讲故事与叙事2013lifehacker.com编辑精选
为什么讲故事是激活大脑最有力的方式
Why Telling a Story is the Most Powerful Way to Activate Our Brains
导读
这篇文章从神经科学角度解释：故事为什么比抽象论述更能激活大脑、让人记住并产生共鸣。对写作者来说，它提醒我们：故事不是装饰，而是让观点变得具体、可感、可记的核心工具；同时也要避免为效果而硬讲故事的误区。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
把抽象观点落到具体的人、场景和经历上，让读者能用自身经验去“接住”它。
- 02
不要为了显得巧妙而硬塞故事；真诚、可信、逻辑与情感自然贴合，比炫技更能让观点留下。
- 03
警惕陈词滥调：大脑会自动忽略过度使用的词句，尽量用原创意象和自身经验来写。
- 04
语言要有力，多用主动语态，节奏推进快，不要停下来试图 impress 读者。
HN 评论精选
人类最独特的身份不是“智慧人”，而是“会讲故事的猿”，故事是大脑最重要的能力。
“我们不是智人（Wise Man），而是第三种黑猩猩。真正把我们和普通黑猩猩、倭黑猩猩区分开的，是某种比我们三倍于它们的大脑更微妙的东西——是大脑所成就的能力。而我们的大脑在对待宇宙的方式上最重要的贡献，就是赋予我们故事的力量。我们是 Pan narrans，会讲故事的猿。”——Ian Stewart 与 Jack Cohen，《Science of Discworld II》
patrickmay查看英文原文
"We are not Homo sapiens, Wise Man. We are the third chimpanzee. What distinguishes us from the ordinary chimpanzee Pan troglodytes and the bonobo chimpanzee Pan paniscus, is something far more subtle than our enormous brain, three times as large as theirs in proportion to body weight. It is what that brain makes possible. And the most significant contribution that our large brain made to our approach to the universe was to endow us with the power of story. We are Pan narrans, the storytelling ape." -- Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, Science of Discworld II
故事能让抽象观点变得新鲜、具体、可记，但关键是真诚可信、自然融入，而不是刻意炫技。
法学教育教我们“写得新鲜、生动”。故事讲得好就能做到这一点：人们会产生共鸣，故事把读者自身的经验带进来，让抽象的东西变真实，也给读者一个记住要点的钩子。但这不意味着“每次想说明一个观点都要讲故事”，因为为了说服而刻意制造效果、硬把故事编织进叙述，反而会适得其反。重点不是展示你多聪明、多巧妙，而是让你的观点留下来。要做到这点，首先必须真诚、可信；该用逻辑的地方用逻辑；情感元素要在合适且自然融入叙述时才用；意象要原创而非借用，尽量从自身经验中取材，再辅以有力的想象；并且用有力的语言、主动的语态快速推进，不要停下来试图打动别人。做到这些，读者会在各个层面与你、与你的话产生关联。故事能强力增强这种关联效果：就像一个人在自然中远观鸟群，突然通过放大镜近距离看清它们，故事也能让原本遥远的叙述贴近读者。
grellas查看英文原文
In law, we are taught, "make it fresh and vivid." Stories do that when they are well told. People relate. It makes an abstraction real to them by bringing their experience into play. It gives them a hook by which to remember an important point. This does not mean, "tell a story every time you want to make a point" because straining for effect while trying to persuade, even in trying to weave stories into your narrative, is self-defeating. The point is not to show how how clever or artful you are, it is to make your points in ways that will stick. To do that, you need above all to be sincere and credible. You need to use the power of logic where it applies. You need to bring in emotive elements when apt and when they fit naturally into your narrative. You need to use imagery that is original, not borrowed, drawing from your experience if possible and then from the use of a vigorous imagination. And you need to do all this with forceful use of language, with active style that moves quickly without pausing to try to impress. When you do all that, and do it well, you will find your audience at each level relating to you and to what you are saying. Stories can add powerfully to that relational effect. Like a fellow out in nature watching birds from afar and suddenly seeing them up close and vividly through magnification, your hearer or reader will find himself drawn close to what might otherwise be a distant narrative through stories that enliven the very things he is eager to see. Your audience wants to relate. Help them along with this with stories where apt. If knowing the science behind this helps, apply that as well. But, at least as far as effective communication goes, don't forget the broader context. We get bored and glaze over all too easily. Make it fresh and vivid. Make it original. Make it memorable. Then you will have spoken or written well. And your audience will value what you give them.
