Wired for Story: What Audiences Really Crave and How to Give it to Them
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- Опубликовано: 1 июн 2024
- Imagine knowing what we’re hardwired to crave in every story we encounter, what fuels the success of any story, and keeps readers transfixed. The answer is a game-changer, especially since the secret to writing a compelling story has very little to do with the surface plot or learning to "write well.” We’ll explore what your reader's brain craves, why, what a story actually is, and why writers are therefore the most powerful people on the planet. The result? You’ll be able zero in on what your story is actually about before you write word one (or if you’re in the midst of your umpteenth rewrite, before you write another word). You'll not only produce a more powerful story, chances are you'll drastically reduce your rewrite time.
Lisa Cron is a story coach and the author of Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers From the Very First Sentence and Story Genius: How To Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages that Go Nowhere) both published by Ten Speed Press.
Her video tutorial Writing Fundamentals: The Craft of Story can be found at Lynda.com.
Lisa has worked in publishing at W.W. Norton, as an agent at the Angela Rinaldi Literary Agency, as a producer on shows for Showtime and CourtTV, and as a story consultant for Warner Brothers and the William Morris Agency.
Since 2006, she's been an instructor in the UCLA Extension Writers' Program and is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts MFA Visual Narrative program in New York City.
Lisa works with writers, nonprofits, educators and organizations, helping them master the unparalleled power of story, so they can move people to action - whether that action is turning the pages of a compelling novel, trying a new product, or taking to the streets to change the world for the better.
For more information please visit: mfavisualnarrative.sva.edu/
Mic the audience, no way she wasn't getting laughs! Great talk, loved every second!
Lisa Cron understands story better than any human being alive.
I love this lady! She makes me feel like there is hope for my writing.
Great talk! I'm reading Story Genius and Lisa really changed the way I see story. I always felt something was missing in those "plotting method" books. Turns out they somehow always missed the point. Lisa is doing great work! That said...
The gentleman at the end was quite... forceful (I would even say rude) in his questions to someone he doesn't even know. He talked with no regards for politeness and addressed her as if she owed him something. Just when I was thinking he sounded condescending, he says "women, even" to "people who can write a book". I didn't want to assume he was being mysogynistic in his behavior until he said that, but as the saying goes, if it quacks like a duck...
I just wanted to show my sympathies, because it's so hard to get respect as a woman in the academic field. Some men feel so aggravated, they feel the need to show aggressiveness even when asking questions. It's ridiculous.
(Also, for anyone wondering exactly how to get ideas on the point of your story, the misbelief, motivation and so on, I recommend searching for brainstorming methods, as well as reading Story Genius, of course).
Stop projecting, this man bashing biased BS is literally part of the problem. Men aren't women, we speak and think differently and we will not be feminized in order to satisfy your emotions.
Lisa Cron, you're that last glimmer of hope in the storytelling industry. But storytelling, as you've discussed, incites change, so to be more accurate you're the last glimmer of hope in this world.
She's great. I clicked out of 10 other videos after 10 minutes because the speakers were not THIS.
She's laughing about 2016 four years ago about how divided the country was. I'm writing this in 2021 and welcome how united we were in 2016. I wonder how many of these 4 years ago's are going to keep rolling through?
I'm so happy Lisa said she never read The Odyssey. Now I don't feel so ashamed that I've never read it either.....
Directly to the point of the question the gentleman at the end asks, "What if the writer doesn't know what the point is?" The answer, for so many writers, is that you so often have to get to the end of the first draft before you, as the writer, get that "Aha!" moment and realize what you're protagonist is truly about, what he/she is truly after, what his/her illusion or "misbelief" is that needs to be confronted before he/she can get to what is desired.
I think that a good story that draws us in and we want to re-read/watch is like comfort food. I've watched several versions of Alice in Wonderland, and I don't like them all, but the basis of the story is comforting - same with the Wizard of Oz and Edgar Allen Poe and A Christmas Carol by Dickens. These feed me.
I love when she says "there's no such thing as mindless entertainment".
To really get to know a person you would have to read her/his mind. What we say is not always what we think. What we think is not always true. Our life is a mixture of outside events AND how they affect us, how we let them to affect us. Before we have a breakthrough we usually have to go through a lot of crap to come out better and stronger. We look for inspiration in books, we need some role model to show us how to do things to get where we want to go. Books help us discover ourselves and they help us push ourselves. Life is rich emotionally, so books need to be too. Change your thinking to change your life. Good, meaningful books need to be rich on internal level to be good, it just makes sense! I enjoyed this talk immensely, although I write picture books so I don't really need to go that deeply, but I'm sure this will help me too.
