Remembering With Your Whole Brain

[Peg Herring]

Yesterday I made a case for listening as a writing tool. Today I'd like to suggest some ways to listen better, gleaned from years of teaching communication.

1. Prepare to listen. It takes some practice, but if you are conscious of the need/desire to really hear what people are saying, you'll do better. As you enter a room full of strangers tell yourself, "I'm going to learn the names of everyone I meet tonight."

2. Use mnemonics. Salespeople learn names in order to be (or seem) interested and focused on the customer. Remembering that REbecca is wearing REd might help, at least on first acquaintance. I often also ask about a person's name if it interests me (although people with really unique names may get tired of explaining the origin). Talking about the name, its origin, others with the same name or a similar one, or its spelling helps me remember it.

3. Watch/listen for cues that something is important. Good students tune in to physical clues: the speaker may move forward, make some telling gesture, or even give a verbal cue when he/she has reached an important point. "What you need to remember is..."

4. Write it down. As I said yesterday, the best of us only remember about a quarter of what we hear and see. If you need or want it to stick with you, write it down as soon as possible, if not at the moment at least before you go to sleep (the great eraser). I'm amazed sometimes when I read back over notes I've made on trips. Two months later I don't remember what the innkeeper told us about the history of that pub in Ireland (and no, it wasn't the ale), but it's there in my journal.

What does this mean to your writing? First, if you're remembering with your brain (and notes), you'll have details that make your work come alive. Secondly, when you put a character into a situation, he or she should act accordingly, maybe stepping toward his listeners when his point is important. A good detective will take notes at some point and refer back to them.

Remember too that the reader can't "listen" except through your devices, so give him/her all the assistance you can. Repeat details about a character a few times so the person is easily recognizable. One of the things that will make me give up on a book is when the characters are so much alike that I can't keep track of who is who. You also need to help the reader "hear" what's going on around your characters as if it were happening to him/her.

My students used to ask why Shakespeare had to take so long telling what the castle looked like or what the weather was at the beginning of a scene. I would explain that the Elizabethan stage was essentially bare, and he was building images of the world he wanted to create in his audience's mind. We don't have to do that on stage any more, what with movies and the elaborate sets that are the fashion in theater. But as writers, we are obligated to help our readers, and the only way to do that is to be good observers who use our senses fully.

First we listen, then we tell.