Why The Book Is Always Better Than The Movie

Why The Book Is Always Better Than The Movie If youre anything like me, I cant help myself when a movie is announced for a book (or book series) that Ive read. I just have to go see it. Like I said, I cant help myself. Of course, the other thing that you and I may have in common is our reaction when we come out of the theater. No matter how well done the movies been, theres a level of disappointment. And we find ourselves saying, the book was better. Its All About Our Brains To understand this dynamic, its important to know that over 50% of your brain is wired for visuals. In fact, of all the stimuli that your brain processes, it consumes visual information 60,000 times faster than anything other. Given these realities, you might assume the movie should always be better than a book. They rarely have pictures in them, after all. But heres the thing. When we read a book, if its written well, the words cause our brains to create visuals. The story materializes in our heads as images. Images that are powerful and detailed. Again, if its written well. And that explains why the book is always better than the movie. Because our own brains create far more detailed and rich visuals than even Spielberg can do. Over 50% of your brain is visual. It consumes visual information 60,000 times faster than anything other. How Does This Impact The Content Youre Writing? The takeaway for me comes down to three realities. First, use stories to share information. Its easier to imagine a story than a fact. That doesnt mean you cant share fact. It just means you should wrap your facts in stories so that people can better envision them. Stories take people places in their minds, and thats good for you. Your content has a longer shelf-life if it finds a home. Wrap your facts in stories so people can envision them better. @ChrisLemaSecond, share information in its context. When I write about pricing, I rarely spend time on the research side of things. Or equations. Its either too complicated or too boring. Its hard to envision. Instead, I place the new findings in context. In the recent eBook I wrote on pricing for products, I took people to the movie theater, the shoe store, and more. The lessons had to do with pricing. The facts were pricing-related. But the context is what helps people remember the lessons. They can imagine themselves looking at four pairs of shoes and having to decide which to buy. Share information in context so people remember better. @ChrisLemaLastly, keep the takeaways short and tight. I recently gave a talk on pricing services where my takeaways were in the form of tweets. To keep the observation to less than 140 characters took some discipline. But it was worth it. Heres why. Youve read a great book before, right? And what do you do? You tell other people about it. Its how you talk about whether youre going to go see it at the movies, when it comes out. And what do you share? Likely, its the title of the book. Maybe the author. But notice that these are short things to remember. Thats what makes them useful. Try telling someone about a book whose name you cant remember, as you start sharing the plot. This is often how people write posts. The takeaways arent super clear and its almost like you had to be there. So instead, keep your takeaways tight, short, and easy to remember. It will make them easy to share.