The mental distinction between reading books and watching movies

one of the things that always surprises me is how many people love movies but spend no time reading books now this is especially surprising to me because uh you stop to consider how many movies are based on popular books one of the very sharp distinctions between books and movies and one of the experiences that books offer that movies do not is that novels allow readers to participate in the telling of the story in ways that movie goers cannot now allow me to explain a written story requires it absolutely requires a participation of the reader's imagination think about when a new character is introduced in a novel we immediately create in our minds A visual representation of that character we see who they are a character of our own mental creation we do the same for all kinds of scenes and situations in a novel we have no choice but to supply the imagery of the story because the author can only do so much he or she offers that sketch Now by contrast when we go to the movies all of the visuals are determined and supplied To Us by the movie director I love movies because I love good writing and good storytelling but I also recognized that the movie director dominates the whole experience well the author of the novel gives me the opportunity to co-create the story by filling in the visuals with my own imagination in a way reading is more mentally engaging than watching a movie that is why reading can be a really tiring experience uh when here to say staring at a TV or movie screen reading requires a lot more mental energy because our minds are fully engaged in co-creating the scenery and the personalities involved in the story now I would never say that books are superior to movies or vice versa both are all about the writing my point is simply to draw this distinction which I think is lost on many readers and and movie goers the distinction between the mental activity of a book and a movie so the next time you're reading a piece of non-fiction or fiction take the time to notice how much more engaged your imagination is how much you are actually creating the visuals that Accord with your own sensibilities rather than simply absorbing the motion pictures of a movie watching experience grab a good book let your imagination go wild

Channel: Mike Consol

Views: 70,984

Keywords: books, novels, movies, reading, writing coach, MikeConsol.com, Mike Consol, business writing, story, storytelling, writing workshops, business writing workshops, seminars, writing skills training, writing tips, writing lessons, classes, instructor, teacher, trainer

Id: A-xP1TzbHuQ

Length: 2min 20sec (140 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 03 2015