© 2020 Ransom Stephens
One Sheet
Title:
Get Inside Your Readers
Brain:
The neuroscience of how to make readers
laugh and cry
Speaker:
Ransom Stephens
Description
Neuroscience is like looking under the hood to see how It works. When you
know how readers process your writing you can figure out what grabs
readers, what bores them, and why. In this presentation, we’ll investigate how
to write in ways that administer dopamine when you want readers happy and
withholds it when you want readers sad. We’ll explore the roots of what
people like and why bestsellers aren’t always critical favorites. Art is
subjective, but our subjectivity has a lot in common.
This seminar helps participants understand:
•
The truth about creativity in the left and right hemispheres of your
brain
•
Putting your reader’s brain to work
•
The intimate relationship between creator and beholder
o
Mirroring and a reader’s brain on lit
o
Percolating plot points above and below conscious awareness
•
The tricks of our trade and why they work
o
Applying the rules of neuroaesthetics to literature
o
Dissonance and consonance, peak shift, contrast, isolation,
opposition, symmetry, bait, and bullshit
•
Balancing what to write and what to let the reader figure out
o
Puzzles, mysteries, showing vs telling, and the power of withheld
information
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The good, the bad, and the bestseller
o
Yes, it’s subjective, but our subjectivity has a lot in common
Details
A 35, 50, or 75 minute presentation for anyone interested in science. If an
HDMI compatible overhead projector is handy, we’ll use it, but it’s not
required.
About the speaker
Ransom Stephens, Ph.D., is a scientist, science writer, and novelist. He’s
written hundreds of articles on subjects ranging from neuroscience to
quantum physics to parenting teenagers. In his first novel, The God Patent
(47North), a troubled father is caught in the science-religion culture war, in
his second, The Sensory Deception (47North), scientists and venture capitalists
use the relationship between the senses and the mind to give people the
experiences of endangered animals, in his third, The 99% Solution
(StrangeFuse), a strong but naive woman is caught between oligarchs and
anarchists in a battle to destroy the world economy, and in his fourth, Too
Rich to Die (StrangeFuse), the world’s first trillionaire will destroy the world
unless he can be rescued from his own greed. His first nonfiction book, The
Left Brain Speaks but the Right Brain Laughs (Viva Editions), is an irreverent and
accurate look at neuroscience for a lay-audience with emphasis on innovation
in art and science. Ransom has given thousands of speeches across the US,
Europe, and Asia and has developed a reputation for making complex topics
accessible and funny.
Videos and booking info
•
Watch videos of Ransom speaking to a
variety of groups:
•
Everything you need to know to book
Ransom to speak plus speaker bio,
photos, testimonials, past clients,
philosophy, etc.