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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Lisa Cron
the pleasure we derive from a tale well told is nature’s way of seducing us into paying attention to it.
the first job of any good story is to completely anesthetize the part of our brain that questions how it is creating such a compelling illusion of reality.
The cliché that life imitates art is true because the function of some kinds of art is for life to imitate it.
our expectations have everything to do with the story’s ability to provide information on how we might safely navigate this earthly plane.
plunk someone with a clear goal into an increasingly difficult situation they then have to navigate.
A story is how what happens affects someone who is trying to achieve what turns out to be a difficult goal, and how he or she changes as a result.
nothing focuses the mind like surprise.
what we’re hoping for in that opening sentence is the sense that something is about to change (and not necessarily for the better).
here are the three basic things readers relentlessly hunt for as they read that first page: 1. Whose story is it? 2. What’s happening here? 3. What’s at stake?
something must be happening—beginning on the first page—that the protagonist is affected by. Something that gives us a glimpse of the “big picture.”
conflict that is specific to the protagonist’s quest.
Think of the boring parts as anything that doesn’t relate to or affect your protagonist’s quest.
Do we know whose story it is?
Is something happening, beginning on the first page?
Is there conflict in what’s happening? Will the conflict have a direct impact on the protagonist’s quest,
Is something at stake on the first page?
Is there a sense that “all is not as it seems”?
Can we glimpse enough of the “big picture” to have that all-important yardstick? It’s the “big picture” that gives readers perspective and conveys the point of each scene, enabling them to add things up. If we don’t know where the story is going, how can we tell if it’s moving at all?
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 theme, is what your story says about human nature. Theme tends to be reflected in how your characters treat each other,
theme actually boils down to something incredibly simple: • What does the story tell us about what it means to be human? • What does it say about how humans react to circumstances beyond their control?
Theme often reveals your take on how an element of human nature—loyalty, suspicion, grit, love—defines human behavior.
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.
What is it I want my readers to walk away thinking about? What point does my story make? How do I want to change the way my reader sees the world?
Plot facilitates story by forcing the protagonist to confront and deal with the issue that keeps him from achieving his goal.
Tone is often how theme is conveyed, by cueing your readers to the emotional prism through which you want them to view your story
Readers are a surprisingly accepting lot when it comes to willfully blind protagonists, provided they understand the reason for their blindness.
Do you know what the point of your story is? What do you want people to walk away thinking about? How do you want to change how they see the world?
Do you know what your story says about human nature?
Do the protagonist’s inner issue, the theme, and the plot work together to answer the story question?
Ask yourself: Is my theme reflected in the way the world treats my protagonist? Does each plot twist and turn force my protagonist to deal with his inner issue, the thing that’s holding him back?
Do the plot and theme stick to the st...
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Can you sum up what your story is about in a short paragraph?
“Emotions are mechanisms that set the brain’s highest-level goals.”
everything in a story gets its emotional weight and meaning based on how it affects the protagonist.
in every scene you write, the protagonist must react in a way the reader can see and understand in the moment. This reaction must be specific, personal, and have an effect on whether the protagonist achieves her goal.
body language works best when it’s at odds with what’s happening—either by telling us something that the character doesn’t want known
or by dashing a character’s expectations:
you’d be surprised how often writers forget to let us know what a character hopes will happen, so that when it doesn’t, we have no idea their expectations have been dashed.
Write What You Know Emotionally
Write about what you need to know, in an effort to understand.”
Think of body language as a “tell,” something that cues your reader into the fact that all is not as it seems.
the most common obstacle in both life and story is figuring out what other people really mean.
without a goal, everything is meaningless.
what needs to be explained is why the protagonist wants what she wants, what it means to her, and what getting it will cost her.
Often the protagonist’s external goal changes as the story progresses—in fact, that’s often what the reader is rooting for
By defining your protagonist’s internal and external goals, and then pitting them against each other, you can often ignite the kind of external tension and internal conflict capable of driving an entire narrative.
make sure that everything your protagonist faces—beginning on page one—springs specifically from the problem she needs to solve, both internally and externally.
we’ve also got to establish two things—that big changes are coming and all is not as it seems—and we have to do it as quickly as possible.
