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Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere)

Lisa Cron (Goodreads Author)

4.24 · Rating details · 2,963 ratings · 632 reviews

Following on the heels of Lisa Cron's breakout first book, Wired for Story, this writing guide reveals how to use cognitive storytelling strategies to build a scene-by-scene blueprint for a riveting story.

Story Genius is a foolproof program that saves writers from penning hundreds of pages only to realize that something's not working and they have to start again. Informed ...more

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ebook, 288 pages

Published August 9th 2016 by Ten Speed Press

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Start your review of Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere)

Oct 07, 2016 Rebecca Renner added it

I feel very mixed about this book. I teach creative writing, and I've tried to make a study of "what works" in popular stories. Liza Cron both hits and misses in this book.

The strongest section by far is Part II "Creating the Inside Story." One of the things I've noticed many of my students do is create short stories that encompass a series of exciting events that don't really matter. Cron says essentially that it's the character's internal struggle that makes the external struggle important. I ...more

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Sep 03, 2016 Amy rated it did not like it

The full title of Lisa Cron's book is Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel*, with the tinier sub-sub-title [*Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere]. The reason that I list the full title is because it gets at why I was so excited to read it, and my main problem with the work. This book, both with its prominent subtitle and its back cover description, promised to combine two of my favorite things: neuroscience and the wr The full title of Lisa Cron's book is Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel*, with the tinier sub-sub-title [*Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere]. The reason that I list the full title is because it gets at why I was so excited to read it, and my main problem with the work. This book, both with its prominent subtitle and its back cover description, promised to combine two of my favorite things: neuroscience and the writing process. I am a polymath, a woman of disparate loves, and I absolutely adore books that mix genres, using science or math to inform a more humanities-based field.

Unfortunately, my expectations were shattered, and not in a positive way. This book contains virtually no "brain science." In fact, most of the citations and references in the back of the book cite direct quotes by other authors [often about writing], to the best of my count, I can only find five cited mentions of "brain science" in the entire 267 pages of this book--most of those were just one short paragraph reference of a study. The rest of the "brain science" is merely statements by the author that mention "brain science says..." or "We evolved to..." or "We are wired to..." or "Biologically..." with some throwaway sentence, no evidence, no citation, and no explanation or context. This is not science. You cannot just call something science because it sounds good or because you read it somewhere and didn't feel like researching it properly and including it.

I'm not saying that I was looking for lengthy descriptions of studies in the main text. It would have been acceptable to have an endnote after a sentence like, "brain science says..." with a more detailed explanation in the back of the book for those who wanted to read more about it. But it's completely irresponsible to just make claims that "brain science says..." without any sources or any real credibility (the author is not a neuroscientist). If the book had not been marketed as brain science--by both the publishing company and the author herself, who repeatedly refers to "brain science", without much real substance, in the first several chapters--then this might have been forgivable. But to intentionally mislead the reader by using brain science as a gimmick is not something I can respect in a book. Not to mention that the book itself gives up on the "brain science" gimmick about halfway through, "From here on out we're going to focus much more on writing than on brain science....You know how the brain works, and you understand the unparalleled power of story. You know that story is the language of the brain..." (144). I breathed a sigh of relief because I knew I wouldn't need to continue writing, "Source? Explanation?" in the margins for the remaining 130 pages. And yet I was frustrated that there hadn't been any real in-depth explanation topic in the first 140 pages. Instead there were mostly throwaway lines like, "...story's purpose evolved from simply decoding the mysteries of the physical world..." and "It turns out the brain is far less picky about lyrical language than we've been led to believe..." (Really? How do we know these things?) sprinkled among Cron's actual points.

In addition to the gimmicky use of "brain science", the author constantly reiterates in the first several pages that her techniques are so unique, and that they're contrary to everything that people have been taught about writing before. The author's main points focus on the importance of creating a strong internal conflict as opposed to focusing on external plot points, developing a deep understanding of your characters and their contexts. None of these things are particularly unique, they both seem to be common sense, and I know that I certainly teach them to my own creative writing students. My frustration is that ultimately these "gimmicks" distracted from the rest of her information--I was frustrated that she was claiming to be showing me "brain science" without actually doing that, and irked that she was trying to "sell" her method by acting as though it was incredible and unique. Without these two major flaws, this book might have been a three-star read for me. The writing techniques are okay, they're certainly not terrible points and would be good for a beginning writer, or one who has no idea how to develop a character. But I'm not convinced that they come from "brain science" or are contrary to the ways in which writers already think.

