Cognitive and Affective Writing

#1
So, this is just something I thought of. Today in my psychology lecture we talked about the differences between cognitive and affective experience - cognitive being the rational, thoughtful approach, affective being the emotional, subjective kind. 
Now, my lecture was more about cognitive and affective disorders, but I had the thought that novels and writing in general is pretty much like that as well.

I mean, most of the, let's say 'asian' / 'webnovel' type kind of novels tend to be very cognitive. Focus is on the character's actions and their powers (martial arts & cultivation, for example) and even if it's a romance novel, the focus seems to be more on the character's actions and interactions instead of their feelings. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but I just noticed that a lot of the asian novels that I've read are written like that (which is mostly xianxia, I have to confess, and the occasional romance). 

And then there's the 'western' / 'published novel' kind of novel that seem to be kind of affective. Now, I'm an avid romance reader (contemporary & historical alike) and most contemporary romances that one can find on Amazon seem to be like that, putting an emphasis on the individual experience of the characters, their feelings & internal reactions. These novels are less about what the character's abilities or traits are but more about what the characters feel while they act the way they do. 

Until I discovered asian novels and webnovels in general I was very used to the latter kind of novels and I orientate my own novels in those way - putting strong focus on my character's emotions and how they perceive the world around them. Yet, I found that many novels here on RRL also seem to be more of a cognitive kind of writing...

The most striking difference between the two writing style I've found when it comes to describing sexual intimacy. While the 'cognitive' kinds of novels put emphasis on the act itself, the 'affective' novels usually put much more focus on the emotions of the character experiencing it and less on the actions themselves...
I'm more used to writing affectively, but since I've yet to find such a novel on RRL (though I haven't been here for long, so I can't say I've read much) I'm wondering if writing like that (especially when it comes to sexual scenes) would appeal to the audience here? I'm not sure whether I should just leave the sexual content out...

But less about that, I just want to know, what do you think about this theory? Do you think it makes sense? Or is it rubbish? Or is it already an obvious fact many famous people have mentioned before and I'm only the latest idiot to think she's realized something cool?

RE: Cognitive and Affective Writing

#2
Really complex subject you're tackling with that question there.

Cognitive and affective thinking are not mutually-exclusive, independent processes. The degree to which people use one or the other is highly individual, and is affected by things like culture and upbringing.

The way you're describing the writing is more "objective" and "subjective" rather than "cognitive" and "affective". Characters can still do illogical things in books that don't focus on describing emotions, and writing that has deeply nuanced emotional shading can still have incredibly logically-minded characters who never do anything "irrational".

The second part of this is a term called "psychological-mindedness", which is the degree to which people can access their own psychological/emotional experiences. Most people can easily identify basic behavioural patterns and write about them. If a monster is chasing you, you run away. If killing monsters makes you level up, you kill monsters to get stronger.

In order to write more deeply about emotional motivations, an writer has to be aware of these processes going on in their own mind. It's not necessarily the people who use more affective thinking who will be able to do this. It's the people who have high emotional intelligence and insight.

As for whether you should whether sexual content will attract or push away readers, the answer is always both. There are people who refuse to read fictions that aren't rated mature on RRL, and there will be people who avoid such content. It's up to you to decide what you want to write and what audience you are appealing to.

Nothing is new under the sun, so don't worry about it. I will say that a lot of nuance gets lost in translation, especially between languages no common ancestor, like English and Chinese.

RE: Cognitive and Affective Writing

#4
"cognitive being the rational, thoughtful approach, affective being the emotional, subjective kind. "

"And then there's the 'western' / 'published novel' kind of novel that seem to be kind of affective. "

I know that for the german speaking world about 70% of all fiction book buyers are female. AFAIK as I know from visiting the International Frankfurt Book Fair regularly, it seems to be a similiar case in the Anglo-Saxon speaking world when fiction is concerned. I unearthed a illuminating NY times article from 1997 which surprisingly also mentions sex in books.

LITRPG &VRMMORPG has a predominately male readership, as it is a very small niche genre in comparison to fiction overall.
Therefore cognitive might be a bit more favored than affective, if you believe that there are differences in gender and that it has group predilections for certain stories and modes of story telling.
So depending on who your target audience is, different modes may work better in terms of overall success.





Source: http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/17/business/women-buy-fiction-in-bulk-and-publishers-take-notice.html?mcubz=3

RE: Cognitive and Affective Writing

#5
This is a really good topic, I hadn't really thought about it but now that you've mentioned it, I totally see it.

Perhaps it is because of culture? Like Eastern cultures tend to be more rigid with how you go about things, like it's proper to refuse something at first even if you really, really want it. That shows a kind of disconnect with feelings when it comes to writing because feelings aren't a part of everyday life and in the end, writers write best what they have the most experience with.

And in Western societies we put a lot of stock into feelings and "gut" feelings and the like. Romance and drama is popular here for a reason, because not only do we value our emotions, we want to know that our feelings are valued by others as well. So there's certainly the cultural difference at play here, I think anyway.

In my experience, writing sex scenes is very hard and should be a healthy mixture of both. I tend to focus on the actions and physical feelings in those scenes as I've never actually had sex myself so I'm really unsure of emotions during the whole experience.... lol.
Seriously tho, have you ever seen an emotional duck? 

RE: Cognitive and Affective Writing

#6
I think that it may have a lot to do with the kind of novels you are reading.

Xianxias are very action oriented, it is a martial arts novel genre after all. I would say readers are more interested in seeing what characters do, their powers, and snappy / funny dialouge. Not many will be interested in what the characters feel when doing training, powering up, fighting enemies etc. Same goes for litrpgs which are popular in RRL. I think there should be a balance for convincing character development but I guess it depends on the author. =/

RE: Cognitive and Affective Writing

#7
'AnoeticDuckling' pid='828325' dateline='1507285588' Wrote: This is a really good topic, I hadn't really thought about it but now that you've mentioned it, I totally see it.

Perhaps it is because of culture? Like Eastern cultures tend to be more rigid with how you go about things, like it's proper to refuse something at first even if you really, really want it. That shows a kind of disconnect with feelings when it comes to writing because feelings aren't a part of everyday life and in the end, writers write best what they have the most experience with.

And in Western societies we put a lot of stock into feelings and "gut" feelings and the like. Romance and drama is popular here for a reason, because not only do we value our emotions, we want to know that our feelings are valued by others as well. So there's certainly the cultural difference at play here, I think anyway.

In my experience, writing sex scenes is very hard and should be a healthy mixture of both. I tend to focus on the actions and physical feelings in those scenes as I've never actually had sex myself so I'm really unsure of emotions during the whole experience.... lol.

The real deal with sex, is that it all depends on your partner. If you don't really have deep feelings for your partner, then sex becomes focused on the act itself, and pleasure aspect of the act is at the forefront. the same can happen with a long term partner too. sometimes it's about love, sometimes it's just about mutual pleasure.
If the act is instigated by deep feelings of love, then the act itself diminishes in importance, and the post sex cuddling takes over as the primary event.
There is also the "newlywed"syndrome, where passion and pleasure seeking to confirm and strengheten bonds of love take over every aspect of life. It's a short term thing tho.

In short, Love sex is tender and soft. pleasure sex is rougher, more varied, and above all else. about feeling good.
My fiction

Cheers!