Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence (2 page)

Digging Up Your Protagonist’s Inner Issue

COGNITIVE SECRET:
We see the world not as it is, but as we believe it to be.

STORY SECRET:
You must know precisely when, and why, your protagonist’s worldview was knocked out of alignment.

The Story Is in the Specifics

COGNITIVE SECRET:
We don’t think in the abstract; we think in specific images.

STORY SECRET:
Anything conceptual, abstract, or general must be made tangible in the protagonist’s specific struggle.

Courting Conflict, the Agent of Change

COGNITIVE SECRET:
The brain is wired to stubbornly resist change, even good change.

STORY SECRET:
Story is about change, which results only from unavoidable conflict.

Cause and Effect

COGNITIVE SECRET:
From birth, our brain’s primary goal is to make causal connections—
if this, then that
.

STORY SECRET:
A story follows a cause-and-effect trajectory from start to finish.

What Can Go Wrong, Must Go Wrong—and Then Some

COGNITIVE SECRET:
The brain uses stories to simulate how we might navigate difficult situations in the future.

STORY SECRET:
A story’s job is to put the protagonist through tests that, even in her wildest dreams, she doesn’t think she can pass.

The Road from Setup to Payoff

COGNITIVE SECRET:
Since the brain abhors randomness, it’s always converting raw data into meaningful patterns, the better to anticipate what might happen next.

STORY SECRET:
Readers are always on the lookout for patterns; to your reader, everything is either a setup, a payoff, or the road in between.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch