★★★★★ 5
An Excellent Primer on Novel-Writing
Format: Paperback
WIRED FOR STORY
By Lisa Cron
Reviewed by C J Singh (Berkeley, California)
Excellent Primer on Novel-Writing
In Berkeley, California, we happily have access to four independent bookstores that display literary novels and creative-writing craft books. Browsing, I picked up two books by Lisa Cron on using "Brain Science" for writing fiction. The jacket quote by Caroline Leavitt rivetted my attention: "I'd never consider writing a novel without Lisa's input, and neither should you." As a longtime fan of Leavitt's novels "Is This Tomorrow," " Pictures of You, " "Girls in Trouble," I looked up Stanford Continuing Education where Leavitt regularly teaches online courses. As a Stanford Alumnus (Psychology PhD), I've taken several on-campus and online workshops on fiction-writing. While still at the bookstore, I promptly signed up for Leavitt's soon-to-begin course that uses two coaching books: Cron's Wired For Story and John Truby's The Anatomy of Story. I'm familiar with Truby's book and its nine excellent exercises. See my detailed review on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/review/R29NU7U6LAHGBV/
Here's my review of Lisa Cron's "Wired For Story"
"WIRED FOR STORY' presents a unique, distinguishing feature among fiction-writing primers: throughout its text, the author includes excerpts from the published works of leading contemporary brain-scientists that validate the principles of narrative craft.
Cron explains the principles of narrative craft in twelve well-organized chapters that focus on theme, the protagonist's issue, characters' bios, points of view, rising conflicts, subplots, suspense, reveals, and the arc from setup to payoff. At the beginning of each chapter, she presents sentences in italics that illuminate the cognitive-science underpinnings of narrative craft. Examples follow.
"Cognitive Secret: When the brain focuses its full attention on something, it filters out all unnecessary information.
Story Secret: To hold the brain's attention, everything in a story must be there on a need-to-know basis" (page 23).
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"Cognitive Secret: Everything we do is goal directed and our biggest goal is figuring out everyone else's agenda, the better to figure out our own.
Story Secret: A protagonist without a clear goal has nothing to figure out and nowhere to go" (p 65)
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"Cognitive Secret: It takes long-term, conscious effort to hone a skill before the brain assigns it to the cognitive unconscious.
"Story Secret: There's no writing; there's only rewriting" (p 219).
Also remarkable are sentences in bold that challenge advice offered in some writing-craft workshops and books. Examples follow.
"Myth: Write What You Know.
"Reality: Write What You Know EMOTIONALLY" (p 62).
.
"Myth: Sensory Details Bring a Story to Life."
"Reality: Unless They Convey Necessary Information, Sensory Details Clog a Story's Arteries" (p 118).
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"Myth: `Show, Don't Tell' Is Literal - Don't Tell Me John Is Sad, Show Him Crying.
"Reality: `Show, Don't Tell Is Figurative - Don't Tell Me John Is Sad, Show Me WHY He's Sad" (p 152).
Has the author introduced a Myth of her own? I am afraid so. On page 57, "No matter whose point of view you're writing in, you may be in only one head per scene." In my opinion, the Reality is: No matter whose point of view you're writing in, you may be in only one head per PARAGRAPH. This is the new reality -- virtually every fiction-readers' perception has been reshaped by watching films and TV dramas that imply the camera engaged in frequent head-hopping in a scene.
At the end of each chapter, Cron presents a concise series of checkpoints to remind the readers while they develop their work-in-progress. Throughout, she includes many examples from literary works and films. Literary works like Gabriel Marquez's "Love in the Time of Cholera," Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind," and Caroline Leavitt's "Girls in Trouble." Films like "It's a Wonderful Life," "Vertigo," and "American Graffiti."
An inspiring citation for writers: " `Recent breakthroughs in neuroscience reveal that our brain is hardwired to respond to story.... It turns that a powerful story can have a hand in rewiring the reader's brain -- helping empathy, for instance - `which is why writers are, and always have been among the most powerful people in the world'. " (On p 239 of Endnotes is the specific citation of three scientists' 2009 article "On Being Moved by Art: How Reading Fiction Transforms the Self" in the Creativity Research Journal vol. 21, no.1 )
WIRED FOR STORY fully earns its title with its numerous citations of recent contributions of neuroscience that validate narrative craft. Examples of cited works included are: V. S. Ramachandran's "The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human"; Michael Gazzaniga's "Human: The Science Behind What Makes Your Brain Unique; and Steven Pinker's "How the Mind Works." These stellar books illuminate the nexus between art and science; their shining light reflects on Lisa Cron's book as a five-star primer for novel-writing.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2020
