Wired for Story

2012-07-10
Wired for Story

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  • Author: Lisa Cron
  • Publisher: Ten Speed Press
  • ISBN: 1607742454
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 274

This guide reveals how writers can utilize cognitive storytelling strategies to craft stories that ignite readers’ brains and captivate them through each plot element. Imagine knowing what the brain craves from every tale it encounters, what fuels the success of any great story, and what keeps readers transfixed. Wired for Story reveals these cognitive secrets—and it’s a game-changer for anyone who has ever set pen to paper. The vast majority of writing advice focuses on “writing well” as if it were the same as telling a great story. This is exactly where many aspiring writers fail—they strive for beautiful metaphors, authentic dialogue, and interesting characters, losing sight of the one thing that every engaging story must do: ignite the brain’s hardwired desire to learn what happens next. When writers tap into the evolutionary purpose of story and electrify our curiosity, it triggers a delicious dopamine rush that tells us to pay attention. Without it, even the most perfect prose won’t hold anyone’s interest. Backed by recent breakthroughs in neuroscience as well as examples from novels, screenplays, and short stories, Wired for Story offers a revolutionary look at story as the brain experiences it. Each chapter zeroes in on an aspect of the brain, its corresponding revelation about story, and the way to apply it to your storytelling right now.

Story Genius

2016-08-09
Story Genius

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  • Author: Lisa Cron
  • Publisher: Ten Speed Press
  • ISBN: 1607748894
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 290

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.

Sand

2009-01-15
Sand

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  • Author: Michael Welland
  • Publisher: Univ of California Press
  • ISBN: 0520942000
  • Category : Nature
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 375

From individual grains to desert dunes, from the bottom of the sea to the landscapes of Mars, and from billions of years in the past to the future, this is the extraordinary story of one of nature's humblest, most powerful, and most ubiquitous materials. Told by a geologist with a novelist's sense of language and narrative, Sand examines the science—sand forensics, the physics of granular materials, sedimentology, paleontology and archaeology, planetary exploration—and at the same time explores the rich human context of sand. Interwoven with tales of artists, mathematicians, explorers, and even a vampire, the story of sand is an epic of environmental construction and destruction, an adventure in staggering scales of time and distance, yet a tale that encompasses the ordinary and everyday. Sand, in fact, is all around us—it has made possible our computers, buildings and windows, toothpaste, cosmetics, and paper, and it has played dramatic roles in human history, commerce, and imagination. In this luminous, kinetic, revelatory account, we do indeed find the world in a grain of sand.

Writing to Be Understood

2018-08-09
Writing to Be Understood

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  • Author: Anne Janzer
  • Publisher: Cuesta Park Consulting
  • ISBN: 0999624830
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 184

Have you ever wondered what makes your favorite nonfiction books so compelling, understandable, or enjoyable to read? They connect with you, as a reader. This book will help you recognize and apply the methods of your favorite writers to your own work. Writing To Be Understood is the thinking writer's guide to effective nonfiction writing techniques, such as: - Using analogies effectively to illustrate unseen concepts - Appealing to the reader's innate curiosity - Balancing humility with credibility For each topic, the book combines insights from cognitive science with advice from writers and expert practitioners in fields of psychology, technology, economics, medicine, policy, and more. Whether you're an expert trying to communicate with a mainstream audience or a nonfiction writer hoping to reach more people, Writing to be Understood will help you expand the impact of your words. Gold medal winner, 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards

Author In Progress

2016-11-01
Author In Progress

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  • Author: Therese Walsh
  • Publisher: Penguin
  • ISBN: 1440346712
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 353

Empower Your Writing Through Craft and Community! Writing can be a lonely profession plagued by blind stumbles, writer's block, and despair--but it doesn't have to be. Written by members of the popular Writer Unboxed website, Author in Progress is filled with practical, candid essays to help you reach the next rung on the publishing ladder. By tracking your creative journey from first draft to completion and beyond, you can improve your craft, find your community, and overcome the mental barriers that stand in the way of success. Author in Progress is the perfect no-nonsense guide for excelling at every step of the novel-writing process, from setting goals, researching, and drafting to giving and receiving critiques, polishing prose, and seeking publication. You'll love Author in Progress if... • You're an aspiring novelist working on your first book. • You're an experienced veteran looking for ways to enhance your career and connect with your writing community. • You've finished your first draft and want to know the next steps. • You're seeking clear, effective advice about publication-from professionals who are "down in the trenches" every day. What's Inside Author in Progress features: • More than 50 essays from best-selling authors, editors, and industry leaders on a variety of writing and publishing topics. • Advice on writing first drafts, conducting research, building and fostering community, seeking critique, revising, and getting published. • An encouraging approach to the writing and publishing process, from authors who've walked this path.

