Our brains--hardwired to enjoy stories?

One of the most useful books on writing that I've read in the past 10 years is Wired For Story by Lisa Cron. It merges art with science, deftly explaining how we are biologically wired to pinpoint those elements we as readers seek and hope to find while reading a story. 

To hear a summary of some of the most salint points in her book, I'm including the link Grammar Girl: Quick & Dirty Tips for Better Writing, where Lisa Cron's work is showcased in an article. You can also listen to the audio version (10-minutes), which is located just above the GG article.

Comments

[Sylvia Shipp]

Thanks for telling me about ReadWave.com, Nyasha. I just checked it out and it looks like a fun way and a great platform to write short stories. :)

[NyNy]

Hi Sylvia,

My name is Nyasha, and I help out at ReadWave.com, a site which enables writers to build up a fanbase and market their books online. I came across your novel writing blog, online and enjoyed reading your work.

We've just launched a "reading widget" (a tool which allows you to embed a story on your website in a very compact form) which is aimed at bloggers who love short stories. Since you like both and because you seem like a nice person, I was hoping I could ask you to check it out and let me know what you think of it? Here's a link to our Blogspot where you can see a demonstration of how to do so. For the site page, it’s here.

At the moment we're still looking for feedback on how easy it is to use the feature, and how useful you think it would be, so if you are able to test it out on your blog I would be eternally grateful. Please do get in touch.

All the best,
Nyasha

[Katja Kaine (novel writing software creator)]

Okay, I'm convinced. This looks like exactly the kind of book I like to read in order to really understand what goes on in good stories and why some are satisfying and others aren't. Off to the bookshop now...

[Alex G. Blank]

Hey! I’ll definitely be following your blog: you post some interesting articles, and reading a more scientifical viewpoint on creative writing should teach me a few things I’ve missed ;)

One thing I’ll mention though; I don’t like Grammar Girl. The site is rather self-pompous and not always correct. What’s more, it’s only relevant to American English, and thus often becomes confusing.