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11

TAKEAWAYS
FROM
STORY GENIUS

LISA CRON
 WANT TO WRITE A NOVEL THAT HAS YOUR READER AT HELLO AND NEVER
LETS GO?

WRITING PRETTIER SENTENCES WON'T GET YOU THERE. TAPPING INTO

WHAT THE BRAIN REALLY CRAVES IN EVERY STORY IT HEARS WILL.

My new book, Story Genius, harnesses what the reader’s brain is wired to crave, seek
out and respond to – facts I set out in Wired for Story – and shows you, step-by-step,
how to write a novel all the way through, from the inside out. There are a lot of in-
depth, juicy concepts packed into its pages – but hey, who doesn’t want a cheat
sheet first? So you can begin to get the hang of it this very minute (okay, maybe after
a nice fortifying snack), here is a simple guide that distills the book’s most important
ideas into 11 do-able steps.

© LISA CRON • WWW.WIREDFORSTORY.COM

 1
START AT T HE R EAL B EG INNING

All stories begin in medias res – which is Latin for “in the middle of the thing.”
That means page one is actually the start of the second half of the story. This
second half – the novel itself – revolves around how someone solves a problem
they can’t avoid. But in order to get there, you first need to build the first half –
that is, the creation of the problem. To do that, you need to straddle
(metaphorically, of course) the first page, with one eye toward the future (that is,
the novel itself), and one eye toward the past (the first half of the story, which
unfolds before page one).

You then start by going backward, digging into the story, layer by layer,
unearthing the clay from which the novel itself will take shape. The beauty of this
is that everything you unearth in the story-past will appear in the story-present;
this work not only generates the plot, but the lens through which your
protagonist will see, and evaluate, the meaning of everything that happens. It
turns out “backstory” isn’t really backstory at all, because as Faulkner said, “The
past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.” So step one is simply this:

• Get ready to go backwards in order to go forward.

© LISA CRON • WWW.WIREDFORSTORY.COM

 2
M AKE A P OI NT, BEG INNING IN T HE V ER Y F I R ST
S ENT ENCE
Everything in your story will be there in service of this one point. The good news is
that you won’t have to state the point or tell readers what it is. The story itself will
do that, but only if you know what your point is before you begin to create the story
(so that you can create a story that, um, makes a point). The point is not about what
happens externally, in the plot. The point is made by how the plot changes the
protagonist, internally. That is what readers come for: inside intel on how to best
navigate this unpredictable, scary, beautiful world we live in. So in order to figure
out what your story is about – and what the events in your plot will mean to your
protagonist – ask yourself:

• What is my point?

• What am I trying to say about human nature?

• What inside intel am I giving my reader about how we humans really navigate
difficult times?

Write it down so you can refer to it as you write. Don’t worry if at this stage it
sounds clunky or cliché; in the beginning, it almost always does. Have no fear, it will
begin to evolve, grow and deepen as you write forward.

© LISA CRON • WWW.WIREDFORSTORY.COM

 3

FRAME TH E STO R Y A S A “ W HAT IF ? ”

As in, usually this one thing happens, but what if this totally unexpected thing
happened instead? Then what? Stories are about how we respond to the unexpected
– in other words, to problems. But there’s much more to it than that. Here’s the
skinny: the unexpected event that kicks off the story’s plot problem is not what hooks
readers. What hooks readers is why the unexpected event matters to someone, and
what existing plan, desire, agenda, or belief it unceremoniously throws a big fat
monkey wrench into.

The biggest mistake writers make is to start writing based on some random
unexpected external event, some generally odd or unusual thing that’s occurred. So
when you ask “What if?” remember, what matters most is not how externally
“dramatic” the unexpected event is, but why the impending consequences of the
What if? matters so deeply to someone that they’ll have no choice but to take action
– action that will force them to make hard decisions.

• Sketch our your What if?

• What existing plan, desire, agenda, or belief will your What if? upend for your
protagonist?

• What hard decisions will your What if? force your protagonist to make?

© LISA CRON • WWW.WIREDFORSTORY.COM

 4
M AKE S URE YO U K NO W W HO YO UR
P ROTAGON IST I S B EFO RE T H E P LOT K I C KS I N

Your protagonist is your reader’s avatar within the pages of your novel. We are in
her head as she struggles with the tough plot problem you’ll set out for her. But a
story isn’t about the surface plot or the things that happen in it (I know I just said
that – but it bears repeating). A story is about how, scene-by-scene, the plot
forces the protagonist to make an internal change – that is, a shift in their
worldview – so that they can then resolve the plot problem. The evolving internal
change your protagonist struggles with throughout the novel is precisely how your
story makes the point you identified. But before you can decide what that change
will be, you kind of have to figure out who your protagonist is before the story
starts. So reflecting on your What if? ask yourself:

• Whose story is it? Who is this person? Not her hair color but her core being.

