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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Lisa Cron
Read between
April 7 - April 26, 2020
Story, as it turns out, was crucial to our evolution—more so than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to.
powerful story can have a hand in rewiring the reader’s brain—helping instill empathy, for instance5—which is why writers are, and have always been, among the most powerful people in the world.
storytelling is something brains do, naturally and implicitly.… [I]t should be no surprise that it pervades the entire fabric of human societies and cultures.”4
the function of some kinds of art is for life to imitate it.7
As readers we eagerly probe each piece of information for significance, constantly wondering, “What is this meant to tell me?”
We are always looking for the why beneath what’s happening on the surface. Not only because our survival might depend on it, but because it’s exhilarating. It makes us feel something—namely, curiosity.
If we don’t have a sense of what’s happening and why it matters to the protagonist, we’re not going to read it.
“Whenever possible, tell the whole story of the novel in the first sentence.”12
MYTH: Beautiful Writing Trumps All REALITY: Storytelling Trumps Beautiful Writing, Every Time
Chances are you bought just about everything you see (even Fido) because while you weren’t looking, a clever story snuck in and persuaded you to.
As literary scholar Brian Boyd so aptly points out, a story with no point of reference leaves the reader with no way of determining what information matters:
Thus your first job is to zero in on the point your story is making.
A story is designed, from beginning to end, to answer a single overarching question.
As readers we instinctively know this, so we expect every word, every line, every character, every image, every action to move us closer to the answer.
“If you can’t summarize your book in a few sentences, rewrite the book until you can.”
We know who the protagonist is, but she doesn’t seem to have a goal, so we don’t know what the point is or where the story is going.
This!
We know what the protagonist’s goal is, but have no clue what inner issue it forces him to deal with, so everything feels superficial and rather dull.
The story isn’t about whether or not the protagonist achieves her goal per se; it’s about what she has to overcome internally to do it. This is what drives the story forward. I call it the protagonist’s issue.
The second element, the theme, is what your story says about human nature.
“minds exist to predict what will happen next.”
the instant a reader opens your book, his cognitive unconscious is hunting for a way to make life a little easier, see things a little clearer, understand people a bit better.
MYTH: The Plot Is What the Story Is About REALITY: A Story Is About How the Plot Affects the Protagonist
Plot facilitates story by forcing the protagonist to confront and deal with the issue that keeps him from achieving his goal.
the plot, when taken by itself, can suggest that a story is about one thing when in reality, it’s about something else.
“All literature implies moral standards and criticisms, the less explicit the better.”
“Emotions are mechanisms that set the brain’s highest-level goals.”
If the reader can’t feel what matters and what doesn’t, then nothing matters, including finishing the story.
That’s why in every scene you write, the protagonist must react in a way the reader can see and understand in the moment.
what other characters do, think, and feel will itself be measured by its effect on the protagonist.
Thus it’s not just that we see the things she sees—it’s that we grasp what they mean to her.
Being in denial isn’t as easy as it sounds. It’s not a “blank” state; rather, it takes a good bit of work.
MYTH: Write What You Know REALITY: Write What You Know Emotionally
When writers unconsciously assume the readers’ knowledge of—not to mention interest in—what the writers themselves are passionate about, their stories tend to be wildly uneven.
“It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.”
“I disagree with the advice ‘write about what you know.’ Write about what you need to know, in an effort to understand.”
Steven Pinker defines intelligent life as “using knowledge of how things work to attain goals in the face of obstacles.”
without a goal, everything is meaningless.
In a story, plot-wise, what all other considerations bend to is the protagonist’s external goal.
If you don’t provide your protagonist with a driving deep-seated need that he believes his quest will fulfill, the things that happen will feel random; they won’t add up to anything. Without knowing what he wants, or what his issue is, “There is no there, there,” as Gertrude Stein so famously said (okay, she was talking about Oakland, California, but still). Without it, there’s no yardstick by which to measure your pilgrim’s progress, no context to give it meaning.
***
Proust observed, “The only true voyage of discovery … would be not to visit strange lands but to possess [new] eyes.”
Do you know how her inner issue then thwarted her desire right up to the moment the story begins?
generalities are not capable of producing specific consequences, and so the story has nowhere to go.
metaphors need to give us new information and fresh insight rather than simply restating something we already know, no matter how poetically.
characters need to react to everything that happens for a specific reason we can grasp in the moment. Of course, there may be a deeper reason as well that we won’t fully understand until later. In fact, the “real reason” for a reaction may be the opposite of what it looks like now. But what there can’t be, if you want your readers to stay with you, is no reaction.
Unless They Convey Necessary Information, Sensory Details Clog a Story’s Arteries
while vivid details can boost a story’s credibility, they must be meaningful—that is, they need to symbolize and support the story’s core idea.
There are three main reasons for any sensory detail to be in a story: 1. It’s part of a cause-and-effect trajectory that relates to the plot—Lucy drinks the shake, she passes out. 2. It gives us insight into the character—Lucy’s an unapologetic hedonist headed for trouble. 3. It’s a metaphor—Lucy’s flavor choice represents how she sees the world.
