In Keeping With the Theme of Conference
by Julie Coulter Bellon
I had such a wonderful time at the LDStorymakers conference. My class with Rob Wells went well and I had a lot of people come up to me afterward and tell me how refreshing it was to hear a man’s perspective as well as a woman’s perspective on writing. In case you forgot, Rob and I debated ten habits of successful writers. Rob made a powerpoint of each debate point and also made it Canada against the U.S. so we each represented our respective countries. The funny thing about that was, I had three Canadians come up to me after the class and tell me they wondered if Mr. Wells realized how many Canadians were truly in the class and that we definitely thought Canada won the debate. Haha. There was some controversy during the presentation about multi-tasking and whether it can truly be done and done well, which got a lot of discussion going, and was quite enlightening. Overall I thought the class went very well and I think we presented things that people hadn’t thought about before, which hopefully was helpful.
The First Chapter contest winners were also announced and I was so happy to see some talented writers recognized. Brodi Ashton was the Grand Prize winner for her Youth Fiction entry of Broken and it was very well done. Another one I was happy to see win was Jordan McCollom’s entry Saints and Spies. Her chapter premise was totally unique and was so well written, I was disappointed to only have one chapter to read. I hope it gets picked up and published soon so I can read the rest! A lot of the entries this year were very well done and I know I’m going to see some of them in print someday.
I had such an incredible time mingling with old and new friends, chatting about writing and characters, plots and twists, all kinds of writer stuff, it was just amazing. But I have to tell you of one experience I had that sort of stuck with me. I walked into a classroom that was packed (it was a class given by Kathy Jenkins, Managing Editor of Covenant Communications) and there were absolutely no more seats. Two men were sitting on the floor and a woman was standing at the back of the classroom. I stood there for a moment, listening to the presentation, and then I saw something that I think has become so rare in today’s society. A man sitting on the back row got up and offered his seat to the lady who was standing at the back. She gratefully accepted the offered seat, and this gentleman sat on the floor. I stood there a while longer, but since I am expecting, I knew I needed to sit down soon and I went in search of a chair. Four chairs were brought in for those who were on the floor and I ended up sitting next to the man who had given up his seat to someone else. We chatted for a while about authors, books, and publishing, and I found out that his name was Chris Schoebinger, a publishing director at Deseret Book and Shadow Mountain. He was so humble and sweet, I told him I was very impressed that he’d given up his seat for a lady and he just sort of smiled and acted like anyone would have done it. But in reality, that doesn’t happen often and it speaks volumes to me about what kind of man would, in fact, do something so gentlemanly. (And if he reads this, I hope I didn’t embarrass him!)
I also attended the Whitney awards ceremony for the first time and I have to say I was completely blown away by how professional it was and how much fun it was. I was honored to be a co-presenter with Crystal Liechty in announcing the award for Best Historical (G.G. Vandagriff won that category) and I also got to meet several authors I’ve always looked up to, like Gerald Lund and David Farland. It was just an incredible evening, and I was so excited to even be a part of it.
All in all, it was a wonderful weekend and I came home exhausted, but excited to start writing again and using all the techniques, tips, and ideas that I’d gleaned over the weekend. There’s really nothing like it, and I can’t wait until next year!
I had such a wonderful time at the LDStorymakers conference. My class with Rob Wells went well and I had a lot of people come up to me afterward and tell me how refreshing it was to hear a man’s perspective as well as a woman’s perspective on writing. In case you forgot, Rob and I debated ten habits of successful writers. Rob made a powerpoint of each debate point and also made it Canada against the U.S. so we each represented our respective countries. The funny thing about that was, I had three Canadians come up to me after the class and tell me they wondered if Mr. Wells realized how many Canadians were truly in the class and that we definitely thought Canada won the debate. Haha. There was some controversy during the presentation about multi-tasking and whether it can truly be done and done well, which got a lot of discussion going, and was quite enlightening. Overall I thought the class went very well and I think we presented things that people hadn’t thought about before, which hopefully was helpful.
The First Chapter contest winners were also announced and I was so happy to see some talented writers recognized. Brodi Ashton was the Grand Prize winner for her Youth Fiction entry of Broken and it was very well done. Another one I was happy to see win was Jordan McCollom’s entry Saints and Spies. Her chapter premise was totally unique and was so well written, I was disappointed to only have one chapter to read. I hope it gets picked up and published soon so I can read the rest! A lot of the entries this year were very well done and I know I’m going to see some of them in print someday.
I had such an incredible time mingling with old and new friends, chatting about writing and characters, plots and twists, all kinds of writer stuff, it was just amazing. But I have to tell you of one experience I had that sort of stuck with me. I walked into a classroom that was packed (it was a class given by Kathy Jenkins, Managing Editor of Covenant Communications) and there were absolutely no more seats. Two men were sitting on the floor and a woman was standing at the back of the classroom. I stood there for a moment, listening to the presentation, and then I saw something that I think has become so rare in today’s society. A man sitting on the back row got up and offered his seat to the lady who was standing at the back. She gratefully accepted the offered seat, and this gentleman sat on the floor. I stood there a while longer, but since I am expecting, I knew I needed to sit down soon and I went in search of a chair. Four chairs were brought in for those who were on the floor and I ended up sitting next to the man who had given up his seat to someone else. We chatted for a while about authors, books, and publishing, and I found out that his name was Chris Schoebinger, a publishing director at Deseret Book and Shadow Mountain. He was so humble and sweet, I told him I was very impressed that he’d given up his seat for a lady and he just sort of smiled and acted like anyone would have done it. But in reality, that doesn’t happen often and it speaks volumes to me about what kind of man would, in fact, do something so gentlemanly. (And if he reads this, I hope I didn’t embarrass him!)
I also attended the Whitney awards ceremony for the first time and I have to say I was completely blown away by how professional it was and how much fun it was. I was honored to be a co-presenter with Crystal Liechty in announcing the award for Best Historical (G.G. Vandagriff won that category) and I also got to meet several authors I’ve always looked up to, like Gerald Lund and David Farland. It was just an incredible evening, and I was so excited to even be a part of it.
All in all, it was a wonderful weekend and I came home exhausted, but excited to start writing again and using all the techniques, tips, and ideas that I’d gleaned over the weekend. There’s really nothing like it, and I can’t wait until next year!
Julie Coulter Bellon — 4/29/2010 01:51:00 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
Regarding that multitasking debate:
What I said was that multitasking can be done, but that multitasking is an inefficient way to do something. This is 100% verfiable fact. According to lots and lots of neuroscience research, people cannot consciously do more than one thing at a time--instead, their brain is switching back and forth quickly between two or more conscious activities. In regards to the gender issue, yes, women are better (more efficient) than men at multitasking, but it is still more inefficient than focusing on a single task.
There's a great article in The New Atlantis that summarizes a lot of recent research. A few great quotes:
In 2005, the BBC reported on a research study, funded by Hewlett-Packard and conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London, that found, “Workers distracted by e-mail and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.”
...
Dr. Edward Hallowell, a Massachusetts-based psychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and has written a book with the self-explanatory title CrazyBusy, has been offering therapies to combat extreme multitasking for years; in his book he calls multitasking a “mythical activity in which people believe they can perform two or more tasks simultaneously.”
...
One study by researchers at the University of California at Irvine monitored interruptions among office workers; they found that workers took an average of twenty-five minutes to recover from interruptions such as phone calls or answering e-mail and return to their original task. Discussing multitasking with the New York Times in 2007, Jonathan B. Spira, an analyst at the business research firm Basex, estimated that extreme multitasking—information overload—costs the U.S. economy $650 billion a year in lost productivity.
...
Ultimately, my point was not that you shouldn't multitask. My point was: yes you can do it (and yes, women are better at it than men) but you'll always be more efficient if you can focus on just one thing.
(And the underlying point: writing is hard work and requires sacrifice. While there are people who simply can't sacrifice much more--mothers with little kids and such--I think that most of us can focus more on writing if we sacrifice a little TV or a little recreation or even a little sleep.)
Julie, I was the lady standing at the back in Kathy Jenkins' class. Thanks for pointing out the rareness of Chris's action in today's society. I was very grateful for his offer, and I hope I made him sufficiently aware of that.
I'm glad your presentation went well. And what a touching story of courtesy!
(And thanks! I'm glad I didn't end up crying—we would've been a mess up there ;) .)
It’s entirely true that the brain, despite all its vast neurological power, must quickly transfer its focus from one novel task, to another, then back to the original task. It happens in nano seconds and gives the appearance of simultaneity. In the fields of performance psychology, motor control, and other neurosciences, that’s been a major operational theory for decades. There is research, however, that may support the performance of two independent motor tasks without all that jumping back and forth.
I worked as a research assistant in the neurophysiology labs at a large Midwestern university where we looked at a lot of these issues. Our focus, at the time, was determining when, if any, were the best years in a child's development for learning motor skills. We spent years hooking the forearms of kids of all ages up to scanners and neuromuscular monitoring devices while they 1) played novel (never-before-seen) video games and 2) as they learned fine motor skills like playing the violin and the piano. I won't bore you with the results.
New tasks tend to be processed in the main centers of the brain, but as those tasks become more automatic (highly learned or practiced) and no longer require "full brain power", the brain produces what is called a Motor Program and stores that "program" in the brain stem and, in many cases, in the spinal column, entirely outside the cognitive centers of the brain.
Instead of traveling to the brain, the recognizable stimuli reach the brain stem or spinal column where the motor program efficiently responds, essentially lowering the demands for "brain attention" on the already-learned task. We sometimes call that a spontaneous reaction. In sports we usually call it "hitting the groove" or "feeling it" or "don't think the game, feel the game." In those instances, the athlete is trying to refrain from analyzing their performance in the frontal cortex area of the brain, and rely on previously learned motor programs that reside outside those analysis centers. That's what happens as we learn a skill more proficiently. We OVER LEARN it so we can create a motor program and let that program function without input from the frontal cortex. Lots of problems actually pop up when a performer tries to "reprogram" by rethinking their performance after it has been deeply coded into the spinal column or brain stem.
So the take home on this is that both of you may be correct. If a task is highly practiced and has become automatic, the brain may no longer be required in the same way it would be if the task were a novel or less-learned task. In other words, as the stimuli that requires analysis has been entirely programmed and the responses to those stimuli highly learned it’s possible to multi-task and be efficient with a couple of already highly learned tasks combined with, say, a single novel task. How much, I don't know, but there is evidence that tasks that are already programmed into the brain stem may allow you to focus almost entirely on a less AUTOMATIC task which requires, say, frontal cortex demands, while still performing the "motor programmed" tasks that are controlled through centers in the brain stem. If the tasks are entirely cognitive, then I’m not sure if all of this applies.
You may be able to find more information about the effects of lower brain stem and spinal cord function as it relates to performance of motor skills if you look for information on key words like Motor Program, Motor Skill Function, Performance Behavior, Neurophysiologic Motor Skills, etc.
It’s entirely true that the brain, despite all its vast neurological power, must quickly transfer its focus from one novel task, to another, then back to the original task. It happens in nano seconds and gives the appearance of simultaneity. In the fields of performance psychology, motor control, and other neurosciences, that’s been a major operational theory for decades. There is research, however, that may support the performance of two independent motor tasks without all that jumping back and forth.
I worked as a research assistant in the neurophysiology labs at a large Midwestern university where we looked at a lot of these issues. Our focus, at the time, was determining when, if any, were the best years in a child's development for learning motor skills. We spent years hooking the forearms of kids of all ages up to scanners and neuromuscular monitoring devices while they 1) played novel (never-before-seen) video games and 2) as they learned fine motor skills like playing the violin and the piano. I won't bore you with the results.
