Review: Wired for Story by Lisa Cron (Part 3)

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.

  

Here's Part 3 of my very long review of Wired for Story. Read both Part 1 and Part 2 if you haven't yet to make more sense of this part of the review.

My Review – Part 3

Those who are famous for writing often say writing means going deeper in order to dig out the real core of who you are and what message you're trying to get across. In Chapter 5 of Wired for Story, you'll discover just how you can dig up your protagonist's inner issue that drives his every thought, word and deed.

The truth is, everyone of us can only see and comprehend the world around us through our own eyes. We simply aren't privy to any telepathic abilities or technology that allow for reading other people's thoughts, thus we see the world through our own filter. That filter got that way from our personal life experiences and upbringing. We can only see it the way we believe it to be at any given time.

And, so does your protagonist. He will interpret everything that happens to himself and anyone else through his own messed up filter. If he experienced a life-altering moment in his past, then everything from that realization on will be tainted by that shift in his perspective. What you need to do as a writer is pinpoint the moment when that shift in his perspective caused his whole worldview to go off the rails. That's how you dig up his 'inner issue.' And, it's how you will write your entire narrative.

When you develop your protagonist's bio, make sure you pinpoint this moment in his life as well as the time when he first felt the desire to accomplish his story goal. These may end up being one and the same thing. I'll use an example found in the book: in It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey's worldview gets skewed when he watches his father get beat down by the town misanthrope, Mr. Potter. He then believes he'll become a failure if he stays in Bedford Falls, thus spurring him to want to leave town and become the success his father never could be. The story eventually leads him to realize just how wrong he was, both internally and externally.

Even if you never show the reader that scene in real time or a flash back, it should be referenced or implied so the reader understands what motivates the character and shapes the direction of the story. And, when you can zero in on this motivation and its cause, you can lead your character to huge emotional growth by the end of the story. If you know anything ahead of time about how your story will end, it should be what your protagonist will have learned by the end. Give him an “a-ha!” moment of realization, thus knocking his worldview back into alignment, again.

In Chapter 6, the next important thing we learn about telling a gripping story is the need to be specific. The cognitive secret here is that we don't think in the abstract. “We think in specific images,” says the author. What it means is that anything abstract or conceptual must be made specific in order for the reader to care.

But, why is this? Our brains are lazy and will only think about things that matter to us. So, you need to make the general more specific in order to hook the reader to the emotional appeal of your story. If I said, “A lot of people died years ago in a country far away,” how much interest and emotion does this conjure up in you? Not much, I'm supposing. But, if I said, “280,000 people died in Indonesia in one of the deadliest tsunami/earthquakes in recorded history on the day after Christmas in 2004,” your ears perk up. You might actually care about news like that.

In what ways do writers write in generalities?

1. The specific reason a character does something is often neither implied nor stated outright. Without knowing reasons behind actions, those actions tend to fall flat.
2. The specific thing a metaphor is meant to illuminate is often too vague. Metaphors should be instantly grasped by the reader, or they get missed.
3. The specific memory that a situation invokes in the protagonist is sometimes left to the reader's imagination and, ultimately, never processed.
4. The specific reaction a character has to a significant event can be totally left out, leaving the reader wondering if the character is capable of human feeling and emotion.
5. The specific possibilities that run through the protag's mind as he struggles to make sense of what's happening are often absent so the reader can't even infer what the options are.
6. The specific rationale behind a character's change of heart end up completely omitted, so as to leave the reader wondering how Doug went from being a total wad to giving everybody at the office gift certificates to Starbucks.

Writing a good story is all about making the reader care about the story and the characters. But, keep in mind, less is more. If you clog up the story with too many specific, unnecessary details, you will cause your reader's brain to tune out. We can only process so many things at a time. How the brain functions and what its limitations are will determine how effectively you've crafted your story. And, when those specifics have nothing to do with your protagonist and his inner issue or goal, they will be treated like generalities by the reader. Ignored.

That's it for this part. Now, I'm halfway finished with this super long book review! Tune in next week for Part 4.

Have you noticed you have trouble getting to the heart of your story? Do you see areas in your writing where you could be more specific about why your characters act the way they do?

Review: Wired for Story by Lisa Cron (Part 2)

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.

 

In case you're unaware, I wrote the first part (Part 1) of this book review last week and now I'm continuing on with Part 2 today....

My Review – Part 2

Last week, my review of Wired for Story got into what a story should revolve around in order to consider it an actual story and not just a set of random events. This week's review covers the information in Chapters 3 through 4 about what elements your story needs to have to make it connect with readers.

Emotions are the glue that makes your story and characters stick to the roof of your reader's mouth as he or she laps them up like peanut butter. If your reader isn't having an emotional response to your story, chances are he/she will deem it as unimportant and move on to the next one. Brain science reveals that we cannot even make simple decisions in our lives without emotions driving us to pick a blue shirt over a brown one to wear because it's a nice, sunny day today.

