Cron - Wired for story : the writers guide to using brain science to hook readers from the very first sentence

Copyright 2012 by Lisa Cron

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
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Front cover pen photograph copyright iStockphoto.com/pmphoto
Front cover ink blot illustrations copyright iStockphoto.com/Krasstin

Cron, Lisa.
Wired for story : the writers guide to using brain science to hook readers from the very first sentence / Lisa Cron. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: This guide reveals how writers can take advantage of the brains hardwired responses to story to captivate their readers minds through each plot elementProvided by publisher.
1. English languageRhetoric. 2. FictionAuthorship. 3. Creative writing.
I. Title.
PE1408.C7164 2012
808.036dc23

eISBN: 978-1-60774-246-3

v3.1

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Introduction

How to Hook the Reader

COGNITIVE SECRET: We think in story, which allows us to envision the future.

STORY SECRET: From the very first sentence, the reader must wan1t to know what happens next.

How to ZeroIn on Your Point

COGNITIVE SECRET: When the brain focuses its full attention on something, it filters out all unnecessary information.

STORY SECRET: To hold the brains attention, everything in a story must be there on a need-to-know basis.

Ill Feel What Hes Feeling

COGNITIVE SECRET: Emotion determines the meaning of everythingif were not feeling, were not conscious.

STORY SECRET: All story is emotion basedif were not feeling, were not reading.

What Does Your ProtagonistReallyWant?

COGNITIVE SECRET: Everything we do is goal directed, and our biggest goal is figuring out everyone elses agenda, the better to achieve our own.

STORY SECRET: A protagonist without a clear goal has nothing to figure out and nowhere to go.

Digging Up Your Protagonists Inner Issue

COGNITIVE SECRET: We see the world not as it is, but as we believe it to be.

STORY SECRET: You must know precisely when, and why, your protagonists worldview was knocked out of alignment.

The Story Is in the Specifics

COGNITIVE SECRET: We dont think in the abstract; we think in specific images.

STORY SECRET: Anything conceptual, abstract, or general must be made tangible in the protagonists specific struggle.

Courting Conflict, the Agent of Change

COGNITIVE SECRET: The brain is wired to stubbornly resist change, even good change.

STORY SECRET: Story is about change, which results only from unavoidable conflict.

Cause and Effect

COGNITIVE SECRET: From birth, our brains primary goal is to make causal connectionsif this, then that.

STORY SECRET: A story follows a cause-and-effect trajectory from start to finish.

What Can Go Wrong, Must Go Wrongand Then Some

COGNITIVE SECRET: The brain uses stories to simulate how we might navigate difficult situations in the future.

STORY SECRET: A storys job is to put the protagonist through tests that, even in her wildest dreams, she doesnt think she can pass.

The Road from Setup to Payoff

COGNITIVE SECRET: Since the brain abhors randomness, its always converting raw data into meaningful patterns, the better to anticipate what might happen next.

STORY SECRET: Readers are always on the lookout for patterns; to your reader, everything is either a setup, a payoff, or the road in between.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

COGNITIVE SECRET: The brain summons past memories to evaluate whats happening in the moment in order to make sense of it.