Review: Wired for Story by Lisa Cron (Part 1)

Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence
by Lisa Cron

Genre: Nonfiction/Fiction Writing Skills

Publication Date: July 10, 2012

Source: paperback purchase

| Amazon | |Barnes &Noble |

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.

 

This is going to be a several-part review of this book, so Part 1 begins with this post. It is just THAT amazing of a book and I'm doing an in-depth preview of what you can expect to find if you decide to read it. Hopefully, you will.

My Review – Part 1

When I first stumbled upon Wired for Story, I wasn't sure if it was a book that I had likely read before, or something really revolutionary. I liked the idea of the premise—that this writer's resource would explain the science behind why some stories sizzle and others fizzle for seemingly no apparent reason. So, I took the bate and bought this title, diving right into it when it landed in my mailbox.

I have to say this resource is more like 'something revolutionary.' Imagine reading a reference book that tells you how your human brain responds to storytelling and why. Wouldn't you want to read that if you're like me and want to have every possible advantage when it comes to fiction writing? Sure, you can just hope to get it right one day, but it makes more sense to put the right tools in your tool kit rather than just hope that if you close your eyes and swing away, eventually you'll hit the fastball.

There's a real scientific reason why our brains get so excited about some books we read more than others. It isn't just because Book A is 'better' than Book B. It's really because Book A is more effective at stimulating your brain's dopamine production than Book B. And, there are quite a few reasons why effective storytelling creates this wonderful dopamine rush in our brains, making us fall in love with books and the characters that drive them.

First of all, we humans have a biological survival mechanism implanted in us that requires story. Without it, I would not be typing this right now because humanity would have gone extinct long ago. We learn vicariously through the experiences of others and we have to or we would be toast. Story evolved because it was first meant to teach us where it wasn't safe to build our homes, according to the other humans already in the area, or why we can't grow the same crops in Nebraska that we can in California. Somebody will tell you a story first so you don't have to find out through trial and error for yourself and risk starving to death.

But, story doesn't have to be fact in order to enthrall us. Our brains learn and love just as well when we know the story is completely fictional. But, how do we give the dopamine rush to our readers they need to feel satisfaction when reading our story?

Start with anything that makes them want to know what happens next. That pique of curiosity is like catnip for humans and is how any good book beginning does its job of hooking the reader. But, make sure you zero in on your point right off the bat, or the reader ends up with lower than normal dopamine levels because they are so confused, they want to stop reading. Introduce a character, set up a conflict for that character, put something important at risk and make sure the reader knows things aren't as they ought to be from the get-go.

What is a story? Why is it that when we write stuff happening, it falls flat sometimes? A story isn't simply what happens to a protagonist, or even what he/she has to do to achieve their goal. It's how the protagonist has to change internally in order to achieve it. Story is about something inside the character that is changing. Otherwise, it is a non-story about a bunch of stuff happening. And, the way to zero in on how your character has to change in order to achieve their goal is to ask a story question and answer it. Will Katniss take down the Capitol? Will Scrooge learn to be a humanitarian? Will Harry finally defeat Voldemort?

You're pretty curious, aren't you? You're licking the dopamine right off your fingertips—it's so good. Wired for Story is about finding your focus as a storyteller and creating a story around that focal point in order to hook the reader in and make them drunk on their own dopamine.

To be continued in Part 2....

I hope you are effectively hooked! I'll be back with Part 2 next week, so stay tuned. What do you think about brain science and story? Does it surprise you to know how fundamentally important is the role of a storyteller, after all?