This was great! Thanks so much for uploading!
And she did such a good job dealing with the rude guy at the end while still making great points.
I love Lisa Cron as a speaker.
Simply love her. Get's her point out and gives her angles in a totally new way
Intro ends at 2:48
writing is actually about truth and falsehood. humans are obsessed with detecting truth out of falsehood, that's why game of thrones is so interesting. grrm writes as if his main characters are immortal, but then they die. that's the truth. you have to write in a way that's deceptive, but has a grain of truth, like a diamond in the rough, then people will be transfixed by your story.
Think game of thrones is extremely boring, always can read like 1 page at a time before I get bored to tears.
Can tell that it was written by a pantser, it's all over the place and seems so pointless.
@@ijuka I agree that the books were somewhat annoying to read. My criticism of them has to do with the characters acting too melodramatic, too over the top cartoony. But, I guess that's ok. I really enjoyed the hedge knight though. When I was talking about Game of Thrones here I was probably talking about the TV series which did a good job adapting GRRM's stories. Until it fell apart. When I watched the season 1-4, at least, it didn't feel like pantsy.... it felt very nice.
I recently discovered Lisa and her work. I really like what she has to say, and I immediately started reading one of her books. I agree in part that we read books for story rather than for beauty of language. However, that’s not true of Shakespeare. We don’t really read Shakespeare for the stories, most of which were borrowed from other sources anyway. I wonder how Lisa would reconcile the lasting interest in Shakespeare with her idea about story over beauty.
Well presented, much needed for my lazy Sunday afternoon; writing a synopsis for my m/s is on my schedule--instead, I'm podcasting through an easy day. I like how you home in on "why". And good Q at 1:36. My story is an issue driven high concept memoir. (But) from this lecture, I've learned to focus why what happens rather than what happens.
Thank you for the info Lisa
Thanks in a million. Awesome. 💥
How do you use this in writing a children’s book? (ages 4-8?) Like picture books?
35:00 no such thing as mindless entertainment, good storytellers can change worldviews and behaviors
37:20 Entertainment and stories enters through our gut, The reason that story has power is because it translates ideas, themes and lessons into a specific individual experience - making them accessible to a person's emotions - and a person's emotions are the biological system through which make all decisions.
44:23 story is how what happens, effects a protagonist, is pursuit of a deceptively difficult goal - and how that person changes internally as a result. Burn the ‘hero’s journey’ - it’s a plot structure device not a story structure
1:07:50 when story grabs you you’re helpless
1:08:10 don’t balk at your power as a storyteller, also beware how you’re being influenced
1:13:00 memoirs have to storytelling the same as novels, they should read just like a novel
1:13:50, 1:14:49 only mention details that audience needs to know for the internal struggle. Audience cares whether character will achieve their agenda or not.
1:15:00 what were following and creates a sense of urgency is that internal struggle and how events effect/transform character in pursuit of what they want
1:25:50 why people enjoy same story again and again
1:31:55 What's your point? All stories make a point, what's your point? What matters to you? What's the insight?
1:34:40 Our brains are wired to want to make sense of things, to look for the cause an effect. To look for meaning
1:35:06 We make meaning out of events because that's how we survive, "What does this mean? Is it gonna help me or is it gonna hurt me?"
This audience member at the end... did he listen to her talk at alllllll?
He’s mad that he has to do more work on his story.
@@oORiseAboveOo He's mad because he has no point.
Something that always stood out to me about Die Hard is how Holly started using her maiden name on her job and how it’s a stomach (or even lower) punch to John. It speaks to gender roles which Ms. Cohn hit on.
At the end of the movie it is such efficient storytelling when John introduces his wife to Al as Holly Generro and she “corrects” John and introduces herself as Holly McClain.
Completed character arc signaled. And something else: Grindr respected Holly’s position saying her boss had chosen his people well. Grueber as the shadow of John possesses what John needs to obtain - to respect and value his wife’s totality of being, her individual worth in the business world and not just as his wife.
He’s chauvinistic and no doubt she was making more money than him and his male ego couldn’t reconcile it. Almost losing her makes him reevaluate himself. While again, Grueber openly praises her for her leadership in the situation. The concept of the shadow character is something I’ll be exploring more because it feels like a “level up” kind of thing to understand.
As for The Sixth Sense, Bruce Willis’s character learns to let go. He had another patient that he couldn’t help and lost. However, after he succeeds to help this little boy, he reconciled that previous failure. That was a change.