New tasks tend to be processed in the main centers of the brain, but as those tasks become more automatic (highly learned or practiced) and no longer require "full brain power", the brain produces what is called a Motor Program and stores that "program" in the brain stem and, in many cases, in the spinal column, entirely outside the cognitive centers of the brain.
Instead of traveling to the brain, the recognizable stimuli reach the brain stem or spinal column where the motor program efficiently responds, essentially lowering the demands for "brain attention" on the already-learned task. We sometimes call that a spontaneous reaction. In sports we usually call it "hitting the groove" or "feeling it" or "don't think the game, feel the game." In those instances, the athlete is trying to refrain from analyzing their performance in the frontal cortex area of the brain, and rely on previously learned motor programs that reside outside those analysis centers. That's what happens as we learn a skill more proficiently. We OVER LEARN it so we can create a motor program and let that program function without input from the frontal cortex. Lots of problems actually pop up when a performer tries to "reprogram" by rethinking their performance after it has been deeply coded into the spinal column or brain stem.
So the take home on this is that both of you may be correct. If a task is highly practiced and has become automatic, the brain may no longer be required in the same way it would be if the task were a novel or less-learned task. In other words, as the stimuli that requires analysis has been entirely programmed and the responses to those stimuli highly learned it’s possible to multi-task and be efficient with a couple of already highly learned tasks combined with, say, a single novel task. How much, I don't know, but there is evidence that tasks that are already programmed into the brain stem may allow you to focus almost entirely on a less AUTOMATIC task which requires, say, frontal cortex demands, while still performing the "motor programmed" tasks that are controlled through centers in the brain stem. If the tasks are entirely cognitive, then I’m not sure if all of this applies.
You may be able to find more information about the effects of lower brain stem and spinal cord function as it relates to performance of motor skills if you look for information on key words like Motor Program, Motor Skill Function, Performance Behavior, Neurophysiologic Motor Skills, etc.
Interesting, Anon. My question would be whether or not that highly practiced task could include writing? Or would writing, by its creative nature, be always considered "novel" or "less-learned"?
Thanks Julie (and Rob) for sharing some of the conference.
On our recent trip, we boarded the plane and an elderly woman (mid-80's) humbly asked a man our age if he wouldn't mind giving her the window seat because she gets a little claustrophobic. He told her that was the reason he bought that seat and continued to get settled. The woman said quietly (but so my husband, who was waiting to pass to our seats, could hear, "That's the trouble with your generation, you just don't know how to give back."
The man paused, then gave up his seat for her. We then watched him adjust her air so she was comfortable and they continued in pleasant conversation. It was an interesting learning experience, and we weren't the only ones who noticed.
It is more rare, but I'm glad you found a seat, and that Marsha was given one. Small heroes.
It may depend on which writing task you're doing.
Some kinds of editing may actually fall under an already-learned skill, hence the tendency of the brain to fill-in information that isn't there or put in words that don't actually appear on the page. The brain has read similar phrases so many times before it simply fills in the blank.
The same is true of content editing where ideas that the writer's brain has formed in the mind after going over those ideas again and again in a repetitive "over learning" fashion, but not fully formed on the page are believed, by the author, to be completely explained in writing. Hence, the advice to let your writing sit for a few days or weeks until it is "forgotten".
The actual creation of a run of pros where word selection, grammar, and writing techniques are accessed over and over again don't appear, in my opoinion, to be learned tasks, but fall more under the category of the novel task. The techniques are learned, the word choices input into the brain along with the grammar, but the task of accessing that information in order to create a novel sentence doesn't appear to be a highly learned task.
The same is true of creating a novel plot line. The rules governing plot may be highly learned, but the creative of a novel plot which includes elements of already learned techniques about mystery, suspense, characterization, drama, fall into a highly inventive category, some would even argue an inate talent, over which the brain exercises an extremely HIGH degree of frontal cortex analysis.
That's my two cents.
Good post, Julie! I wish I could go to all the classes.
Thanks for the reminder of good manners and thinking of others.
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