Thursday, February 19, 2015

Tabby Talk: Thought Processing


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Tabby Talk is a discussion post I thought I'd do occasionally where I'll share my random thoughts on something and include my cat in them ;)


Today, I'm curious to hear about how everyone's mind works. More specifically, how do you process your thoughts? When you're reading a book, you form thoughts about the story which later translates into your review. How do those thoughts come to you?

I remember back in high school, I had an English teacher who talked a little bit about how her brain worked. She told the class that her mind is always on overdrive working, thinking and processing things. When a thought pops into her head, it's incomplete. She described it visually as words swimming inside a thought bubble. In order for her to convert that thought into something coherent, she needed to grab that word out of the bubble. I remember thinking that that's such a neat way to describe your mind!

Now when I think about what she shared then, I feel like she made so much sense. I feel like I'm the type with the thought bubble! When I get an idea or feeling, the words float inside my mind but they're never complete thoughts. I think that's why it takes me longer than usual to write up a review. I leave the words simmering in my head for awhile. Sometimes I have a hard time putting them into coherent thoughts afterwards. I never know if I'm making sense and getting my point across because the initial words (in the bubble) made way more sense than when I form them into sentences. This always leads me to deleting sentences and rewriting them about ten time before I finally let them slide. Does all this make sense? Hopefully I didn't confuse anyone.

Ripple and foodRipple and food
Ripple and foodRipple and food

Aaaand those are Ripple's thoughts! He thinks mostly in one word bubbles with the occasional repetitive words ;) Do you see a pattern in his thoughts? :P How about you? How do you come across your thoughts? How do you process them?

11 comments:

  1. I feel the same way as you! And it's weird... sometimes I finish a book and I can immediately smack words down into a review without a problem. Other times I have to let my thoughts simmer for a few days (or weeks) because I don't feel like I can form a coherent sentence... Weird!

    Tracy @ Cornerfolds

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  2. I feel like me it's like a light bulb. I'll be reading and out of nowhere a fully-formed thought will pop into my head and I'll have to write it down before I keep reading. Something as simple as "the world-building is disconnected and confusing" or usually more complicated. I think that's why I keep a reading journal where I can write my thoughts down while I'm reading. I need to write those thoughts down otherwise I will forget what I was thinking and not be able to write the review. My phone is also littered with little notes with phrases expressing my thoughts on the book that I use as the basis for my review.
    Cassi @ My Thoughts Literally

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  3. I usually have thoughts that need work as well LOL! At least when reviews are concerned I form sentences that usually turn into paragraphs rather than words that form sentences. ;)

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  4. Ripple is the cutest!! Everytime I see a photo of him, I wanna cuddle him!

    My brain jumps from one thing to another super fast and setting things down for a review can be a bit difficult because I tend to get rambling and ranting and jump from one thing to another!

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  5. This is such an interesting thing to think about! I'm not sure I know how to explain the way I think. In general I think it's all over the place -- I'm always thinking about multiple things at once, and it's very difficult to slow down my brain enough to focus on one thing.

    My thoughts never come in single words, though. I think it's more ... There are all these pieces, different ideas and sentence fragments, and I somehow have to fit them together to form a coherent piece. For reviews I usually write down my initial thoughts right after finishing the book, in either a jumbled paragraph or a list format, then I return later to write the actual review and make it flow together. Sometimes my reviews still end up jumping between ideas too quickly, though. It's something I've been working on!

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  6. Oh my, I really have no clue! I get images mostly. When I read I think in images. I think that is way I like using gifs a lot on my blog. The only time I really have to think while writing a review is if the book was a five and I don't want to leave out anything that might hook a potential reader.

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  7. I love this post Eileen. I always dwell on this. I feel like I seem to always touch one he points while writing a review so my brain automatically seeks out those points. I a,so feel like I get very repetitive in my verbs. I am trying to branch out more by making a thesaurus my new best friend. If something strikes me while reading I'll write it down either in my kindle notes or a sticky pad so when it's time for my review I'll remeber to touch on that point.
    ❤️Britt

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  8. Have you ever read the Summon the Keeper series by Tanya Huff? There's a talking cat in it named Austin who's favorite (and famous, in my family) line is "You should feed the cat!" My dad and I have been using that line in reference to our own cats for the last decade or so.

    Thinking about how our brains work ...

    I process my thoughts differently for books that I'm actually reading than I do for books I'm listening to, but there are some overarching themes. In general, I'm almost constantly thinking back about what I've already read, what details seem like they'd be important that haven't been used yet, and trying to think about what they might be leading to. If I'm ever NOT doing that, chances are it won't be getting a very good review.

    When I go to write my review, I usually think through the book backwards and think about what components were the most (or least) impactful at the end of the book, then draw on examples from earlier (after all, it's normally the earlier bits that build up to making an impactful ending)

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  9. I usually talk in my head on my thoughts of a book and then I write it down so I don't forget. But for some reason, my review sounds more naturally and precise in my head than when I type it up. That's also my reason for why I don't usually write my reviews right away. That's why I find it easier to write notes while I read that way I know what I want to include :)

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  10. Well this is REALLY interesting! I think in full sentences, full paragraphs. Is that weird? I think that might be weird. Also, I don't ever STOP thinking. Which is definitely weird. There is always some kind of conversation going on inside my head! And when I am reading... yeah, it's still all going on like that, tons of thoughts, tons of sentences. I adore this post, I am all obsessed with my thought process now!

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  11. I agree that it can be sometimes really hard to translate those amazing thoughts in your head into coherent sentences on paper. Glad I'm not the only one!

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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