It has to be approached from a behavioral perspective and on a case by case basis because each person is unique. Patient privacy has to be respected and protected and so the challenges of extracting useful data that can be reproduced and validated are significant, but diligent study has produced a number of sound theories and approaches to human psychology.

Neuroscience is a multi-disciplinary branch of biology that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, cytology, mathematics, and the aforementioned psychology to study the human nervous system. It focuses study on the brain, spinal cord, and neurons, including structures, neurochemical interactions, and functionality.

While you don’t need a PhD in psychology or neuroscience to write a good story, even informal study of these topics can improve your storytelling in the following cool, word-nerdy ways.

Character Motivation

Every character arc begins with an external or conscious desire and an internal or unconscious need. Sometimes the desire and the need can be related, but many of the best stories arise when the two conflict with each other.

The character arc is complete when one of the following occurs:

• The character recognizes the lie or misbelief inherent in their conscious desire, the truth of their unconscious need, and changes enough to achieve their story goal (positive change arc).
• The character clings to the lie of their conscious desire and rejects the truth of their unconscious need, and fails to either change or achieve their story goal (negative change arc).
• The character understands the truth of their unconscious need all along and influences the other characters around them to change for the better (flat arc).

The key to creating a convincing and satisfying character arc lies in understanding the character’s motivation. Why do they act the way they do? If you apply psychological principles to the motivations of your characters, you can create a consistent character arc, placing clues in the things the character says and does throughout the story that foreshadow the upcoming change, or failure to change, in a way that feels authentic to your character and therefore, to your reader.

Causality

Cause and effect is all about plot, but where does the plot of any story originate? In the characters and their actions. Just as you should be confident that each of your characters are internally consistent in terms of the desires, needs, and overall character arcs, you should also ensure that the plot of your story grows organically and logically from your protagonist’s actions.

Part of that involves making sure that when your protagonist acts, other characters, including the antagonist, if applicable, react to those actions in believable ways that propel the plot forward. Psychology and neuroscience can help you assess whether these actions and reactions (cause and effect trajectories) make sense.

Whatever your protagonist does, they should act (not think about acting in the future or reflect on actions of the past). If you’ve ever received the comment that your protagonist lacks agency, it means that they’re passive and letting the events of the external plot pull them along. Your protagonist should make decisions, take actions, and deal with the consequences. Each consequence, in turn, should result in another decision and another action. Thus progresses the plot.

The protagonist’s cause and effect trajectory through the story, as well as interactions with other characters, can produce obstacles, which must be overcome, and complications, which worsen the existing situation. Each decision and action should be true to the character. The character’s reactions to every obstacle and complication should likewise be true to their desires and needs.

Depicting Neurodiversity

Neurodiversity is the range of differences in individual brain function and behavioral traits, regarded as part of normal variation in the human population. It’s most often used in the context of people on the autism spectrum, but also includes those living with learning disabilities and mental health issues. You likely have neurodiverse friends or family and it’s a good idea to want to write about them as part of your fictional world.

This section’s going to come with some cautions, though. Depicting neurodiversity well is difficult at the best of times and if you, yourself, are not neurodiverse, it’s even harder. I would caution against writing a neurodiverse character based on read (or viewed) research alone. Find someone (or several someones) in your community who identifies as neurodiverse and see if they’re willing to sit down and talk about their experience of the world. Consent is paramount. Be upfront about the fact that you’re doing research because you want to include a character like your friend in the novel you’re writing. Let them know that it would be extra helpful if they’d be interested in reading your scenes after you’ve written them. If they decline, or prefer not to be involved, respect that.

If you can’t find someone you know who’d be willing to help, there are sensitivity readers. Yes, this is a paid service. These people are professionals. Interact with them as such. This is an area, like depicting any form of diversity in your characters, where you can’t afford to get it wrong.

Some thoughts on that:

• Resist the temptation to make your antagonist or villain the only neurodiverse character in your story. If any of your readers share the kind of neurodiversity your antagonist displays, the only character they can identify with is your villain.
• Unless you’re portraying your personal neurodiversity or have a dedicated neurodiverse friend or sensitivity reader to help you with all the critical details, endowing your protagonist with a profound or complex variety of neurodiversity may not be wise. A neurodiverse reader will be able to tell the difference and inaccuracies can cause harm you don’t intend.
• Characters are rarely only diverse in one way. This is known as intersectionality. A character could live with obsessive-compulsive disorder and be a person of color. A character may live with extreme social anxiety and be asexual. A character could live with synesthesia and a visual impairment. Again, you may wish to consult sensitivity readers when creating a character of this level of complexity.
• If you choose to write neurodiverse secondary characters, resist the urge to make them a victim of the antagonist. Again, if they’re the only neurodiverse character, readers who share that neurodiversity may think that the character’s only purpose is to show how evil the villain is, to motivate the (usually neurotypical) protagonist, and that the character, and thus their neurodiversity, is objectified in a negative way. It’s better to show a neurodiverse character making positive contributions to team good, not in spite of, or even because of, their neurodiversity. They’re just a really good programmer, or fighter, or doctor, who also happens to be neurodiverse.

