Have you ever wondered why great writing creates an emotional response in readers? Welcome to another guest segment where I pick the brain of a neuroscientist.   Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By   Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting. Start getting more from your site today! Research scientist Michael Grybko — of the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington — returned to the show to help me define empathy from a scientific standpoint. Mr. Grybko sheds some light into the darker corners of our understanding of how to tap into the hopes, dreams, and fears of your readers. If you missed the first installment of The Writer s Brain you can find it here: How Neuroscientist Michael Grybko Defines Creativity In this file Michael Grybko and I discuss: How Science is Changing Our Definition of Empathy Why Pathos is a Good Jumping Off Place for Writers What Actors and Doctors Have in Common with Writers Are Mirror Systems the Key to Human Empathy? How to Resist the Dark Side of Empathy The Difference Between Good Storytelling and Great Storytelling Why Writers Need to Crawl Inside the Heads of Their Audience How Marketers Tap into Well-Worn Paths in Our Brains The Key to Empathizing with Your Readers Why Great Marketing Starts with the Desire to Help People Listen to The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience below ... Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes The Show Notes Mirror Neurons Empathy Maps: A Complete Guide to Crawling Inside Your Customer s Head Kelton Reid on Twitter The Transcript How Neuroscientist Michael Grybko Defines Empathy Voiceover: This is Rainmaker.FM, the digital marketing podcast network. It’s built on the Rainmaker Platform, which empowers you to build your own digital marketing and sales platform. Start your free 14-day trial at RainmakerPlatform.com. Kelton Reid: These are The Writer Files, a tour of the habits, habitats, and brains of working writers, from online content creators to fictionists, journalists, entrepreneurs, and beyond. I’m your host, Kelton Reid: writer, podcaster, and mediaphile. Each week, we’ll find out how great writers keep the ink flowing, the cursor moving, and avoid writer’s block. Welcome to another guest segment where I pick the brain of a neuroscientist. Have you ever wondered why great writing creates an emotional response in readers? Research scientist Michael Grybko of the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington returned to the show to help me define empathy from a scientific standpoint. He’ll shed some light into the darker corners of our understanding of how to tap into the hopes, dreams, and fears of your readers. If you missed the first installment of The Writer’s Brain: How Neuroscientist Michael Grybko Defines Creativity, you can find it at WriterFiles.FM and on iTunes. In this episode, we’ll discuss how science is changing our definition of empathy, what actors and doctors have in common with writers, how to resist the dark side of empathy, the difference between good storytelling and great storytelling, and why writers need to crawl inside the heads of their audience. Mr. Grybko, welcome back to The Writer Files. I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to chat with me about empathy. Michael Grybko: Thank you for inviting me back. Happy to be here. How Science Is Changing Our Definition of Empathy Kelton Reid: Empathy definitely comes up a lot when we’re talking about how about effective writing of any discipline, and I’ll start with a quote from Mark Twain, who said, “The author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of this tale and their fate.” I think he’s talking about empathy for sure. Michael Grybko: Yeah. Kelton Reid: It may not be called empathy in particular in fiction writing, but empathy really is — at least part of the definition is — a study in understanding and enteri