You're Gonna Need a Bigger Story: The 21st Century Survival Guide To Not Just Telling Stories, But Building Super Stories

by Houston Howard, Steven Long Mitchell (Foreword)

The entertainment marketplace is rapidly changing and is forcing writers and producers in all industries to find a new way forward and to stand out in an over-saturated market. Houston Howard’s signature Super Story process empowers creative minds to take an initial concept and develop it to its full potential and teaches them how to build a robust story architecture primed for 21st Century expansion and survival.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

374 pages, Paperback

Published January 11, 2017

Reviews

[Bec McMaster · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredible, and if I could put a copy of it in every budding creative's hands, I would.

His concepts on how to create a bigger story world blew my mind. As a fantasy author, I thought world-building was my jam, until I read his tips... and realized I was only scratching the surface of what I could do. Don't let this scare you off if you don't write fantasy: Any kind of fiction author would benefit from this section.

His sections on transmedia were incredible, and I have a million plans I want to put into place.

Honestly: Could not recommend this more highly. I think I've highlighted sections on every page (yes, sacrilege I know—but I couldn't find a copy of the eBook, and I needed to highlight some of this incredible information!!)

[Jaimie Engle · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give it more stars I would. A must read, like with a highlighter and post it notes. It was refreshing to read a book that explains all the things I already do but with more depth and connection. I feel like this book was written just for me. Amazing and highly recommended.

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up because a writer on a book podcast I listen to recommended it. I would not recommend this book at all to writers. Instead of advice on building a good story, this book is mostly about how to build an incredibly huge franchise. The author gives crypto bro energy throughout, focused entirely on making money rather than making art. There is, of course, some value to that (I am not of the mind that art and capitalism are mutually exclusive). However, it feels a bit soulless to opine about the financial opportunities in publishing the last lines of “Lost in Translation” or a web comic revealing what was in the briefcase of “Pulp Fiction.”

It is surprising, too, to read his praises of Lucas’ Star Wars as the ideal “super story,” not mentioning that Lucas crafted it as a devoted student of Campbell’s mono myth, but implying Lucas was always building a super story. In fact, almost every super story example that is named started as one great story or piece of art; its subsequent popularity then moving it into a cross media franchise.

Again, there are nuggets of wisdom to be found here. However, it feels a little bit like putting the cart before the horse. This isn’t a guide on how to craft a story you’re passionate about; it’s a guide on how to build a narrative “experience” pitch for the 21st century. I might add - in spite of authoring this guide on how to build the ultimate “super story” sure to draw in billions of dollars, the author himself can point to no personal examples of creating such a thing (though he briefly brags about a pitch for a ‘Slinky’ super story)…and, trust me, he’s the kind of guy who would let you know about even his smallest of achievements…

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tl;dr: Follow the book if you want to write bargain bin YA novels.

This was a mandatory purchase for a class I was taking taught by the author of the book and it has become nothing more than an oversized paperweight on my desk. The author was an astonishing example of everything that's wrong with Hollywood: referencing pop culture for the sake of reference, without telling anything substantive or innovative. The lack of innovation even shows itself in the book, as the author proceeds to reskin the whole DnD alignment chart and The Hero's Journey (with Starbucks cup sizes no less) without contributing anything meaningful to the discussion. And these infinitely more comprehensible (and less corny, too) sources are available online for free.

Even more offending is its dead-set focus on maximizing franchise opportunities over substance. Every analysis of successful franchises was around how the IP was made expandable, but none about how they actually made their IPs interesting to viewers. Well, news flash: if nobody buys your first book there won't be a sequel. Not to mention the extremely limiting rules that he had set, assuming that every successful franchise followed it to a T. It was probably because he couldn't pull his head out of his bottom end and see that the world has more to offer than Hunger Games and Harry Potter.

[Nathaniel Nemeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is extremely well written and helpful. However, I just wouldn’t say that you NEED a bigger story. I’m still planning on writing just one book, but this book helped me flesh out some ideas that I already had and helped me to connect character arcs and the world-building to one another. My strong suit is definitely plot and character, not so much world building. In fact, I think this is the only credible book I could find on world-building.

[Christopher Bessette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a storyteller I think this is great stuff but some parts are overstuffed with examples... like pages and pages of examples. That is my only criticism. By the second page of three pages of examples, I got what he was saying. That being said, keep up the great Super Story Architecture, Houston; storytellers appreciate it.

[Running]

a lot of self congratulatory commentary weaved in with useful information.