This post is part of Art & Craft, my series that reviews books about writing books.
Lisa Cron writes about Story, that nearly inscrutable influence which drives humans to act and buy and vote and believe. She's got cred as an agent, producer, and consultant for film and novels. Her niche in the craft book market is that her advice is backed by the authority of science. So please take this lab coat and goggles and follow me for a review of her book, Wired for Story (and also Story Genius, sort of, they are very similar).
Why I chose this book
When my Archetypist buddy Jacob was earning his MFA, he told me all the books he was reading. Naturally, I read them too, because I can't have him being smarter than me. He had good things to say about Lisa Cron's Story Genius, which I also found insightful at the time. I retrieved it to feature in this series, but realized it had been preceded in publication by Wired for Story.
Both titles make the claim that the writing methods within use “brain science” to hook readers. Interesting. Either Cron is sharing writing advice backed by empirical evidence or she's worked out some clever, buzzwordy marketing. My recollection was that Story Genius was an excellent study on crafting characters, but I didn't remember any breakthroughs in neuroscience… So I picked up the title I had not yet read to start at the beginning.
The highlights
Up front, this book feels like Cron nerded out on a few studies and pop science writers, then wove their work into the writing advice she would have given anyway. Each chapter reveals a “cognitive secret” and corresponding “story secret,” but few of these observations are revelatory.
For example, she details how the reactions of your limbic system will cause you to jump out of the path of a speeding car. What does this have to do with writing? Well, it should convince you not to inflate your story with needless description, dialogue, or details. Because the brain wants to only filter relevant information. How could we conclude this without science?
But before I become too facetious, I do think this is an insightful craft book. If you're a fan of thrillers, romance, or other mainstream fiction and you’ve been strabbling (that’s struggling and dabbling) with your own book or screenplay, this book could be perfect for you. Many of Cron's observations can help frame your reframe your perceptions and become a story architect, instead of merely an aficionado.
She makes a clear distinction between the skill of writing and the concept of your story, two key strengths (though most of us seem to only possess one naturally—you get into writing as either the prolific/poetic type or as an “idea guy”). She articulates with detailed examples how to craft a character and a conflict that will force their character development, thus marrying the key pieces of a compelling narrative. Throughout Wired for Story, she builds several viable premises as if ideating in a writers’ room in real time. But while this book does pay homage to theme and claims to kick over formula (à la all the Saved Cats), Cron still seems to be steering us to write a certain kind of story.
She decrees, alongside an anecdote about how Dan Brown's terrible prose doesn't matter: “A story must have the ability to engender a sense of urgency from the first sentence. Everything else–fabulous characters, great dialogue, vivid imagery, luscious language–is gravy.” [page 21] As a lover of literary prose and many aesthetic SFF subgenres, this made my heart sad. We’re not all trying to write to the tense, ticking clock. Not everything is mystery/suspense, high-stakes romance, or meant to be a blockbuster. Some of our stories are cozy, some are contemplative. Yes, we do need some intrigue and hint about conflict from the beginning, but if we take this advice too literally, we might end up with cheap, “hooky,” en medias res openings. Sometimes the rich, slow burn is the best way to get lost in a story. My point is simply that not every story is meant to be the Da Vinci Code, and we shouldn’t throw the gravy out with the bathwater.
The cringe
While I think Wired for Story embellishes some of its points with its “brain science,” Lisa Cron uses this appeal to authority to justify an almost insufferable tone.
You can find it in the very first sentence on the very first page. Comparing this assumption to the flat earth and a non-heliocentric view of the universe, Cron claims that for centuries “smart people have believed story is just a form of entertainment.” [Page 1] Let’s ignore centuries of narrative ballads, oral traditions, Aesop’s fables, mythology and scriptures, the basis of culture, all of that. It was all just for fun. Shits and giggles.
This pattern of belittling “most” writers who only think they know what they’re doing (but not actually, they don’t know the science!) continues throughout the book. Maybe the intention is to make Cron’s readers feel superior. I’ve read Wired for Story. I won’t be featured in an anecdote about an author who didn’t foreshadow his plot twist. I know the secret sauce. The science.
Really, it’s nothing more than the classic, prescriptive approach taken by too many craft books. Again, I think this book does clarify how to approach a story idea could guide you in developing a premise, but with great smugness.
I’ll leave you with only one more gripe: contradictory points Cron seems to make at the start and finish. She begins by saying we cannot simply learn to write by studying what we read because… you know… the science:
“Since most aspiring writers love to read, wouldn't all those fabulous books they wolf down give them a first class lesson in what hooks a reader? Nope. Evolution dictates that the first job of any good story is to completely anesthetize the part of the brain that questions how it is creating such a compelling illusion of reality… A recent brain imaging study reported in Psychological Science reveals that the regions of the brain that process the sights, sounds, tastes, and movements of real life are activated when we're engrossed in a compelling narrative.” [Page 4]
But in her concluding chapter she implies that we writers will become experts eventually—after about ten years according to one of her science bois, Herbert Simon. She summarizes and quotes his work:
“By then we've gathered upward of fifty thousand “chunks” of knowledge, which the brain has deftly indexed so our cognitive unconscious can access each chunk on its own whenever necessary. Simon goes on to explain that this is “why experts can… respond to so many situations ‘intuitively'—that is, very rapidly, and often without being able to specify the process. They have used to reach their answers. Intuition is no longer a mystery.” [Page 221] (Simon’s work is Models of Bounded Rationality, Vol 3.: Empirically Grounded Economic Reason)
She uses this point as a rough transition to reveal that we writers must revise our work in order to learn (mind blown), but I would also assert that a huge portion of the expertise built during those ten years would also come from reading dozens and dozens of excellent books.
I picked a few other sections that stink of finger-wagging, but they’re plentiful enough if you pick up the book yourself—which I would recommend if you can’t diagnose the stalling of your manuscript(s).
Star-ratings
How useful is this craft book?
2 out of 3 stars - ★★☆
How humble is this craft book?
out of 3 stars - ★☆☆
How concise is this craft book?
2 out of 3 stars - ★★☆
I finished Wired for Story and took a quick flip back through Story Genius to revisit the portion I found most helpful: the scene cards. This is a method of succinctly organizing information about each chapter of your novel in a succinct way. With this perspective, you can be sure to include the story Cron summarized in both of her books, which makes Story Genius feel more like a workbook compared to Wired for Story. I adapted my own version of the scene card method for the last book I completed, and created yet another adaptation for my current project.
This is why I like reading (and reviewing) craft books. I like collecting new tools, almost as much as I hate being told what to do. But this review made me realize I have yet to pick up a craft book focused on how to write speculative fiction. I'm sleeping on advice about worldbuilding and wonder. Perhaps that should be next!