Unlock Your Story's Potential with Story Genius: Harness Brain Science to Craft an Engaging, Compelling Novel

Edd: First half has lots of good info about what a story is and how to tell one that draws interest. They go to use an example but the story overwhelms rest of lessons by the end.
Very helpful anyway so I recommend to read at least the first part

United States on Sep 27, 2023

Mr. R. A. Dove: I believe her principled approach very effective.

The books on writing I’ve read offer a formulaic, prescriptive approach which strangle wannabe authors before they have a chance to find their voice.

Lisa delivers an intrinsic understanding of what you are there to do in your writing. She doesn’t give you a code or a formula. She gives you the toolkit you need to be original and true to your vision and voice.

Rather than tell you “what”, Story Genius tells you “why” to enrich your stories with how three dimensional characters’ resolve recognizable fears and misbeliefs. (Exactly the occult knowledge which drives a reader’s engagement…)

Thank you, Lisa!

United Kingdom on Sep 24, 2023

Danielle: Really loved this. Gave me a totally way new way to think about outlining and the importance of backstory and internal dialogue.

Canada on Jul 06, 2023

Lis: Me gusta mucho cómo está explicado el proceso de crear una buena novela!! 100% recomendado

Spain on Jun 07, 2023

Lakshmi Raj Sharma: Useful for story writers.

India on Apr 06, 2023

VenkyIyer58: I am a slow reader, especially when I read non-fiction. With fiction, I am not afraid to skip lightly, but I suffer from Fear of Missing Out when it comes to non-fiction. I often go back to parts already read when I am reading non-fiction.

Even by my tortoise standards, I took an inordinate period of time finishing this book. And before readers of this book get the wrong idea, let me clarify something. It was only through the first third or so of the book that I was not sure about whether the read was worthwhile, after that the doubts were gone.

So what took so long? I am not sure I have a complete answer to that question.

For one, Lisa Cron has stated, emphasized and reemphasized her arguments possibly with the belief that if you hammer issues enough times into your readers, they will all get it sooner or later. I agree.

For another—the more important another— I am writing a three-part (maybe four) fiction book myself, and am well through the second part. Sometime before I started on Lisa Cron’s book I had stopped work on the second part and gone back to the first part to add some meat to it and polish it up because I have a near definite...

India on Dec 15, 2018

Iola: Story Genius is the latest book from Lisa Cron, author of Wired for Story. In Story Genius, Cron takes the basic concept from Wired for Story (that, as humans, we are wired to read stories and listen to them as a way of learning about the world and understanding how other people think). It takes elements of Debra Dixon’s GMC theory, and adds in a plotting methodology similar to the method Jack Bickham outlines in Scene and Structure.

No, this is not a book for confirmed pantsters … although it might prompt pantsters to question whether they might actually need to cross over to the dark side and become a plotter. Although Cron isn’t a fan of traditional plotting:

Plotters have it backward: the events in the plot must be specifically created to force the protagonist to make a specific really hard internal change. And that means you need to know, specifically, what that internal change will be before you begin creating a plot.

I suspect some novelists (pantsters, perhaps) don’t do this, because I’ve certainly read novels where the end didn’t make sense in the light of the information provided. I also suspect some novelists (definitely plotters) take...

United States on Sep 15, 2016

James P. Barker: Wired For Story, in my opinion, was one of the better books on writing that I've read in quite some time mostly because of the approach it took. Lisa Cron takes the concepts there and expands on them in a book that takes you by the hand and shows you how to, well, use brain science to "Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages.)"

I've recommended Wired For Story to a number of fellow writers as it hits upon one of the main things lacking in many of the stories I've read over the years: the engaging the reader, or as I like to say, let your words on the page meet my imagination half way. Story Genius takes the concepts in Wired For Story and shows one how to go about implementing the strategies. The "blue-print" is there and is easily understood, delving into what gives the story and its various threads meaning. There are discussions about cause and effect and delving deep and narrowing down your main character's problem with clarity, all which helps readers empathize with what you're writing - empathize in the sense that empathy, at its root, is about understanding, with particular regard here to motivations; it's not...

United States on Aug 10, 2016