The final issue is that while I think the author was insightful to include a work-in-progress by a novelist as a test case for her work, and while I absolutely commend the bravery of the novelist to open her novel development up to us in this way, at some point I began to feel as though Cron's method actually damaged the novel. I don't think it had to be this way, it was more of an error in application than a fatal flaw in the method itself--there are some good organizing techniques mentioned, and I do think that the idea of focusing on internal conflict is a good one overall. However, the novelist originally hoped to write a story about a woman and her complicated relationship with a dog...somehow it became a story about a woman who didn't want to make connections with other people, so when her lover/screenwriting partner falls into a coma after an accident precipitations by an argument, she kidnaps a [unbeknownst to her] famous dog. She does this in an attempt to prove to her sister that she is stable and doesn't need help, before retreating to a hotel to try and finish the last episode of the show that she and her lover had been working on. There were a few other bizarre details, but those are the main plot points. This isn't meant to be a farcical comedy either, the goal of the process was to develop and push the main character to realize how important human connection really is--albeit a little too late. But the constant push to drive a character to "face" her internal conflict by all these extreme measures twisted a potentially good story into a really bad Lifetime movie. Again, I don't mean to offend the novelist who was vulnerable in opening up a work-in-progress and using this method, I just am concerned that neither Cron nor the novelist seemed able to see how out-of-control the story became.

The best insights of this book are, first, simply to pay close attention to the internal conflict of the main character and to be mindful of that in every scene. This is sage advice, and something that I deeply value in a story. Second, authors should work to create well-rounded and complex characters with fleshed-out back stories, and challenge them to grow and develop throughout the novel. This can't be an afterthought, but should always be considered. No extreme kidnappings, tragic sudden-comas, or last-minute forced re-writes of a TV script need to happen to push characters to grow and develop. The best stories, in my opinion, capture the powerful changes that occur as a part of our daily experiences: many mundane moments stitched together with occasional extreme events. Focusing on internal conflict without going to bizarre extremes helps the characters be more relatable and cathartic, which was the goal after all. A book focusing on fleshing out techniques without all the gimmicks of "brain science" or claims of uniqueness, would've been a much more enjoyable read.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free in exchange for this review. However, this did not affect the content of my review in any way. To be completely honest, I would not have finished this book had it not been for the fact that I had to review it.
...more

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Apr 25, 2016 Dannii Elle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: authorial-advice, non-fiction-nuances, adult-books-read

I received this on a read to review basis from NetGalley. Thank you to the author, Lisa Cron, and the publisher, Ten Speed Press, for this opportunity.

This non-fiction was of unparalleled help whilst writing my own first novel. I assumed this to be a rehashing of well-known and repeated knowledge but it addressed the complexities of fiction writing with a new ingeniousness!

The premise of this helpful guide is that novel writing should be character-, and not plot-, driven. This means that the mos ...more

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Nov 11, 2020 Spencer Orey rated it really liked it

Shelves: writing-books-and-other-tools

This is a tricky book! There are some great insights in here about writing, wrapped up in some lame pseudoscience that I suspect was used for marketing purposes. It's really too bad because the book's points are solid.

The main claim of the book is that brain science (usually called neuroscience...) can reveal how we're hardwired for the kind of stories that you should write. As claims about writing go, it's suuuuch absolute crap. But don't let that stop you! I mean it.

Like I said, there's actual ...more

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Feb 01, 2021 K.J. Charles added it

Shelves: writing

As so often with writing books: some really good insights but a lot of prescriptiveness and nonsense too.

There is some excellent advice in here, which really did get me thinking about what wasn't working in the novel and how to change the focus, plus tackling some things I hadn't faced. I bet she's an excellent one on one book coach and I'm definitely looking at my novel in a new way, which is terrific.

But I cannot be having with any Unifying Theory of Books that claims the essence of all stor ...more

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Sep 06, 2018 Abbie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 4-star, nonfiction

4.5 STARS. As always, LOADED WITH INSIGHT AND INSPIRATION. I love Lisa Cron's writing advice because it's not like traditional writing advice — it resonates deep within your soul so you KNOW without having to fly blind into what "experts" think is true — you KNOW it makes sense because something inside of you just CLICKS.