That said, I always thought the little boy was the protagonist of the movie. I followed his throughline of wanting to not see dead people anymore and to be able to tell someone and to be freed from the fear and trauma of seeing these souls. That’s what he wanted.
What he needed was to accept his gift and find the purpose of it which was to help the souls resolve whatever issue it was that kept them bound here on earth to people they knew and loved. Bruce Willis character helped him reframe the narrative around his gift (his sixth sense). Because of that, the younger sister of the little girl whose Mother slowly poisoned her to death - her life was saved.
And the little boy was also able to help Bruce Willis’s character resolve his unfinished business as well - which is how he was able to move on.
So I saw transformation in both characters but again I believed the little boy was the main protagonist and he had a huge character arc.
I don’t know that it’s that big of a cheat. The little boy even says I see dead people. They don’t know that they’re dead. He says that early on in the movie but yeah we don’t fill in the blanks at that point.
I can liken that to being in a dream state. Dreams don’t really have a clear starting point and they just kind of unfold outside of linear time - at least mine do.
So I enjoyed the movie; but I haven’t seen it in years and not since I started learning craft. I might view it differently now but have good memories of the experience of watching it.
Update: have seen where the global protagonist of the movie owns the climax and the inciting incident happens to them. Well the movie opens with Bruce Willis getting shot and dying and the last scene / big reveal / climax is him realizing he has passed on. The inciting incident is probably where the two meet?
Little boys status quo disrupted by someone showing up to help him. BW character life disrupted not just by ending but by being able to help this boy successfully - and he is in turn helped.
BW owns the climax though - so while both characters might be protagonists, BW is probably the main protagonist.
I see now.
I'm a nonfiction and sales writer. I think she overcomplicates. I gained the most from the first two chapters in her book.
Lots of amazing points but I do disagree with her comment about being in the present moment. Of course you can be in the present moment and KNOW there is a tomorrow. Lol. There's a big difference between living 'in the moment' and living 'for the moment'.
Fifty Shades of Grey is to literature what candy corn is to vegetables. Ick.
She didnt explain what makes us watch the same movie over and over again, in terms of what can someone do to make it happen
Girl!! you speak so fast!!
You can slow playback speed a bit.
She needs a lav mic
Yah, don't eat the mic.
Most examples from movies when the talk is about books. Sixth sense is bad and Die hard is good. Plus a snide comment on Ekhart Tolle.
The talk isn't about books. It's about story. The medium in which the story is communicated doesn't matter.
The guy at the end with the persistent questions about how to find the point needs to go back to his day job. He has nothing to say, he's not a writer and never will be.
The guy at the end touched on a soft spot in Lisa's theory and expressed what many authors feel. It is the old Plotter VS Pantser War - Do you start with the "point" and plan out everything before you sit to write or do you write from the deep wells of your subconscious as you go and see were you end up? The answer is BOTH: Plotter-Pantser is a Spectrum and many writers are located on different spots on it. But to answer the guy's question specifically since he's a full blown Panster; you bleed on the page and once you're done and know what your story is really about you go back and imbue the meaning in every scene during your re-writes. By the end you should have a story that demonstrates what your story is about, your point, in every single scene.
Actually, Lisa Cron doesn't believe in plotting nor pantsing. This is not some plotting advice, she's against plotting.
As for pantsing, it's tough to write without having a point in mind. If it works for you great, but then you don't really need this advice. She recognizes that some people are able to pants a proper story without really trying. Otherwise, the danger is that the whole thing will be aimless and pointless, and that after pantsing a first draft you are looking at a complete page 1 rewrite in order to write with a point, which is quite a bit of time to waste.
She talks too fast without breaks, she dodges questions she can't answer and like all storytelling gurus anything that doesn't fit into her theory is dismissed on sight. BUT, she does provide penetrating insights on the internal structuring of stories, their ability to change the world, how all stories are in essence moralistic and didactic(in the good sense) and she's one of the few people left on this earth who understands Storytellers actually have INTENDED MEANING/Authorial Intent. Bravo - good lecture for all storytellers.
If you can figure it out in the beginning, it does make everything much, much, much easier. Similar advice from ScreenwritingU is "start with the pitch." If you know where you're going, it's easier to get there.
What I see her being good at is highlighting what's actually important, whether we can figure it out at the beginning or it takes a few drafts first.
What question(s) did she dodge? You can’t be talking about the times she transparently admitted she had not read the source material about which the questions were posed instead of just trying to BS her way through an answer. That’s not dodging the question. That’s being honest.
I’m not being snarky. I’m truly wondering at what point in the talk you saw her dodge questions. I didn’t see any.