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

by Lisa Cron

In other words, memories aren’t just for reminiscing. They never were. Memories are for navigating the now.

“Gossip is a favorite pastime in all human societies because knowledge is power.”5 Sometimes this knowledge gives us power over others, and sometimes it gives us the power to make the right decision when our time comes.

The Crow’s Secret

Because it’s not just about getting from point A to point Z; it’s about being aware of everything—past, present, and future, internal and external—that affects the protagonist’s struggle, each step of the way.

Subplots: How the Plot Thickens

Nathan Bransford, pacing is the length of time between moments of conflict.8

SUBPLOTS: THE READER’S EXPECTATION

Here are three ways a subplot can do its job:

Supply information that affects what’s

happening in the main ...

Make the protagonist’s

quest that

much hard...

Tell us something that deepens our understanding of the protagonist. Forget

Flashback—What’s the Cause and What Effect Does It Have?

Flashbacks and Subplots: Harnessing Cause and Effect to Timing

The only reason to go into a flashback is that, without the information it provides, what happens next won’t make sense. Thus there is a specific need—or cause—that triggers the flashback. • This cause needs to be clear, so we know, from the second the flashback begins, why we’re going into it. We must have a pretty good sense of why we need this information now. And as the flashback unfolds, we always need to sense how it relates to the story that’s been put on hold. • When the flashback ends, the information it provided must immediately—and necessarily—affect how we see the story from that point on. The flashback needs to have given us information without which what’s about to happen wouldn’t have quite made sense. This isn’t to say it can’t also have given us information whose significance we won’t learn until later—but it can’t be only that.

Do all your subplots affect the protagonist, either externally or internally, as he struggles with the story question? Readers don’t want subplots

When you leap into a subplot or flashback, can the reader sense why it was necessary at that very moment?

When returning to the main storyline, will your reader see things with new eyes from that moment

When the protagonist does something out of character, has it been foreshadowed? Make sure

Have you given your reader enough information to understand what’s happening, so that nothing a character does or says leaves her wondering whether she missed something?

it does—provided I don’t think about it. As neuropsychiatrist Richard Restak says, “In many cases we decrease accuracy and efficiency by thinking too hard.”

It’s important (not to mention reassuring) to keep in mind that writing is a process. It is rarely possible to address all of a story’s trouble spots in a single draft, so don’t be hard

What is actually going on in the story’s “real world”—that is, objectively? • What does each character believe is going on? • Where are there contradictions? (Joe, believing that his brother Mark is their dad’s favorite, is forever trying to win his dad’s approval; Mark knows that their dad is really an evil alien, so he has been protecting Joe from him ever since he was born.) • Given what each character believes is true (as opposed to what might actually be true), how would they act in the scene? • Does what each character does in the scene make sense, given what he or

she believes is true? In fact, it’s a good idea to make a chart for your entire story, called:

MYTH: Writers Are Rebels Who Were Born to Break the Rules REALITY: Successful Writers Follow the Damn Rules

Jack London famously said, “Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club.”16 Hemingway concurred: “Work every day. No matter what has happened the day or night before, get up and bite on the nail.”17