Ultimately, a neurodiverse character’s story is not just about their neurodiversity any more than a character of color’s story would just be about the color of their skin or a visually impaired character’s story would just be about their visual impairment. It’s just one aspect of who they are.

Taking it to the page

For writing-specific psychology resources, I’d recommend Lisa Cron’s Wired for Story and Jonathan Gottschall’s The Storytelling Animal. To start. There are more books on the subject. Just have a look.

There are tons of good resources that you can find on the internet every day. Try not to limit yourself to the obvious choices like Psychology Today, though it’s a great place to start. The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Guardian often have articles on psychology and neuroscience.

Scientific American and Popular Science have interesting articles, too. I’ve found inspiration on NPR, the CBC, and the BBC. Gizmodo and IFLS can lead you to some interesting findings, as well. There are great YouTube channels to peruse, like SciShow Psych, Kati Morton, and Inverse has an irregular feature with Shannon Odell on how various things (coffee, puppies, lack of sleep) affect your brain.

Become an information magpie and, if you find something of interest, the scientist’s names will be cited, or there will be a link to the source article or material. Then you can dig in. Deepening your understanding of the human mind and how it works can only improve your craft.

Until next time, keep speculating and see where it leads you!

Melanie Marttila creates worlds from whole cloth. She’s a dreamsinger, an ink alchemist, and an unabashed learning mutt. Her speculative short fiction has appeared in Bastion Science Fiction Magazine, On Spec Magazine, and Sudbury Ink. She lives and writes in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, where she spends her days working as a corporate trainer. She blogs at https://www.melaniemarttila.ca and you can find her on Facebook and Twitter.

The post What Psychology and Neuroscience Contribute to your Stories appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today I have the absolute pleasure of hosting New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Heather Graham on the show!

A theater arts major at the University of South Florida, Heather began her career with several years in dinner theater, back-up vocals and bartending. After the birth of her third child, she decided to stay home and that’s when she began to write.

Since then, she has written over two hundred novels and novellas including category, suspense, historical romance, vampire fiction, time travel, occult, sci-fi, young adult, and Christmas family fare.

She has been published in twenty-five languages with about 60 million books in print and has been honored with just about every major writing award under the sun, including the  prestigious Thriller Master Award, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award from Romance Writers of America.

Heather has also been featured in several media outlets including People and USA Today, as well as on newscasts such as Today and Entertainment Tonight.

Her newest book, A Lethal Legacy, is a chilling thriller which I read cover-to-cover because I could not put it down!

So listen in as Heather and I chat about this amazing book, and how to craft a fictitious setting that feels real.

In this episode Heather and I discuss:

• Building your world’s lore and mythology.
• How to use your setting to create impending peril and suspense in your plot.
• Why you need to make your readers care about the supporting cast.
• Crafting your villain’s motivations so they ring true for readers.
• Using alternating point of view characters to give a broader view of your story.

Plus, Heather’s #1 tip for writers.

About Heather Graham

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Heather Graham, majored in theater arts at the University of South Florida. After a stint of several years in dinner theater, back-up vocals, and bartending, she stayed home after the birth of her third child and began to write.

Her first book was with Dell, and since then, she has written over two hundred novels and novellas including category, suspense, historical romance, vampire fiction, time travel, occult, sci-fi, young adult, and Christmas family fare. She is pleased to have been published in approximately twenty-five languages. She has written over 200 novels and has 60 million books in print.

Heather has been honored with awards from booksellers and writers’ organizations for excellence in her work. She is proud to be a recipient of the Silver Bullet from Thriller Writers and was awarded the prestigious Thriller Master Award in 2016. She is also a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from Romance Writers of America.

Heather has had books selected for the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild, and has been quoted, interviewed, or featured in such publications as The Nation, Redbook, Mystery Book Club, People and USA Today. She has also appeared on many newscasts including Today, Entertainment Tonight and local television.

To connect with Heather check out her website at www.theoriginalheathergraham.com.

A Lethal Legacy

Treasure or treachery?

Douglas Island sits off the coast of New York State, its imposing cliffs warning away visitors. Still, Finn Douglas has big plans for his inheritance and the rambling manor house that dominates the landscape. He has a vision to turn the island into a resort getaway for overworked city dwellers. But when the broken body of his business partner is found at the base of the rocky escarpment, he fears it wasn’t an accident.

Special Agent Craig Frasier agrees to help his cousin Finn by investigating and, with psychologist Kieran Finnegan at his side, heads to the island. As Craig and Kieran delve into the history of the Douglas estate, they discover that the property comes complete with strange lore and a blood-soaked past. Something evil seems to be lurking in the caverns that run beneath the stony ground. Is there something on the island that someone is willing to kill to protect?

Kieran and Craig take on a dangerous search for the truth, where one false step could send them plummeting to their deaths, and one wrong turn could bring them face-to-face with a killer.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 243

(Right-click to download.)

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Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 243: Crafting Rich Settings — Interview with Heather Graham appeared first on DIY MFA.