5 Reasons You Should Read “Story Genius” by Lisa Cron

A Craft Book Report

In this blog post, I am going to be analyzing “Story Genius” by Lisa Cron. If you’ve spent any amount of time on the internet, you’ve likely come across the never-ending “to-do” list that is supposedly required for writing a novel. We’ve all heard it: “You should be focusing on plot. You should be studying character development. You should already be outlining your next novel.” All while balancing work, life, and let’s not forget—actually writing your first draft.

Even if you wanted to dive into a dense craft book, it’s time-consuming to figure out where to start or even if the alluring writing guide you picked up in your local bookstore addresses the problems in your manuscript. Craft books are like writing advice. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions to every writer’s struggles.

That’s the reason I developed this series - to provide concise and informative reviews of the top fiction craft books available. This way, when you’re deciding between books like “Save the Cat Writes a Novel” by Jessica Brody and “Story” by Robert McKee, you’ll clearly understand which craft problems each book is best at solving. This guide is designed to help you make educated decisions about which craft book is best for you and your writing journey.

“Story Genius” by Lisa Cron: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere)

From explanations of how story has informed our development as humans to witty remarks, “Story Genius” has it all—including abundant examples of how to apply the craft knowledge found in the book. If the title alone doesn’t convince you that this book is something worth looking into, here are five reasons why this craft book might be for you.

#1 Lisa Cron uses brain science to help writers supercharge their story.

Brain Science & Stories

Do you find yourself psychoanalyzing your friends? At one point, did you believe you might work for the FBI’s Behavioral Science unit? (No? Just me?) Good news, even if these aren’t true for you, brain science can still become the secret weapon in your pocket to draw readers into your story. Since we are all consuming story all the time, even on the subconscious level, writers can use this knowledge to their advantage to draw readers deeper into their stories by playing on the expectations that we all already have about stories.

#2 Story Genius clearly defines the relationship between an external plot problem and the protagonist’s internal journey.

What comes first? the character or the plot?

Similar to the chicken and the egg, writers have long argued over the relationship between plot and character. Lisa Cron sets the record straight. It’s important that your protagonist’s external plot problem is specifically challenging to them based on whatever flaw you hope they will overcome by the novel’s conclusion. In other words, if you want your protagonist to confront their fear of heights, but you write a plot where their feet never leave the ground level, then the plot isn’t designed to help them change.

#3 Story Genius gives actionable steps to building your backstory to help inform your character’s decisions in the current moment.

The past is never really…past.

As much as we’d like to put yesterday in our rearview mirror, it’s been proven that humans make their decisions in the context of their own worldview. This is true of your protagonist as well, who will make informed decisions in the current moment based on what happened to them in the past. A few key moments in your character’s backstory that justify their internal flaw—not just to themselves, but to the reader—are essential in creating believable characters. We don’t need to know about the time they flunked the 4th-grade Spelling Bee unless it introduced a paralyzing fear of stage fright, which they must now overcome as your novel progresses.

#4 Lisa Cron provides a scene card example that’s easy for both plotters and pantsers.

There is no right way to write.

Every bone in a pantser’s body may riot at the idea of constructing a scene card. With that being said, “Story Genius” makes a pretty strong case for having a loose outline of where your story is going. Before the anti-outlining community puts me in a box and ships me off, Cron only argues that you need the first few scenes mapped out before you begin writing. Even if you don’t believe in plotting your first draft, a scene card as clear as the one pictured above can be a great tool for evaluating the strength of a scene during revisions. Below, I have taken a scene from Disney’s Tangled (the infamous lantern scene), and analyzed it using this scene card as an example.

#5 Lisa Cron provides examples for everything she teaches in Story Genius.

Learn Story Craft by Following Examples

For those of us that need something broken down in explicit detail, Lisa Cron does exactly that as she explains the key tenents to story telling. Examples are a key to my learning experience and if you need them too, this might be the craft book for you. Not only does the book include chapter by chapter examples, but Cron analyzes the same story idea over the course of the novel so that writers can see exactly how applying these principles can benefit and fully flesh out a story idea.

If any of these five reasons resonated with you, then “Story Genius” by Lisa Cron might be the best craft book for you to pick up next.

That’s it for now! Remember, when it comes to learning craft, take what works for you and run with it. Until next time, keep writing, keep dreaming, and don’t stress about the shoulds. You've got this!

Source: "Story Genius" by Lisa Cron