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Book Recommendation: Wired for Story, by Lisa Cron

“It is only by stopping to analyze what we’re unconsciously responding to when we read a story…that we can then write a story that will grab the [reader]. This is true whether you’re writing a literary novel, hard-boiled mystery, or supernatural teen romance.” ~from Wired for Story

What makes for a good story, or a bad one for that matter? As a reader, I’ve flipped through pages of a novel with beautiful prose, confounded as to why I can’t stand the story. Was it plot? Subject? Character? Too, I’ve wondered why books with flat prose kept me up at night, turning pages.

There’s a secret to this writing business, and Lisa Cron takes a look at that secret from the inside out in her new book, Wired for Story: the Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence.

Brain science, think of that, applied to writing.

I received an ARC of this book a few months ago, and since then I’ve underlined passages on several pages and earmarked the rest (thank goodness we don’t have to return ARCs). I love Lisa’s fresh look at storytelling and structure. Using research in neuroscience, Lisa doesn’t just focus on what makes a story work but explains why a story works. At the same time, she lists questions at the end of each chapter to help writers gauge when and where their stories need more attention.

I’m not kidding when I say I’ve left pencil tracks on 80% of this book. While I don’t have the space to share everything that I love about it with you, I want to highlight one thing that stuck out for me.

“The story is in the specifics.”

Story ideas, when viewed in a general way, are not unique. Nor are they very exciting. As Lisa says, the story comes alive in the specifics. Throughout her book, Lisa gives writers tips, tools, and strategies to take back to their drafts, to make their characters their own, to add depth to their stories and turn them into ones readers won’t want to put down. Wired for Story is a great resource to keep close at hand while working through that first, second, and tenth draft.

You can read an excerpt of Lisa’s book on Jane Friedman’s blog or check out her Q&A with John Magnet Bell on Start Your Novel. For more information about Lisa Cron and Wired for Story, check out her website: wiredforstory.com.

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A New Endeavor & a Writing Prompt

Last month, I facilitated my first writing workshop, one that included an atypical group of writers. Those who sat around the table weren’t budding undergraduates or emerging writers in an MFA program. They weren’t even a group of Moms on the run, searching for tips on finding time to write (my imagined first audience). The people I led in workshop were of an older generation, men and women from a retirement community, who came together simply because they love to write. And, they needed a guide.

I’m a good forty years younger than most of the folks at the table, and on that first day I wondered what I might have to share, really. How I might relate. Sure, I write daily, have a few stories out there, but my stories – and my style – must be so different from theirs.

During our hour together, they read their stories and then we talked about creative fiction versus non. I got all fired up: stood up and started waving my arms and talking too loud. It was a necessary display in some ways, because one person was having trouble hearing. Still, I might have waved my arms regardless.

What I learned, then, is that age nor difference matters. Writing brings people to a common ground and good stories are ones we can relate to, in theme and in character, even if not in exact details.

Once I saw that they were eager to come back, I gave them an assignment for the next time we meet.

And, as something different here (and to keep me on my toes there), I’ll be posting our monthly writing prompt. This assignment is yours, too, if you want it.

The Prompt

Last month, Sarah Baughman wrote a post about moving to a new place, and about nostalgia, and she explained for me, in just a few sentences, why I return again and again to a certain time or place in my past:

I’ve lived on four continents in my adult life, more than I ever thought I’d even see. It has been my good fortune but also my heartache. A character in one of John Cheever’s many strange and wonderful stories says, “When you’re in one place and long to be in another, it isn’t as simple as taking a boat. You don’t really long for another country. You long for something in yourself that you don’t have, or haven’t been able to find.” The statement rung partly true but also puzzled me until today, when I realized that in my case, the things in myself I always look for are, in fact, the pieces of myself which have surprisingly grown and taken hold in all the different places I’ve lived, and which will never leave me.

nostalgiaThink about a time or a memory that you return to again and again. Write about that event/experience/person you left behind. If you’d like to write this as fiction, consider embellishing the story or creating a new character in place of yourself.

If nothing else, go read Sarah’s post.
You can’t help but be inspired.

* Photo credits: kakisky and cohdra on morguefile.com and Zaprittsky on flickr.com

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Parallels in Music & Writing

Last week, I sat on a committee assigned to interview someone for a choir director position. There are two things you should know about me and choir:
1) I don’t sing. Unless I’m alone or trying to get my kids’ attention;
2) “choir” – and “committee” – mean interacting with others in close quarters. I’m a writer. I hang out on the fringe. I observe, take notes, sweat at the thought of “small talk.”

Still, for unknown reasons, I was asked to join the group of interviewers, and, even more surprising, I said yes. Sometimes it’s good to get out of your comfort zone.

The person we interviewed was as passionate about choir and music as I am about writing, a testament that creatives aren’t that different, no matter the medium. He spoke of music in ways I understood. I sat there, smiling, nodding, almost imagining myself in the ranks, singing alto, belting a tune or two.

Almost.

I definitely took notes on how he viewed music.

Music as invitation.

Music keeps us engaged, he said. Once the notes fill our ears and graze our hearts, there is an irresistible pull to lose ourselves in song. Music begs us to participate.

Much like a good story that hints at questions and prods us to seek answers. A good story, with vivid images and inescapable narrative, stimulates our brain with “sights, sounds, tastes, and movement of real life,” as Lisa Cron says in her upcoming book, Wired for Story:

That’s what accounts for the…visceral reactions we feel when we can’t stop reading, even though it’s past midnight and we have to be up at dawn.

When was the last time you stayed up late to finish a book? Or to listen to one more song on your favorite album? And, what was it about that story or song that held you?

Music as relationship.

Music is the glue that connects us, a medium that brings us in communion with each other with notes and harmonies that surround us and instill one message or another.

RE:Union - A story of cancer in the familyWriting, too, brings us together through experiences shared in a memoir or in the empathy and emotion evoked in poetry or fiction. A small detail or a passage strikes a chord with us; we immerse ourselves in the story, because we relate.

Music as spiritual experience.

The melody in a song has, at times, taken hold of my heart and squeezed it a little bit, just enough, then released it so I may catch my breath again. Other times, it the words intermingled that strike me and stay with me.

Certain stories have done the same for me, shifted my perspective on the world. I’ve read a particular Stanley Kunitz poem over and over, because, each time, it soothes a pressing ache.

While the person we interviewed spoke of music and its effect within the walls of a church, so much of what he said translates into a broader spectrum of understanding, in music and in writing. In this interview on The Rumpus, Nikki Lane hints at what must have been a spiritual experience for her, with music, and she wasn’t anywhere near a steeple (I’m guessing):

I remember the day I first heard Neil Young; I remember what everything looked like, what tennis shoes I was wearing. It just blew my mind.

You know it’s good, the story or the song, when, years later, you still remember the shoes your wore.

* Photo credits: imelenchon on morguefile.com and mescon on flickr.com

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