Unlike Wired For Story (which is also amazing) this book feels more like a guide — a step-by-step playbook to building a story from the ground up. Lisa's "blueprinting" process ...more

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Jun 08, 2017 Chelsea Denard rated it did not like it

EDITED TO ADD: Do yourself a big favor and read Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody instead. It's a major game changer for fiction novelists and 100x better than Story Genius.

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Reading this book was like asking a writing professor for advice, and instead of answering the question directly, they end up going on an hour-long tangent, repeating the same things over and over, until they finally stop and say, "Wait. What was the question again?"

I probably could have edited o ...more

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Dec 26, 2020 tappkalina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: writing, 4-star

"We don't turn to story to escape reality. We turn to story to navigate reality."

Probably will reread several times in the future. ...more

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Nov 28, 2016 Theresa Alan rated it it was amazing

When you buy this book, also buy a new package of mini-sticky notes to flag things as well as a brand-new highlighter—you’ll need it.

I’ve been writing and editing fiction professionally for fourteen years, and I wish I had this book fourteen years ago. It would have saved a lot of time.

It’s inspirational as well as helpful. It’s slightly less helpful if you write in the traditional romance format of having the hero and heroine’s stories be essentially equal or write multiple POVs—Cron glosses o ...more

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Sep 02, 2016 Kelly D. rated it it was ok

Shelves: on-writing, nonfiction

Completion: While I read the whole thing, I did have to skim in places because Cron kept hammering the same simple point for pages at a time which becomes quickly repetitive.

Writing/Style: The style is both unsurprising and yet disappointing. The book reads like any basic writing guide which wouldn’t be as bad if it didn’t advertise itself with a subtitle that reads “How to Outline Your Novel Using the Secrets of Brain Science”. I was expecting more depth and substance involving interesting fact Completion: While I read the whole thing, I did have to skim in places because Cron kept hammering the same simple point for pages at a time which becomes quickly repetitive.

Writing/Style: The style is both unsurprising and yet disappointing. The book reads like any basic writing guide which wouldn’t be as bad if it didn’t advertise itself with a subtitle that reads “How to Outline Your Novel Using the Secrets of Brain Science”. I was expecting more depth and substance involving interesting facts and tips on writing plot, pacing, character development, etc. in relation to science. I expected answers to questions like which physical character traits trigger sympathy or anger? What words create a certain reaction from the reader? Instead, we are given a pretty straightforward guide disguised as something more.

Characters: Since this is a book on writing, there are no characters per se. Instead, I will just mention that Cron uses the same story example throughout the book to demonstrate how a writer could flesh it out into a stronger story.

Plot/Pacing: The pacing is acceptable only if you have never picked up a book on writing before or taken a writing class. Otherwise, it is slow and lacks originality.

World-building/Atmosphere: Cron spends very little time on world-building. This is not a book worth picking up if you are interested in genre writing.

Sub-genres (Romance, Humor, Mystery, etc.): Cron’s voice throughout the book didactic with small attempts at humor that just fell flat for me. Cron focuses on telling a general story and does not focus much on particular details related to different genres such as romance, humor, mystery, etc.

FINAL VERDICT: While I am disappointed that this writing guide’s angle of science is so shallowly executed, this guide is far from a horrible book. For many beginning writers, it might be helpful, and for more experienced writers, it can be a nice reminder to focus on your characters’ internal struggles; just don’t expect this guide to be more advanced than what it really is.

*I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review. ...more

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Mar 17, 2017 Amalie Berlin rated it it was ok

DNF.

There's no science in this book, at least not the first 40% of it. I was reading it for actual data that would back up storytelling advice, but all there is in here is anecdotes. Anything that relates to the 'brain science' is a line her or there(unsupported, all opinion), which backs up whatever advice the writer has just given.

Bait and switch at it's finest. It's just another book on storytelling, there are literally hundreds(or maybe even millions, my brain just told me my guess is scienc ...more

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Jul 27, 2016 Stacey Bookerworm rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Aspiring wirters

In my opinion this is a must have read for any aspiring author. This book sets out a program based on the idea that in developing a novel you need to be examining the protagonist and their motives rather than looking at the plot.

Lisa Cron set out the program in a refreshing and humorous way that made it very readable. She clearly sets out not just what works, but how it works and why. She outlines why are a whopping 96% of submissions to publishers are rejected and what authors can do to try an ...more

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Feb 07, 2017 Susan Haught rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: craft

Making sense of nonsense

This is the first craft book to tap into what I thought was chiseled in stone in my brain. I'm a pantser. Or should I say, was.

I'll be using Lisa Cron's formula for my next book, and thanking a writer friend for guilting me into reading it, though it had been on my TBR shelf for a very long time.

Now, to reread and take each chapter one step at a time... ...more

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Feb 16, 2019 Amerie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2019-faves

Wonderful and concise. A must-read for any writer.

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Sep 23, 2016 Jane Lively added it · review of another edition

Shelves: on-the-shelf, received-for-review, nonfiction

#DNF @ 104 pages. I received this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Cron writes with verbosity, thus leading to 1) long-winded paragraphs that could easily be exchanged for a few sentences, 2) repetitive statements and 3) quick disinterest. I started reading this book before bed because it exhausts me. I frequently have to reread paragraphs to figure out the point she is trying to make, because she rambles on and on and on and on.

While I agree a character's internal struggle drives the exte ...more

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Oct 04, 2019 Nicole Dust rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019-reads, 4-star, writing-tips, nonfiction

Okay HOLY COW this actually lived up to the hype, and I am kind of shocked. XD

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Oct 12, 2019 Cher rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, abandoned-dnf

DNF'd around 55% through. It doesn't hold my attention, and it seems like examples and explanations go on forever. ...more

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May 18, 2019 M F added it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2019, by-women, fun-nonfiction

I had extremely mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand: I think it helped me a lot. On the other hand: at times it was really, *really* annoying.

Things it helped me with:
* Character motivations
* Representing abstract goals through concrete, specific needs
* Using backstory to give characters more depth, not just in the obvious ways but more subtly
* Working out an underlying character arc that would help underlie the plot as a whole.

As a result of these things, I think I can now go on an I had extremely mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand: I think it helped me a lot. On the other hand: at times it was really, *really* annoying.

Things it helped me with:
* Character motivations
* Representing abstract goals through concrete, specific needs
* Using backstory to give characters more depth, not just in the obvious ways but more subtly
* Working out an underlying character arc that would help underlie the plot as a whole.

As a result of these things, I think I can now go on and figure out a much more solid outline, and hopefully fix this entire book, even if there's still a LOT of work ahead of me. So, yay! From that point of view, SUPER helpful. Even if I could have figured some of that out for myself... I hadn't. This book asked the questions I needed it to ask, and by forcing myself to face the fact that I didn't know the answers, I made a lot of progress.

I also had a couple of breakthroughs and now I get to work in a bunch of SYMBOLISM and some LITERARY DOUBLES and that kind of stuff wasn't *exactly* what Cron was talking about, but it was through looking at abstract-made-literal in order to answer the questions she was asking that I came to those conclusions, so I guess she gets some credit.

Other things I liked:
* That it wasn't focused on squashing your book into a 3-act structure or specific beat sheet, but about the emotions and characters, because I'm not great at prescriptive plot stuff
* That it's pretty genre-neutral, so although there are some aspects it doesn't cover (you'd probably want more guidance on worldbuilding and how to make that a part of your character arcs for speculative fic), it felt broadly applicable to most approaches to storytelling.

Things I didn't like:
* That it felt very prescriptive at times. (You SHOULD do this, this is the ONLY way you can do that, etc etc.) I ignored a few things because with all these kinds of books it's best to just take what's useful and leave the rest, but that kind of approach can feel frustrating
* The writing style. OH MAN. THE WRITING STYLE. I did NOT mesh with that. It was kind of trying too hard to be colloquial and friendly? Which just ended up feeling vaguely patronising. And if I had to read the phrase "here's the skinny" one more time (what does that even mean?!?!) I probably would've thrown it at something.
* The fact that it seemed more aimed at people who'd never written a book before.

