Wired for Story : The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence [Paperback]

This is a superb book, simply the best I've read on this topic, entertaining, insightful and incredibly helpful in my writing.

I read this book as a screenwriter, with a couple of independent movies under my belt and a stage play. So I'm not a total beginner, but at the same time I haven't produced anything of significance yet. This said, I really took away a ton of insights from this book. The whole neuro-science stuff is actually quite weak and mostly relies on pop-scientists and TED-orators like Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell. Science? Not really. Still the book is a REALLY good introduction to the craft of story-telling. I've only read a handful of books on the topic yet, still it feels like this is the one I've taken away most of yet. And yes, I've read STORY by McKee. She disagrees with McKee on some points, for example, why you shouldn't write a character's backstory too extensive(ly?). She argues, quite plausible to me, that if you start inventing stuff for your characters, that is not directly relevant to your story (e.g. your protagonist having played the piano for 12 years), it will eventually end up in the story, although it has no right of being there. Actually it's a distraction and a danger. But you fell in love with the idea of your character playing the piano so much - it creeps into your story anyways. The best thing about the book is that the author offers many simple and elegant analogies, to otherwise complex ideas. Like unneeded story information (e.g. a superflous character) being a big elephant, wandering the halls of your story, looking for something to do (mostly damage that is). So there's lots of good stuff here. For this low investment (in both money and time) the offered info is a real bargain. I recommend it to you and wish you all the best on your personal writer's journey.

This book gives one a real great insights. Very helpful...

I was hooked on this book as soon as I read in the Introduction that the writer believes that story was more vital to our evolution than opposable thumbs.She goes on to state that story originated as a means for bringing us together to share important, even life-preserving information. This is not really a how-to book, but it is a book that helps us understand the purpose of a story and how we, as writers, can better achieve that purpose. Sometimes her statements seem obvious. In the very first chapter she tells us that from the very start the reader must want to know what happens next. Before you say "Of course," read on to get a much deeper understanding of that concept. That is the point of the book - the writer takes these well-known issues and delves deeper into them, showing how they affect the brain and the emotions. Each chapter has many sub-sections to maintain visual interest and each chapter also has a "cognitive secret" and a "story secret". Personally I'm not a fan of this kind of 'secret', but here it is a way of combining concepts usefully and putting a new perspective on old ideas. This is one of the most useful writing books on my bookshelf. It's one I return to often to refresh myself when I'm bogged down. If you'd like to get a little deeper into your writing, understand the why's as well as the how's this would be the book to buy.

L'ambiente dell'industria editoriale occidentale non ci piace. È corrotto, ladro e mafiosetto. L'idea di spendere tempo e denaro per studiarsi di farsi accettare personalmente e professionalmente da esso, ancor meno. Oltretutto, se c'è un sotto-settore dell'industria editoriale che da novanta anni sfrutta la ambizione tutta piccolo-borghese cantata dai Beatles ne "Paperback Writer" e la volontà di migliorare se stessi dei fessi, è proprio l'industria del consiglio editoriale di massa. La prima pagina della Signora LISA CRON che ho aperto mi ha visto addormentato prima che finissi il paragrafo sul quale avevo puntato gli pcchi.