So, how do you make meaningful emotional connections with the reader? Show how what happens to your protagonist affects them and what they do as a result. In every scene you write, your protagonist must react in some way the reader can understand in that moment. The reaction must have an effect on how the protagonist will achieve her goal, which will draw out a very visceral reaction in the protagonist.

Brain scientists have discovered that everything we experience pulls on our emotional heartstrings because, as a species, we are wired to ask ourselves, unconsciously, “Will this help me or hurt me?” We real folks feel everything and when we read about fictional people kind of feeling stuff, but not really, we check out of that story in a hurry. But, why? Because it bores us. We have no interest in anything we cannot feel. We end up not knowing what to think of it and that makes it hard for us to process.

Okay, now we understand this because it does make sense, after all, doesn't it? When you think it about, yes. But, don't we need to delve a little deeper into story to tell a story? Of course. Now, it's time to write characters that have ambitions, or goals to achieve. A protagonist without something to achieve is flowndering and leaves the reader feeling nothing. But, why do protagonists need goals to achieve? Because we real people are always driven to achieve goals, be they the kind in which we want to eat pancakes for breakfast to the kind in which we want to become the next president of the United States.

The thing is, when we read, we slip into the skin of the protagonist for that time and become them. What they want, we want. What makes them happy, makes us happy. Our brains light up on fMRI scans the exact same way when we read about a story happening to somebody else as when it actually happens to us, literally. Basically, our brains can't tell the difference.

So, we cannot find meaning in anything that happens to a character if we don't know what she wants. Was that slap on the butt flirtation or harassment? If your character is a stalwart feminist aiming to take down “the man” and all his “boys,” and the man slapping her is her coworker, then, yes that was harassment. If he is her playful husband teasing her about her new Buns of Steel workout and how hot she looks, then it's flirtation. See how knowing the character and what drives her, you can find the meaning in everything that happens to her?

And, everything that happens to her will be colored by her story goal. It will strengthen in the reader's mind what she is focused on and how what she must go through to achieve her goal will emotionally impact her. But, is it enough to just know what the character wants? Inevitably, the reader will ask, “Why does she want this?” Give your character a reason why they want what they want—a motivation behind it because it will resonate better. Nothing in a story happens in a vacuum just as in real life.

There's so much more that I can't even get into from Chapter 4 because it reaches some serious depths, but this is a tasty sample of what you'll find therein. Next time, for Part 3 in two weeks, I'll get into the chapters on how to probe into your protagonist's inner issue and the importance of writing specifics into your story.

To be continued in Part 3....

Did you ever think story was so complex? It really goes so far beyond our awareness because when we slip into story, that part of our brain that analyzes things shuts off, thus keeping us blind to why the story is resonating with us. Funny, isn't it?

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?

  

Insecure Writers' Support Group (#3)

"Insecure Writer's Support Group" is a monthly meme host by Alex J. Cavanaugh for writers held on the first Wednesday of every month.

This month for IWSG, I want to blog about perseverance because that's been the biggest issue for my writing, lately. I start a project, write for a little while, maybe completing about 1/4 of the entire draft, and then give up. My reasons for giving up usually vary, but always stem from the fact that the story wasn't working. 

I'm finally NOW writing the first draft of a novella that I'm 3/4 of the way finished with, meaning I haven't dropped it yet. That is big for me! I actually have a real, viable story that isn't full of holes and tears that leak like an old above-the-ground swimming pool. I'm on the right track to finishing it so I can get on with editing, revising and having it critiqued. Yay!

But, that still doesn't solve the problems with my old drafts that gave me trouble before. What about them? I think I still have every intention of fixing them one of these days because the characters and worlds I've created still stay with me, year after year. They are worth going back to and repairing one day when I'm able to understand how they can be fixed. I think I was trying to write those stories before I was ready to. I've needed to develop as a storyteller, which is, as I've come to learn, one of the hardest jobs in the world to do well. 

But, I want to do this well. This is something that means so much to me, even though I can't understand why. That's why I work so hard to figure out how to tell a great story, one that works. And, my older work can either serve as a measuring stick for how far I've come, or give me a chance to practice my story-tinkering skills. 

Read this blog post by Veronica Sicoe, sci-fi writer. It's all about perseverance and not giving up on the difficulty that is writing a good novel. I thought it was particularly brilliant and inspiring. 


What say you? Do you have any intention of fixing up your old manuscripts, or are they your barometers for your progress as a writer?

"That's the Author Talking...."

"Don't use an adverb to modify 'said.' 'He said dismissively.'... That's the author talking."

- Elmore Leonard

This is a quote from American author Elmore Leonard, who wrote such novels as Get Shorty and Mr. Majestyk, and the short story 3:10 to Yuma, to name a few. All of these have been adapted into big screen Hollywood films.

I was watching a video of him talking about writing and this particular quote really stood out to me. How many times do I write my story rather than let my characters tell it? I hope not very often, but I fear I do this a lot more than I care to realize. 

What about you? Guilty as charged?