• What is going on with her right before the story starts on a plot level? Is she
about to get a raise? Dying to get out of Dodge? Wondering when her day in
the sun will come?

• She doesn’t yet know what the world (that is, your plot) has in store for her, so
all you’re looking for is what she thinks today, and what she imagines her
future will be.

© LISA CRON • WWW.WIREDFORSTORY.COM

 5
MA KE SURE YOUR PROTAGONIST ENTERS THE STORY
ALREADY WAN T IN G SOME THI NG VE RY BADLY

All protagonists enter the story with a longstanding desire (even if it’s simply to stay
exactly as they are, thank you very much, until the day they shuffle off this mortal
coil). What’s more, this thing they want is what defines their story-long overarching
agenda. This is something many writers overlook (or don’t even consider). But it is
crucial. After all, each of us has a defining agenda, driven by what we want, based
on what our life experience has taught us matters. Our agenda is not random or
arbitrary, and it’s consistent. The same is true of your protagonist. His agenda
defines how he sees the world, what he wants, and what he does, every minute of
every day. So, the question to ask of your protagonist as he stands on the threshold
of page one is:

• What does he enter the story wanting on an internal level? Remember, this is
something he has wanted for a very long time – something like love or
acceptance or to prove he is worthy.

• What does he enter wanting on an external level? (Think: What does he want to
happen externally, in order to satisfy his internal desire?)

• Why does he want what he wants? What does he believe getting what he wants
externally will mean to him? (Don’t forget, what he enters thinking it will mean
to him, and what it actually ends up meaning to him might be two very
different things indeed.)

© LISA CRON • WWW.WIREDFORSTORY.COM

 6
M AKE S URE YOUR PR OTAG O NIST HA S A
LO NGSTAN DI NG MI SBELIEF THAT HAS KEPT H ER
F RO M A LREADY ACH IE VING W HAT S HE WAN T S
Now you’re beginning to zero in on what your novel is really about: how,
specifically, the plot will force your protagonist’s worldview to evolve throughout
the novel. To do that, her worldview needs something to evolve from. This is
where the internal change we’ve been talking about lives and breathes. It’s this
misbelief that your protagonist will have to confront, struggle with, and overcome
in order to achieve (or not) her goal, and thus solve the external plot problem.
Think of the constant internal struggle between what the protagonist wants, and
the misbelief that she must confront and overcome to have a shot at it, as your
novel’s “third rail” – the electrical charge that gives meaning and emotional
weight to everything that happens in the plot. So, right now the question to ask
is:

• What longstanding misbelief has kept my protagonist from already getting

the thing she wants? (Don’t forget, to the protagonist it’s not a misbelief, but
a very savvy piece of inside intel that she’s insanely lucky to have learned,
probably very early in life. As far as she’s concerned, it’s not what’s hurting
her, it’s what’s saving her.)

• This is 100% internal. It has nothing to do with external obstacles. It will be

something like: the nicer someone is to you, the more they’re out to con you;
or showing your feelings is a sign of weakness; or taking a stand only makes
you vulnerable, so best to keep your ideas to yourself.

© LISA CRON • WWW.WIREDFORSTORY.COM

 7
WR ITE TH E O R IG I N S CENE
Your protagonist’s defining misbelief cannot remain general – conceptual – but must
be traced back to the single, concrete event (almost always in childhood) during
which their worldview shifted. This scene ends with the moment when their misbelief
took root in their brain, where it’s been coloring how they’ve seen the world ever
since. This is called your novel’s Origin Scene, and it takes place long before the
novel opens – often by decades. Your goal now is to transform this life-altering
turning point moment into a full-fledged scene, so you know not only what
happened, but exactly how your protagonist made sense of it internally as the scene
unfolds. Before you begin writing the scene, you need to answer six questions. These
are the same questions you’ll ask yourself when writing – or envisioning – any scene.
They are:

• What does my protagonist go into the scene believing, that the scene will then
challenge and ultimately, upend? This is internal.

• What, specifically, does my protagonist what to achieve in the scene? This is

external.

• Whether she wants it to or not, what does my protagonist expect will happen in
this scene? Does she think she’ll get what she wants?

• Where is she at cross-purposes with the others in the scene? This is where
subplots lie.

• How is she reacting internally to what is happening – what is she thinking that
she wouldn’t dare say aloud – during the scene? This is what the reader comes to
the story for.

• What does she realize at the end that she didn’t know when the scene began –
how has her worldview changed?