Wired for Thought

2009
Wired for Thought

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  • Author: Jeffrey M. Stibel
  • Publisher: Harvard Business Press
  • ISBN: 1422146642
  • Category : Business & Economics
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 240

The Internet is more than just a series of interconnected computer networks: it's the first real replication of the human brain outside the human body. To leverage its power, you first need to understand how the Internet has evolved to take on similarities to the brain. This engaging and provocative book provides the answer.

The Science of Storytelling

2020-03-10
The Science of Storytelling

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  • Author: Will Storr
  • Publisher: Abrams
  • ISBN: 168335818X
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 304

The compelling, groundbreaking guide to creative writing that reveals how the brain responds to storytelling Stories 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, or writer of creative or traditional nonfiction.

Wired for Love

2022-04-05
Wired for Love

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  • Author: Stephanie Cacioppo
  • Publisher: Flatiron Books
  • ISBN: 125079062X
  • Category : Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 205

From the world’s foremost neuroscientist of romantic love comes a personal story of connection and heartbreak that brings new understanding to an old truth: better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. At thirty-seven, Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo was content to be single. She was fulfilled by her work on the neuroscience of romantic love—how finding and growing with a partner literally reshapes our brains. That was, until she met the foremost neuroscientist of loneliness. A whirlwind romance led to marriage and to sharing an office at the University of Chicago. After seven years of being inseparable at work and at home, Stephanie lost her beloved husband, John, following his intense battle with cancer. In Wired for Love, Stephanie tells not just a science story but also a love story. She shares revelatory insights into how and why we fall in love, what makes love last, and how we process love lost—all grounded in cutting-edge findings in brain chemistry and behavioral science. Woven through it all is her moving personal story, from astonishment to unbreakable bond to grief and healing. Her experience and her work enrich each other, creating a singular blend of science and lyricism that’s essential reading for anyone looking for connection.

Elements of Fiction Writing - Scene & Structure

1999-03-15
Elements of Fiction Writing - Scene & Structure

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  • Author: Jack Bickham
  • Publisher: Penguin
  • ISBN: 0898799066
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 177

Craft your fiction with scene-by-scene flow, logic and readability. An imprisoned man receives an unexpected caller, after which "everything changed..." And the reader is hooked. But whether or not readers will stay on for the entire wild ride will depend on how well the writer structures the story, scene by scene. This book is your game plan for success. Using dozens of examples from his own work - including Dropshot,Tiebreaker and other popular novels - Jack M. Bickham will guide you in building a sturdy framework for your novel, whatever its form or length. You'll learn how to: • "worry" your readers into following your story to the end • prolong your main character's struggle while moving the story ahead • juggle cause and effect to serve your story action As you work on crafting compelling scenes that move the reader, moment by moment, toward the story's resolution, you'll see why... • believable fiction must make more sense than real life • every scene should end in disaster • some scenes should be condensed, and others built big Whatever your story, this book can help you arrive at a happy ending in the company of satisfied readers.

The Art of Tinkering

2014-02-04
The Art of Tinkering

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  • Author: Karen Wilkinson
  • Publisher: Weldon Owen International
  • ISBN: 168188707X
  • Category : Crafts & Hobbies
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 226

Some of the most creative artists from today’s maker scene discuss their process, workspaces and more in this inspiring guide to tinkering. The Art of Tinkering is an unprecedented celebration of what it means to tinker: to take things apart, explore tools and materials, and build wondrous, wild art that’s part science, part technology, and entirely creative. Join 150+ makers as they share the stories behind their beautiful and bold work—then do some tinkering yourself! This collection of exhibits, artwork, and projects explores a whole new way to learn, in which people expand their knowledge through making and doing, working with readily available materials, getting their hands dirty, collaborating with others, and problem-solving in the most fun sense of the word. Each artist featured in The Art of Tinkering shares their process and the backstory behind their work. Whether it’s dicussing their favorite tools (who knew toenail clippers could be so handy?) or offering a glimpse of their workspaces (you’d be amazed how many electronics tools you can pack into a pantry!), the stories, lessons, and tips in The Art of Tinkering offer a fascinating portrait of today’s maker scene. Artists include: Scott Weaver, Arthur Ganson, Moxie, Tim Hunkin, AnnMarie Thomas, Ranjit Bhatnajar and Jie Qi.