Other things I noticed:
* Some aspects of Cron's advice didn't work brilliantly for writing YA or children's, especially how she talked about backstory. She talked about characters have often been shaped by their 'misbelief' for years or decades, and how the story needs to challenge these very deep-seated elements of their worldview. But often with a YA character, they haven't had years to develop these ideas, let alone decades, and even less so with kidlit. These protagonists' worldview is still in much more of a formative stage. Once I realised that this was why I was struggling with some pieces of advice, it became easier to ignore those and move on, but it's worth being aware of, I guess? I'd be interested in something that takes some of the same approaches to character motivation and arcs, but looks at how you'd handle them differently with a character for whom all of this is brand new, or at least, still in a much earlier stage in their life.

I'm glad I persevered despite the writing style being super annoying, and I began to notice that a little less as the book went on (not sure if it got less annoying or if I just tuned it out). It has definitely helped me a lot, though it still remains to be seen whether I'm actually able to translate this into a book that isn't deeply structurally flawed. WE SHALL SEE. ...more

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Mar 24, 2018 N rated it it was ok

Shelves: gift, non-fiction, writing, 2018-reads

There is no "correct" way to write a novel -- only what works for you -- so reading craft books (other than those that are objectively fantastic*) can be a frustrating experience. That said, I still think you can get one or two nuggets out of any craft book.

From this one, by far the most useful nugget imo is Lisa Cron's idea that every character should have a guiding "misbelief", or faulty worldview, which is challenged by the events of the novel. Cron's suggestion for building a compelling char ...more

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Aug 20, 2016 Debbie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

"Story Genius" is a guide on how to create powerful, character-driven stories using the Story Genius writing system. If you expect a lot of brain science, you'll be disappointed. The author only referred to a couple of studies. Instead, she resorted to speculative stuff, saying, "Evolutionarily speaking, our brain is wired..." followed by a story about what advantage we might have gotten from telling stories.

She believes that all powerful stories are ultimately character-driven, so she has you s ...more

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Oct 21, 2016 Kimberly Sabatini rated it it was amazing

Shelves: craft-of-writing

This book is genius!!!! It may be the book that's had the biggest positive influence on my writing--the most organically influential book on craft I've ever read. Now that I've digested it, I will never create a story the same way again. And I'm so grateful I won't ever have to. This book has changed everything for me and I can't recommend it highly enough. If you write--read this book. ...more

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Jul 28, 2016 Christopher Lawson rated it it was amazing

Humans are Wired for Story

Humans are "wired for story,” but writers often miss the boat: "Writers often don't even know what a story is: So, even though they have a great idea, their prose is gorgeous, and there’s a lot of action, there’s no real story, and so no driving sense of urgency.”

Here's the essence of what a story: “A story is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result.” EVERY part of the book has to Humans are Wired for Story

Humans are "wired for story,” but writers often miss the boat: "Writers often don't even know what a story is: So, even though they have a great idea, their prose is gorgeous, and there’s a lot of action, there’s no real story, and so no driving sense of urgency.”

Here's the essence of what a story: “A story is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result.” EVERY part of the book has to support the struggle of the protagonist. No matter how beautiful the prose, if it doesn't relate to the protagonist's struggle, the story falls flat.

STORY GENIUS is designed to help you, the novelist, figure out how to make your story work. Here’s the key: It’s all about the struggle of the protagonist--how she is "making sense of what’s happening, how she struggles with, evaluates, and weighs what matters most to her, and then makes hard decisions, moving the action forward.”

I believe Lisa Cron is dead-on right about the struggle of the protagonist in weaving a compelling story. I thought about a few authors that I really love. What makes Dean Koontz' "Odd Thomas" series great? Clearly, it's the struggles of Odd Thomas. We see the same thing in the famous "Kinsey Milhoune" series by Sue Grafton. These stories are a lot of fun because we identify with the struggle of Kinsey. Of course these two authors write well--but the books are good reads because of the compelling struggle of the protagonist.

STORY GENIUS is not just theory, however--there are lots of excellent, practical suggestions. Here's the most important recommendation in the entire book: Use a story “blueprint.” The blueprint is not the same as must making an outline; rather, it's the plan for all the layers of your story. It's a "scene-by-scene progression of your external plot, as driven by the internal struggle each event triggers in your protagonist.” So, the blueprint is not at all the same as an outline--it explains how all the layers of the story come together.

