A recent study by Shawn Nielsen of the University of California has revealed that the contraceptive pill alters the way women recall an emotional narrative. I hear you saying “What’s that got to do with writing?” but bear with me.
Female participants watched two slide shows: one emotionally charged, the other similar but less emotional, and the first thing they discovered was that all the women studied recalled more slides from the emotional story. No surprises there. But what did trigger interest was the fact that women on the pill remembered the central plot better (big picture of the story), whereas those not on the pill were better at recalling the peripheral details.
That’s interesting.
And this might seem like a leap, but straight off the bat I started to wonder if female writers who were instinctive plotters were more likely to be on the pill, through menopause, or have less fertility hormones running through their system for some other reason. Is that why they have more of a ‘big picture’ focus on their stories?
If the study’s revelations on hormones affecting story recall could be extrapolated across genders, it would explain why a predominant number of men (readers and writers) and a certain number of women are more interested in thrillers, courtroom dramas and cleverly plotted who-done-it novels. Men do tend to be attracted to plot driven stories, or at least to those where the goal and conflict is more important than the emotions of the characters. And at the risk of making a sweeping generalisation, a fair proportion of women are attracted to stories where the character’s emotions play a vital part in the decisions made and the actions taken.
So are hormonally fertile women writers are more likely to be drawn to the types of genres and stories that are ‘character driven’, writing them via the seat-of-the-pants method (as opposed to plotting)?
Should we stop thinking guys are insensitive and women are soppy and just accept that our current hormone balance is likely to dictate what resonates with us and (importantly) what we’ll remember of the story we’re either writing or reading?
There’s grist for a hundred blogs on this and I just wanted to kick-start the conversation, controversial thought it might be.
Feel free to comment!
That’s absolutely fascinating. Maybe I’ll finally be able to be a big-picture person once I go through menopause 🙂
Interesting – thank you. I’d love to know whether this is reflected among women writers. Perhaps it’s time for a study?
Very interesting, Lou. I don’t have strong feelings about it either way – perhaps it’s true. I guess the interesting thing about being women (OMG there are so many things that are interesting about wormen) especially if it is true, then our writing is constantly growing, shifting and changing and how diverse and interesting is that?
Hormones better to be embraced rather than denied and if it makes us write at different levels at different stages of our life – then hey that’s gotta be a good thing 🙂
Sorry, Lou, but I’m proof against your theory. I am a dedicated plotter and also still rampant with unrestrained girly hormones. But interested to see what other think! Kim x
I did think of you Kim as I was composing the blog, and have always known you as a gun plotter (back in the day, pre-kids), but you’re writing more character driven stories now, even though you’re probably so used to plotting that it comes as second nature. You’ve moved into Women’s Fiction which is a more character driven genre, and are having blinding success there. Just wondering… 🙂 (and trying to back up my premise, a little haphazardly I will admit).
I like the idea that I can blame my panstering on hormones!
Great post and an interesting link.
Not sure I buy the concept at all. I am a pantser as a writer, but a big-picture girl as a reader. I also do not consider emotions to be peripheral to plot, but rather in conjunction with it to form story.
Part of the reason that I write by the seat is to allow my mind to create the direction of the story based on the ingredients I supply: 1 Situation + 1 Setting + Characters + Motivations = Result which becomes the Situation for the next scene. It is a highly logical way of writing and not at all the typical view of ‘pantser’ style.It is also a very theatrical method of imagining which lends to stories that are ‘filmic’.
I have NO IDEA where my hormonal state plays in all of that.
Oh I do love a good discussion! Thanks for your comments, guys. A study is one thing, but how it relates to individuals is more telling. Maybe it’s the sort of thing that can never be generalised, I mean, we don’t even know how creativity really works.
I knew there must have been some reason for my pantsing. Now I can blame it on my erratic emotions! I do love to find a reason 🙂
You never need to apologise for being a pantser Lorelle! Some of the biggest sellers freely admit that they are. All our brains are wired differently. We just have to find the most productive way of writing our best work and sometimes that takes trial and error. I certainly wasted time on detailed plotting before I discovered that my best work came from pantsing.