大脑会忽略陈词滥调，却对不寻常、具体甚至荒诞的图像和故事格外敏感，这正是故事帮助记忆的机制。
我们的大脑会学会忽略某些曾被用来让故事很精彩的过度使用的词句。研究讲故事的科学家的也发现，某些词句已经完全失去了讲故事的力量。有趣的是，不只是词句，事件也一样。我们的头脑很擅长发现不寻常的东西：如果你问一个住在城市里的人“你今天看到多少人走路？”，没人答得出来；但如果你问“你今天看到多少人骑独轮车？”，你很可能会得到相当明确的回答。我花了不少时间学习记忆技巧，用来记住大量抽象或任意的信息（比如日语、汉字）。这些技巧的关键，是把抽象内容编码成具体的图像或故事（罗马房间之类的心理“记账”系统也有帮助）。但这种编码的强度取决于图像有多好记。本质上，你是在大脑处理图像的能力和抽象知识之间建立映射。一般来说，这些图像或故事越疯狂、越荒诞、越离谱，就越容易记住，也就越容易记住你想记的东西。
jliechti1查看英文原文
Our brain learns to ignore certain overused words and phrases that used to make stories awesome. Scientists, in the midst of researching the topic of storytelling have also discovered, that certain words and phrases have lost all storytelling power. This is interesting. It's not just words, but events as well. It seems our minds are quite adept at finding things that are unordinary. If you asked someone living in a city environment "How many people did you see walking today?", no one would be able to answer. However, if you asked "How many people did you see riding unicycles today?", you would likely get a pretty definite response. I've spent a good amount of time learning memory techniques to retain information that is largely abstract/arbitrary (learning Japanese/Chinese characters for example). The key to these techniques is to take something abstract and figure out how it encode it in concrete images/stories (a mental "bookkeeping" system like Roman Rooms is helpful as well). However, the strength of the encoding relies on how memorable your images are. In essence, you are creating a mapping between the brain's ability to work with images and abstract knowledge. Generally, the more crazy, ridiculous or absurd these image/stories are, the more memorable they will be, and thus the easier it will be to remember whatever you are trying to remember. A task that normally seems extremely difficult (say, memorizing the Periodic Table, or the order of a deck of cards, or even just remembering people's names!), becomes almost trivial if you map the knowledge into something the brain is easier to understand.
每天写作是保持头脑活跃、支撑想象力的有力方式。
我住的那栋楼里有个邻居，我原以为他最多60岁，因为他很有活力、行动很利索。有一天我碰巧和他聊天，他说自己74岁了，年轻时拿过两个大学学位，当过老师，还拿过全国书法奖，并入围过小说奖。我问他在这个年纪保持活力和敏捷的秘诀，他说“全在脑子里”，然后说他每天读书、写作，每天都在写一部小说的一部分。我又问，保持头脑活跃更好的锻炼是阅读还是写作？他回答：“绝对是写作，写作是想象力的后盾。”后来我在 Hacker News 上看到这篇文章，就开始把这些点连起来了。
Here_it_Comes查看英文原文
In the building where I live I have a neighbour that I thought he was 60 (or less) years old because it was very vitalized, moved very well.. and one day I happened to talk to him, he told me he is 74 years old, he obtained two university degrees when he was young, he had been a teacher, he also was a calligraphy national award and finalist of a novelist award.. I asked him what's his secret to being so active and vitalize at his age.. he told me "it's all in the mind" he then proceeds to tell me that he reads and writes every day (he is writing a piece of a novel everyday) I then ask him what is a better exercise to keep the mind active, reading or writing? his answer, "absolutely the writing, writing is the backing of the imagination".. and then I see this article on hacker news and start connecting dots..
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