Ms. Cron provides a template to use in creating your blueprint. She calls this a “Scene Card.” Use a separate card for each scene in your story. The most important information on the scene card is called the "Alpha Point," which defines how "the scene will play in your novel’s external cause-and effect trajectory.” Each scene card also explains the interplay of “cause and effect” of each scene. The left side shows the cause; the right side shows the effect. Finally, the scene card also identifies any subplots in the scene.

The scene cards are like the pieces of a great symphony. The cards fit together to make your story work—just like a well-designed piece of music: “The layers of a novel are built exactly like the layers in recorded music. When you hear a finished song, everything melds into a single, transcendent experience.”

All in all, I found STORY GENIUS to be an outstanding guide to creating a powerful, believable story. I believe Lisa Cron knows exactly what she is talking about. I found the practical suggestions, especially the scene card idea, excellent. These tasks seems like a fair amount of work to me, but then again, no one ever said writing a novel is easy.

Advance Review Copy courtesy of NetGalley.

...more

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Jun 28, 2020 Gabe Novoa rated it liked it

Shelves: writing

There were things I liked about this book and found helpful, and things I definitely didn't like.

Of the good, Story Genius pushed me to dig deeper into my characters in pre-writing than I usually do, and I found the exercise to be pretty helpful for brainstorming before I dive back into my partially-written WIP. It helped me generate some new ideas and make some connections where things were previously fuzzy.

That said, this book was very prescriptivist in a way I didn't appreciate. I'm always ...more

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Sep 08, 2020 Brittany rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 4-stars, non-fiction, reviews, zelves-of-middle-earth, road-trip-wheel, z2020-challenge, college, self-help

This has been an awesome book! There are so many great writing tips and advice.

I highly recommend this book. It identifies every time that I can't LOVE another book because I can't emotionally connect to characters and how important that is for me.

My only complaint is the Lisa Cron sometimes uses absolutist points that grate on me, which is why I can only give it 4 stars.
...more

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May 04, 2016 Karina rated it liked it

Most of these types of books are one-trick ponies, and that is fine: This one has a single trick to it aswell, and it's a reasonable one, with a bunch of exercises and examples. Helpful when brain is frozen. ...more

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May 21, 2017 Abigail rated it did not like it

DNF. I don't like it when someone thinks their way is the only way to do something. ...more

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Feb 27, 2018 Jennifer Louden rated it it was amazing

Best book on story I've ever read. ...more

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Sep 26, 2020 A.E. Bross rated it liked it

All right, I want to preface this by saying that I spent my undergrad studying stories and their place in society. I majored in English Lit and minored in History. This is not to say that I "know better," because that is ridiculous, but that I've had some experience and study in this particular field.

First and foremost, there are some very valuable ideas that Cron presents in this book. She approaches storytelling from a character-centric position (which I applaud) and works on drawing out the i All right, I want to preface this by saying that I spent my undergrad studying stories and their place in society. I majored in English Lit and minored in History. This is not to say that I "know better," because that is ridiculous, but that I've had some experience and study in this particular field.

First and foremost, there are some very valuable ideas that Cron presents in this book. She approaches storytelling from a character-centric position (which I applaud) and works on drawing out the importance of not only what drives a character, but how what goes on around said character does and should affect that drive. It all relates back to the character for Cron, and personally, I think that's how stories make a greater impact, as that is often how people experience the world.

However, Cron falls into the popular trap of attempting to invalidate other forms and varieties of writing in order to put her own forward as the one that WILL work. It's a frustrating place that many writing craft books occupy, and often takes away from their authority.

Subtitled as "How to Use Brain Science to go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel," there's almost NO actual brain science within the book itself, and it often relies on claims the author makes that have no support (or at least the author has deigned not to share said support with the audience). The over simplification of the history of storytelling and why stories have evolved in and of itself was frustrating enough to make one doubt the author.

Overall, I think this book has some valuable lessons and strategies for writers who find themselves stuck with character-driven plot or plots that seem to move without much emotional or character development. The charts and exercises could definitely be useful in plot, scene, and book development. However, writing in general, be it fiction or nonfiction or poetry, is different for each person, and attempting to invalidate the "myths" of writing, the way the author did, to put forth their own brand of writing as the best way always leaves a bad taste in my mouth. There's no doubt that this book can be helpful, even revolutionary for some, but it just wasn't for me.

