What is a story?
Is it the character or the plot?
Is it the achievement of the character’s goals or the feelings of the readers about the character and the story?
Lisa Cron dives deeper into describing what a story is about in her book, Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence. A story is not just about the characters, events, and the setting but it’s a brain simulation that prepares us to handle situations like those the character faces. Since the brain’s purpose is to keep us safe, it learns from stories the different ways of dealing with real-life circumstances.
Cron explains the importance of brain science in telling a story by citing studies and insights from prominent neuroscientists such as Antonio Damasio, Marco Iacoboni, and Richard Restak. According to neuroscience, the brain follows certain rules when understanding the actions, thoughts, and motivations of the characters, the nuances of the story events, and the relevance of every story information. Writers need to understand these rules and use them to their advantage to hook and satisfy the readers.
Cron is also the author of Story Genius, another book that tackles brain science to help writers create engaging stories. Aside from writing, she also worked at W.W. Norton and Angela Rinaldi Literary Agency, as a story consultant for Warner Brothers and William Morris Agency, and teaches at UCLA Extension Writers' Program since 2006. She helps writers, nonprofits, and organizations use storytelling effectively to inspire action and real-world change.
Book Description
Imagine knowing what the brain craves from every tale it encounters, what fuels the success of any great story, and what keeps readers transfixed. Wired for Story reveals these cognitive secrets--and it's a game-changer for anyone who has ever set pen to paper. The vast majority of writing advice focuses on writing well as if it were the same as telling a great story. This is exactly where many aspiring writers fail--they strive for beautiful metaphors, authentic dialogue, and interesting characters, losing sight of the one thing that every engaging story must do: ignite the brain's hardwired desire to learn what happens next. When writers tap into the evolutionary purpose of story and electrify our curiosity, it triggers a delicious dopamine rush that tells us to pay attention. Without it, even the most perfect prose won't hold anyone's interest. Backed by recent breakthroughs in neuroscience as well as examples from novels, screenplays, and short stories, Wired for Story offers a revolutionary look at story as the brain experiences it. Each chapter zeroes in on an aspect of the brain, its corresponding revelation about story, and the way to apply it to your storytelling right now.
Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13126099-wired-for-story
Discussion Questions
- What is a story?
- What is the role of the story in the evolution of human beings?
- What are the myths of storywriting?
- What are the 12 cognitive secrets?
- What are the 12 story secrets?
- What is the main goal of the brain?
- What did a brain imaging study reveal when a reader is immersed in a story?
- What is the difference between writing well and writing a story?
- What do you think about incorporating neuroscience in writing a story?
- List 5 brain rules that sustain the reader’s attention.
Quotes
My Favorite Takeaways
- Every information in the story is on a “need-to-know basis.”
- Sublots are cognitive breathers that give a reader a break from the main story but keep the latter engaged.
- Emotions are the major drivers in fictional and real-life stories but are guided by logic.
- Writing doesn’t end with the first draft. It takes rewriting to make the story effective.
- Writers should seek feedback that is free from personal bias.
What I Loved
- I was surprised that the book is not boring even though it talks about the technical side of writing a story — characterization, plot structure, and pacing, among others. Lisa Cron added the insights of several neuroscientists on the brain processes that help readers get hooked on the story. She masterfully blended detailed explanations of neuroscience with demonstrations of the writing techniques using specific examples and her own experiences. The book’s tone is also inviting and the language is easy to digest, making the book a page-turner.
- I am not a writer but as a serious reader, I could still glean important insights into how stories work on a deeper level, engaging the brain’s neural networks that are programmed to respond to good stories. Cron revealed questions to be asked when you are reading a story. I will keep those in mind and see how these questions will help me improve my book-reviewing skills.
- One of the things that I appreciate is Cron’s candor, especially in the last chapter. She doesn’t sugarcoat the difficulties of writing a great story. The writer should be willing to rewrite many times until the story is fully polished. Getting feedback from impartial reviewers is also necessary to ensure that the story captivates the attention and emotions of the readers. This increases my respect for the writers.
What I Loved The Least
- The writing techniques in the book are supported by neuroscience, however, there is no detailed information about the structure of the parts of the brain that are involved in reading stories. The neuroscience aspect is surface-level.
Summing-Up
Writing a story is not easy. Literally, it takes blood, and sweat. I saw one author who shared her writing journey on YouTube and went on a roller-coaster ride of emotions and challenges as she wrote her novel. It was then I realized writing is not for the faint of heart. It could take months, if not years, to write a good story. And, finishing a book is not the end of it all. The reaction of the readers determines if the story was a success. People may love or hate the story, and this can affect the writers’ confidence.
To help writers satisfy their readers, Lisa Cron wrote Wired for Story. In this book, she shares cognitive tenets that writers can use in engaging the neural networks in the reader’s brain until the very end. Not only that, she also dispelled writing myths that impede great storytelling. At the end of every chapter, Cron provides tips on how to avoid writing faux pax and guide questions in improving the story.
I read this book as a reader, not a writer. Cron’s use of simple language surprised me as it made the book so easy to read. She does know how to hook the readers even though the book is about the technical side of story writing. In addition to popular books, movies, and characters, she incorporates her own experiences in her examples, making the book more relatable and engaging. As a reader, I learned the things to look for when reading fiction. For example, every object in the story should have a purpose. If a gun is seen hanging on the wall at the beginning of the story, it should be fired by the end. Writers should not include unnecessary information that confuses the readers. I am excited to read my next fiction so I can apply what I learned from this book.
Because of Wired for Story, I appreciate writers more. They have to create believable and connectable characters, place them in a setting that is relevant to the story, and push them to the limits until they grow and change. Writers have to be mindful, as well, of every aspect of the character, plot, and setting in order not to get lost along the way, or else, the readers will also get lost in the confusion, too. The complexity of the writing process is already difficult for the writers but what comes after is even more difficult. They have to face criticism not only from the readers but also from their peers and editors. But Cron couldn’t stress enough the importance of getting impartial feedback from neutral readers. It’s the writer’s duty to find the best and most fitting version of the story. It’s not about them, it’s about the story itself.
Even though the book uses brain science to make writing stories more effective, Cron doesn’t complicate it by adding jargon, technical terms for brain parts, loads of statistics, facts, and experiments to support her claims. She focuses more on the application of brain science to writing stories. The neuroscience in this book is on the surface level.
If you are a writer who wants to hook readers from the first page to the last page of your book or a reader who wants to understand the anatomy of a great story to better appreciate fiction, this book is for you.
Further Information
Book Information:
Wired for Story by Lisa Cron
Published on July 10, 2012, by Ten Speed Press
274 pages (eBook)