Sunday, August 29, 2021

Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel

Written by: Lisa Cron

First line: What's the biggest mistake writers make?

Why you should read this book: If you feel like you have book inside you and have no idea how to get it out, this might be the solution you've been looking for. Cron's method focuses on a reader's connection to a character's emotional journal and provides a host of exercises for helping authors create compelling reasons for their readers to fall into a story and never want to come out. Each chapter builds on the last, leading to the creation of a "blueprint" (rather than an outline—you really need to read the book to understand the distinction) that, the book promises, will make the actual writing of the novel as simple as paint-by-numbers.

Why you shouldn't read this book: I personally felt this method sucked all the joy and pleasure out of the creative process without offering seasoned writers anything new except charts to fill out with information that they previously just kept in their head; also I didn't really see how "brain science" figured into the method, other than by identifying character driven stories as being the most interesting and helping new writers understand things like back stories and motivation.

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