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)

Lisa Cron

Aug 2016 · Sold by Ten Speed Press

About this ebook

Following on the heels of Lisa Cron's breakout first book, Wired for Story, this writing guide reveals how to use cognitive storytelling strategies to build a scene-by-scene blueprint for a riveting story.

It’s every novelist’s greatest fear: pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into writing hundreds of pages only to realize that their story has no sense of urgency, no internal logic, and so is a page one rewrite. 

The prevailing wisdom in the writing community is that there are just two ways around this problem: pantsing (winging it) and plotting (focusing on the external plot). Story coach Lisa Cron has spent her career discovering why these methods don’t work and coming up with a powerful alternative, based on the science behind what our brains are wired to crave in every story we read (and it’s not what you think). 

In Story Genius Cron takes you, step-by-step, through the creation of a novel from the first glimmer of an idea, to a complete multilayered blueprint—including fully realized scenes—that evolves into a first draft with the authority, richness, and command of a riveting sixth or seventh draft.

Ratings and reviews

Guilty of owning way, way too many writing books (many of which for many years and yet still unread), I debated about this one for weeks (months?). There were two things I'd seen in reviews that gave me pause: 1. There's a lot of repetition as in Cron keeps saying the same things to drill them in, but more often than necessary 2. There isn't much science in the book As to those, I often find writing books to be repetitive and generally am not fond of it. In this book, though, the blueprinting book method is different from all of what I've read on preparing to write, so usually, I appreciated the repeats. However, I did read it in chunks over a 3 week period. Not to mention that if I find a book useful, I don't mind skimming when necessary. As to the second, I thought it had just enough science. Cron mentions the brain's reactions to storytelling and other scientific tidbits I found useful. She references each study in the back of the book, so you can track them down and read for more detail if desired. I found Cron's approach to planning a novel to be stellar. It gets to the heart of storytelling and made me really consider why I love the books I do. Those are the sort of books I want to be able to write but wasn't sure I'd ever have the insight on how to write them. This book makes all of that much clearer. I like the method very much and am looking forward to using it. Cron goes step by step through creating a story that is focused on the internal change within characters. While the process isn't simple--there's a lot of work involved--it's sensible and, I believe, easy enough to implement and incorporate, thus requiring less work the more you use it. I highly recommend this book and look forward to using Cron's method.

Serious Lisa Cron, I love both your books; they've been so helpful to my writing. I'll be purchasing everything you ever write as and when you write it. Thank you for these incredible gems :)

The book has been incredibly helpful for my writing.

About the author

LISA CRON has worked as a literary agent, a TV producer, and a story consultant for Warner Brothers, the William Morris Agency, and many others. She is a frequent speaker at writers’ conferences, and a story coach for writers, educators, and journalists. She teaches in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts MFA in Visual Narrative Program, and is the author of Wired for Story. She splits her time between Santa Monica, California, and New York, New York.