
Story Genius
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)
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Narrated by:
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Brittany Pressley
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By:
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Lisa Cron
About this listen
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.
©2016 Lisa Cron (P)2020 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Using brain science, Cron busts the myths of good writing to help you find the real story behind all that plot and metaphor." (The Writer)
"In [Cron's] new book, Story Genius, she picks up the...theme...that a protagonist's internal struggle makes the story work, and offers step-by-step advice on how to exploit this truth about neuroscience for richer, deeper, better first drafts.... Cron provides exercises and examples to keep writers on track, always highlighting the fact that emotions engage the brain faster than anything else.... The concepts are easy to understand and they are certainly important. Even if you can't go on a retreat, you should try to find time to do the exercises for your own blueprint." (PsychologyToday.com)
"It's a simple question: 'How do you write an effective, engaging story?' Ask Lisa Cron. An accomplished author and story coach, she has just published her second book, Story Genius. A manual of sorts, it teaches cognitive storytelling strategies and uses actual brain science to help make its readers into better writers." (Creative Screenwriting)
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dislike narrator voice/intonation, didnt get far
- By Khang Tran on 10-03-20
By: Larry Brooks
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Structuring Your Novel
- Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story
- By: K. M. Weiland
- Narrated by: Sonja Field
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Why do some stories work and others don't? The answer is structure. In this IPPY and NIEA Award-winning guide from the author of the bestselling Outlining Your Novel, you will discover the universal underpinnings that guarantee powerful plot and character arcs. An understanding of proper story and scene structure will help you to not only perfectly time your story's major events, but will also provide you with an unerring standard to use in evaluating your novel's pacing and progression.
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An Outstanding Resource for Writers
- By Richard Phillips (Bestselling Author of The Rho Agenda) on 02-01-15
By: K. M. Weiland
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How to Write Dazzling Dialogue
- The Fastest Way to Improve Any Manuscript
- By: James Scott Bell
- Narrated by: James Scott Bell
- Length: 2 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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There is one sure-fire way of improving your novel fast...You may know the fundamentals of how to write fiction. You may be more than competent in plot, structure and characters. But if your dialogue is dull it will drag the whole story down...Don't sabotage your chances of selling your work to readers or publishers because the dialogue is unexceptional. Dazzle them with what the characters say. How to Write Dazzling Dialogue will give you the tools to do it.
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Good course, subpar audio quality
- By Andrew Wadsworth on 03-21-20
By: James Scott Bell
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The Great Work of Your Life
- A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling
- By: Stephen Cope
- Narrated by: Kevin M. Connolly
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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To know your true calling - your dharma, as the yogis say - is perhaps the greatest desire within each of us. And yet, few can say we know our purpose with absolute certainty. Fortunately, there is a time-tested guide - an ancient map - for discovering and fulfilling your unique calling. In The Great Work of Your Life, Stephen Cope walks you through each step of the journey.
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Jungian Zen Psychoanalytical Retired Meditation Teacher
- By Glenn Guillory, SFO on 06-13-20
By: Stephen Cope
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Novelist as a Vocation
- By: Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel - translator, Ted Goossen - translator
- Narrated by: Kotaro Watanabe
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In this engaging book, the internationally best-selling author and famously private writer Haruki Murakami shares with listeners his thoughts on the role of the novel in our society; his own origins as a writer; and his musings on the sparks of creativity that inspire other writers, artists, and musicians.
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Love Murakami - Struggled with this Narrator
- By Harry Bartle on 11-30-22
By: Haruki Murakami, and others
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The Gift of Influence
- Creating Life-Changing and Lasting Impact in Your Everyday Interactions
- By: Tommy Spaulding
- Narrated by: Robert Creighton, Tommy Spaulding
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Researchers estimate that the average person will influence up to eighty thousand people over the course of their lifetime—or 2.8 people daily. That’s a stadium full of people whom each of us affects in ways positive or negative, sometimes without us realizing. What if we paid attention to this fact? Would we live differently? Would we lead differently? Would we put down our phones and be more present with the people in front of us?
