Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence Read Free Page A

examine: the four elements that make up what a story is; what we, as readers, are wired to expect when we dive into the first page of a book and try it on for size; and why even the most lyrical, beautiful writing by itself is as inviting as a big bowl of wax fruit.

So, What Is a Story?
     
    Contrary to what many people think, a story is not just something that happens. If that were true, we could all cancel the cable, lug our Barca-loungers onto the front lawn, and be utterly entertained, 24/7, just watching the world go by. It would be idyllic for about ten minutes. Then we’d be climbing the walls, if only there were walls on the front lawn.
    A story isn’t simply something that happens
to
someone, either. If it were, we’d be utterly enthralled reading a stranger’s earnestly rendered, heartfelt journal chronicling every trip she took to the grocery store, ever—and we’re not.
    A story isn’t even something
dramatic
that happens to someone. Would you stay up all night reading about how bloodthirsty Gladiator A chased cutthroat Gladiator B around a dusty old arena for two hundred pages? I’m thinking no.
    So what
is
a story? A story is how what happens affects someone who is trying to achieve what turns out to be a difficult goal, and how he or she changes as a result. Breaking it down in the soothingly familiar parlance of the writing world, this translates to
    “What happens” is the plot .
     
    “Someone” is the protagonist .
     
    The “goal” is what’s known as the story question .
     
    And “how he or she changes” is what the story itself is actually about .
     
    As counterintuitive as it may sound, a story is not about the plot or even what happens in it. Stories are about how we, rather than the world around us, change. They grab us only when they allow us to experience how it would feel to
navigate
the plot. Thus story, as we’ll see throughout, is an internal journey, not an external one.
    All the elements of a story are anchored in this very simple premise, and they work in unison to create what appears to the reader as reality, only sharper, clearer, and far more entertaining, because stories do what our cognitive unconscious does: filter out everything that would distract us from the situation at hand. In fact, stories do it better, because while in real life it’s nearly impossible to filter out all the annoying little interruptions—like leaky faucets, dithering bosses, and cranky spouses—a story can tune them out entirely as it focuses in on the task at hand:
What does your protagonist have to confront in order to solve the problem you’ve so cleverly set up for her?
And that problem is what the reader is going to be hunting for from the get-go, because it’s going to define everything that happens from the first sentence on.

What Rapidly Unraveling Situation Have You Plunked Me Into, Anyway?
     
    Let’s face it, we’re all busy. Plus, most of us are plagued by that little voice in the back of our head constantly reminding us of what we really should be doing right now instead of whatever it is we’re actually doing—especially when we take time out to do something as seemingly nonproductive as, um, read a novel. Which means that in order to distract us from the relentless demands of our immediate surroundings, a story has to grab our attention fast. 8 And, as neuroscience writer Jonah Lehrer says, nothing focuses the mind like surprise. 9 That means when we pick up a book, we’re jonesing for the feeling that something out of the ordinary is happening. We crave the notion that we’ve come in at a crucial juncture in someone’s life, and not a moment too soon. What intoxicates us is the hint that not only is trouble brewing, but it’s longstanding and about to reach critical mass. This means that from the first sentence we need to catch sight of the breadcrumb trail that will lure us deeper into the thicket. I’ve heard it said that fiction (all stories, for that matter)