The compelling, groundbreaking guide to creative writing that reveals
how the brain responds to storytelling, based on the wildly popular
creative writing classStories shape who we are. They drive us to act
out our dreams and ambitions and mold our beliefs. Storytelling is an
essential part of what makes us human. So, how do master storytellers
compel us? In The Science of Storytelling, award-winning writer and
acclaimed teacher of creative writing Will Storr applies dazzling
psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and
archetypes to show how we can write better stories, revealing, among
other things, how storytellers--and also our brains--create worlds by
being attuned to moments of unexpected change.
Will Storr's superbly chosen examples range from Harry Potter to Jane
Austen to Alice Walker, Greek drama to Russian novels to Native American
folk tales, King Lear to Breaking Bad to children's stories. With
sections such as "The Dramatic Question," "Creating a World," and "Plot,
Endings, and Meaning," as well as a practical, step-by-step appendix
dedicated to "The Sacred Flaw Approach," The Science of Storytelling
reveals just what makes stories work, placing it alongside such creative
writing classics as John Yorke's Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey
into Story and Lajos Egri's The Art of Dramatic Writing. Enlightening
and empowering, The Science of Storytelling is destined to become an
invaluable resource for writers of all stripes, whether novelist,
screenwriter, playwright, children's writer, or writer of creative or
traditional nonfiction.