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Truly Enriching, Inspirational & Enjoyable
- By Keith Klein on 02-17-25
By: Tommy Spaulding
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The Story Grid
- What Good Editors Know
- By: Shawn Coyne
- Narrated by: Dan Portnoy
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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The Story Grid is a tool developed by editor Shawn Coyne to analyze stories and provide helpful editorial comments. It's like a CT Scan that takes a photo of the global story and tells the editor or writer what is working, what is not, and what must be done to make what works better and fix what's not. The Story Grid breaks down the component parts of stories to identify the problems. And finding the problems in a story is almost as difficult as the writing of the story itself (maybe even more difficult).
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good story, but audiobook needs an editor
- By Jeroen de Jong on 12-17-19
By: Shawn Coyne
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Be Exceptional
- Master the Five Traits That Set Extraordinary People Apart
- By: Joe Navarro, Toni Sciarra Poynter - contributor
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Joe Navarro spent a quarter century with the FBI, pursuing spies and other dangerous criminals across the globe. In his line of work, successful leadership was quite literally a matter of life or death. Now he brings his hard-earned lessons to you. Be Exceptional distills a lifetime of experience into five principles that outstanding individuals live by.
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Kindly Challenging & Encouraging
- By SuzeeSumatra on 11-10-21
By: Joe Navarro, and others
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Super Thinking
- The Big Book of Mental Models
- By: Gabriel Weinberg, Lauren McCann
- Narrated by: René Ruiz
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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The world's greatest problem-solvers, forecasters, and decision-makers all rely on a set of frameworks and shortcuts that help them cut through complexity and separate good ideas from bad ones. They're called mental models, and you can find them in dense textbooks on psychology, physics, economics, and more. Or, you can just listen to Super Thinking, a fun, illustrated guide to every mental model you could possibly need.
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Author falls in the same mental traps he talks...
- By gimenez on 08-04-19
By: Gabriel Weinberg, and others
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The Dorito Effect
- The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor
- By: Mark Schatzker
- Narrated by: Chris Patton
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Dorito Effect, Mark Schatzker shows us how our approach to the nation's number-one public health crisis has gotten it wrong. The epidemics of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are not tied to the overabundance of fat or carbs. Instead we have been led astray by the growing divide between flavor - the tastes we crave - and the underlying nutrition.
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In the shadow of Salt, Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss
- By Graham on 09-08-15
By: Mark Schatzker
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Ego and Archetype
- Individuation and the Religious Function of the Psyche
- By: Edward F. Edinger
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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This book is about the individual's journey to psychological wholeness, known in analytical psychology as the process of individuation. Edward Edinger traces the stages in this process and relates them to the search for meaning through encounters with symbolism in religion, myth, dreams, and art.
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The book I always come back to.
- By The Reviewer on 04-10-23
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Writing for Emotional Impact
- Advanced Dramatic Techniques to Attract, Engage, and Fascinate the Reader from Beginning to End
- By: Karl Iglesias
- Narrated by: Karl Iglesias
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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There are three kinds of feelings when reading a story: boredom, interest, and wow! To become a successful writer, you must create the wow feeling on as many pages as possible, and this requires writing that engages the reader emotionally. In his best-selling book, screenwriter Karl Iglesias explored the working habits of A-list Hollywood scribes. Now, he breaks new ground by focusing on the psychology of the reader.
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Best audiobook by far for writing screenplays
- By FilmmakerSuperNova on 07-04-20
By: Karl Iglesias
Excellent and applicable!
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I would say this book is great for learning important principles. I guess I just want more of it because it was good and going deeper into the craft would likely reveal more great info.
Some interesting and good advice
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Excellent narrator
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Terrific
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It's good
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Spectacular storytelling about storytelling
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This is Gold!
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Very Helpful
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Elation.
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So helpful, I read this once a month
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