

I eat frogs legs! Better with mustard!

Each of these devices can be associated with a brain response:

• Positive Conjunctions - Signals that the emotional context of the sentence is not going to change (calming influence, brain will build on its current thought pattern)
  
  Twisting Conjunctions - Signals that the emotional context of the sentence is about to change (stimulates higher brain centers, brain will need to reevaluate its emotional state)
  
  Pauses - Used to define the length of a snapshot (lots of pauses will have a similar effect to warning signs whereas no pauses will leave the brain with no time to process the information it is receiving, this will be covered in more depth later)
  
  Warning signs - Used to trigger a fight or flight response in the reader (will increase adrenaline and signal to the brain that it should pay attention to something that may cause it harm)
  

[yani dumyat]

Part 3, Building a sentence:

Right, it's time to  start playing with words. The following sentence uses all four devices, I'll do a quick analysis of the text then we can look at some common grammatical errors.

"Comma incoming!" Shouted the sergeant and the men dived under the cover of a nearby H, they still had four lines of text to get through before they would arrive at the end of the paragraph but it was going to be a tough journey.

We can break this down in to snapshots, that is to say we can look at the text as blocks of information that have been separated in to bite size chunks that are easy for the brain to understand.

"Comma incoming!" - Warning signal to tell the readers mind that it needs to be alert.

Shouted the sergeant and the men dived under the cover of a nearby H, - The men diving under cover is a direct response to the shout of the sergeant therefore we use a positive conjunction.

they still had four lines of text to get through before they would arrive at the end of the paragraph but it was going to be a tough journey. - A twisting conjunction is used because we are altering the tone of the sentence at this point.

In emotional terms the text taps in to the fight or flight response / pause / builds momentum by having an action and response / pause / add some epic by describing how far they've got to go then twist for additional epic.

Now lets look at a grammatically incorrect way of writing the same piece of text:

The sergeant shouted, "Comma incoming!" The men dived for cover, under a nearby H. They still had four lines of text to get through, they would arrive at the end of the paragraph, it was going to be a tough journey.

This overdose of commas is probably the most common grammatical mistake on these forums, some really good stories have been ruined by this.



To be continued...too damn tired to write any more tonight.

[yani dumyat]

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[yani dumyat]

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[yani dumyat]

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[yani dumyat]

In reply to the post below this one you can rest assured that it is my intention to arm the writers of this site with a good knowledge of modern grammatical conventions.

[Casiella]

While the language evolves, that does not change the fact that grammar has rules based on consensus. Writers who ignore the rules should do so only intentionally and once they already understand them. Thelonious Monk wrote and played music differently in ways that other people first thought to be mistakes (e.g. creative use of dissonances), but he could do this once he'd mastered conventional methods.