The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better

Based on the wildly popular creative writing class, this compelling, groundbreaking guide to creative writing is a musthave resource.Enlightening and empowering, The Science of Storytelling has become an invaluable tool for writers of all stripes, whether novelist, screenwriter, playwright, childrens writer, or writer of creative or traditional nonfiction.Awardwinning writer and acclaimed teacher of creative writing Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cuttingedge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can write better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellersand also our brainscreate worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change.Stories shape who we are.

They drive us to act out our dreams and ambitions and mold our beliefs.

Storytelling is an essential part of what makes us human.

So, how do master storytellers compel us?Will Storrs superbly chosen examples range from Harry Potter to Jane Austen to Alice Walker, Greek drama to Russian novels to Native American folk tales, King Lear to Breaking Bad to childrens stories.With sections such as The Dramatic Question, Creating a World, and Plot, Endings, and Meaning, as well as a practical, stepbystep appendix dedicated to The Sacred Flaw Approach, The Science of Storytelling reveals just what makes stories work, placing it alongside such creative writing classics as John Yorkes Into the Woods: A Five Act Journey into Story and Lajos Egris The Art of Dramatic Writing.If you want to write a novel or a script, read this book.

It is clear, compelling, and tightly shaped.

Sunday Times (London)