And that's okay. :) ...more

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Mar 01, 2018 Jeanette rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: on-writing, non-fiction

Story Genius by Lisa Cron
It took me two goes to read Story Genius and, if writers I respect hadn't recommended it so highly, I would probably have given up one it about a third of the way through. I did try again, put aside the things I disliked and took from it things that I could learn.

What I didn't like about it - the sweeping statements, the straw men arguments and all the hype. Firstly, I do happen to think we are wired (maybe even created) for story and that stories are a way of learning Story Genius by Lisa Cron
It took me two goes to read Story Genius and, if writers I respect hadn't recommended it so highly, I would probably have given up one it about a third of the way through. I did try again, put aside the things I disliked and took from it things that I could learn.

What I didn't like about it - the sweeping statements, the straw men arguments and all the hype. Firstly, I do happen to think we are wired (maybe even created) for story and that stories are a way of learning (as well as entertainment, cathartic etc)- but all the evolutionary techno-babble was overdone, especially since the modern novel is an 18th century invention & deep point of view even more recent.
Secondly, Lisa Cron is not the first person to discover the importance of the inner journey - I've heard/read both plotters and pansters talk about its importance. In fact, part of the hero's journey is that the hero is changed by his or her journey. K M Weiland talks about three different character arcs, the character’s 'ghost' and lie - and she is not the only one. Nor do all good stories have to have inner struggle and there are often different reasons why we read - so part of the enjoyment of reading maybe to learn about a setting or place - 'slice of life' (not as popular these days - but look at the popularity of The Number One Ladies Detective Agency), or it may be about solving a puzzle or problem (an intellectual and/or moral challenge), or there are great stories that are family saga or about a town or nation or in some cases (as in a flat character arc) the protagonist doesn’t change but changes the world around him/her (eg Forest Gump) and then there is humour or farce (for instance Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or Pratchett’s Discworld). All of these are still well structured ‘story’ that are more than a string of events. So, I'm wary of statements that say this is the only way to do it and I'm the first or best or even only person that's discovered it.

Okay that said, there were things I appreciated about this book. I liked that Cron not only acknowledges the importance of the inner journey - but her analogy of 'the third rail' is a useful one - and the need for the story - both plot and subplots - to keep connected to it (how does this affect the protagonist’s inner journey). And I also liked the reminder for the author not only to know the characters emotions and motivations - but to make sure it's on the page for the reader to see.

I also appreciated the practical nature of the book as in a large part of it Cron works with her friend Jennie Nash to develop a novel from scratch - starting with theme, motivation, back story and working towards the action and subplots and conclusion. The need to constantly ask 'why' followed by 'what then' (the internal motivation and the consequences). And also to make emotions and motivations specific to the character rather than general statements (to make it concrete rather than abstract).

And while I'm not sure I'd write exactly to the Cron’s blueprint - I was surprised to find that much of the her suggested process is how I work through plots and characters.

So I do think Story Genius is a valuable craft book, with great thoughts and insight into characters, story structure, plotting, backstory and subplots (as long as I remove the fishbones). ...more

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Jan 15, 2018 Eldon Farrell rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, on-writing

I started reading this book on November 26 and finally finished January 15. In itself, that should tell you all you need to know about this book and it's ability to hold a reader's attention.

It actually started out well. Lisa Cron has a breezy writing style that worked for the subject matter. The problem was after about 30% of the book everything started to become repetitive. I only skimmed the back half of the book because I wanted to be done with the whole thing. Aside from the repetitive natu ...more

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About Lisa Cron

Lisa Cron

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Lisa Cron is a story coach, speaker, and the author of Wired for Story and Story Genius. Her TEDx talk, Wired for Story, opened Furman University’s 2014 TEDx conference. Lisa has worked in publishing at W.W. Norton and John Muir Publications, as an agent at the Angela Rinaldi Literary Agency, as a producer on shows for Showtime and Court TV, and as a story consultant for Warner Brothers and the Wi ...more

Books by Lisa Cron

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

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“We don't turn to story to escape reality. We turn to story to navigate reality.” — 5 likes

“In fact, often the opposite is true, because we’re much better at teaching something that we’ve learned through experience than we are at teaching things we innately know. When we innately know how to do something, we assume it’s part of the standard operating package we’re all born with.” — 2 likes

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