© LISA CRON • WWW.WIREDFORSTORY.COM

 8
M AKE S URE YOUR PR OTAG O NIST ’S MIS B E L I E F
GRO W S , ESCALATES , A ND CO MPL ICAT ES AS IT
D R IVE S YO UR PROTAG O NIST TO WA R D T HE M O M E N T
WH EN TH E NOVE L O P ENS

The goal now is to trace how the internal battle between your protagonist’s desire
and her misbelief drove her story-relevant decisions up until the moment the novel
begins. No, not minute by minute (that’s a relief, huh?) but via story-specific events
that will be relevant once the plot kicks in. Remember, all these things will happen
before page one. Many people refer to it as backstory, because it happened before
the novel starts, but as you can see now, it’s not backstory at all; it’s the story itself
and it will inform everything. What you’re looking for are:

• The specific external crossroads decisions that changed the course of your
protagonist’s life that, in some fundamental way, challenged her misbelief –
causing it to deepen, adding layers to it. (Note that while these crossroads may
or may not involve a dramatic event, they always involve some sort of internal
conflict.)

• Write down three of them.

© LISA CRON • WWW.WIREDFORSTORY.COM

 9
M AKE S URE YOUR PLOT PR O B L EM CA N CAR R Y
YOUR NOVE L F R O M STA RT TO F I NI S H

The question is: what escalating external problem has the sustaining power to force
your protagonist to take action throughout, confronting her misbelief every step of
the way? Do not – because this is where writers often go wrong – simply focus on
the plot. Instead ask yourself: what must happen externally to force my protagonist
to dig deep and make that inner change that the novel is actually about? Contrary to
popular belief, all stories are character driven. Thus, the external plot problem will
be nothing but “a bunch of things that happen” if it’s not created first and foremost
to spur your protagonist’s inner struggle and change. You need something to kick
your character into gear. Therefore, the questions to ask yourself when you’re
zeroing in on that one external problem that will grow, escalate and complicate are:

• Can this problem sustain the arc of the entire novel? Can it deepen and grow?

• Will this problem give my protagonist no choice but to face and struggle with
her misbelief?

• Does this problem have a clear, present and, yes, painful consequence for my
protagonist, should she fail?

• Does this problem have a ticking clock that the reader can glimpse early on,
even if it’s set for decades later?

© LISA CRON • WWW.WIREDFORSTORY.COM

 10

M AKE S URE YOU K NO W EXACT LY W HER E YO U R

NOV EL BEG INS

Once you’ve zeroed in on a potent plot problem capable of spanning your entire
novel, sparking the third rail at every twist and turn, the question is: when, exactly,
does the plot kick in? Yep, now that you’ve created the bones of the first half of your
story, you’re ready to begin thinking about that very first page. What you’re looking
for is the moment when that problem, which chances are the protagonist has been
dodging for years, finally has the firepower to override his ability to ignore it.
Truth is, we never make big changes voluntarily, “just because.” Even if that “just
because” is a long list of really good, solid, objective reasons. Instead, we wait till
tomorrow, or when we’re rested, or when Mercury is out of retrograde, which
basically translates to a week from never. It’s no surprise that when JFK was asked
how he became a war hero, he grinned and said, “It was involuntary. They sank my
boat.” Your goal, then, is to:

• Pinpoint the moment when the plot is about to sink your poor unsuspecting
protagonist’s boat, giving him no choice but to do something.

© LISA CRON • WWW.WIREDFORSTORY.COM

 11

M AKE S U RE YOU K NOW W HER E YO UR STO R Y E N DS

Here’s a surprise: we’re not talking about where your plot ends or the last page of your
novel. The real question is: What is your protagonist’s ultimate “aha” moment? In
other words, when (and why) does she finally overcome her misbelief, so that she now
sees the world differently? This is what your novel has been driving toward since the
first page; it is narrative thread that has your reader riveted. This is where your novel
now makes its point – giving us insight into human nature, and the inside intel to
better navigate our own lives. To paraphrase Proust, “The only true voyage of
discovery is not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” A story is about
how your protagonist gains “new eyes.” This is the moment when the plot has finally
cornered your protagonist, and she has no choice but to see things differently (or not,
if that’s your point). The key to writing this scene is to not only put us in the midst of
the event that will trigger this realization, but to firmly lodge us in your protagonist’s
brain as she finally sees the light. Because we don’t just want to know what she
realized, we want to see the internal logic leading up to why. What you’re looking for
is:

• What will your protagonist ultimately realize? Why?

• What will happen plot-wise that will trigger your protagonist’s realization?

• How will your protagonist make sense if what’s happening, internally?

• What will your protagonist do as a result of this realization?

© LISA CRON • WWW.WIREDFORSTORY.COM

One final, reassuring, caveat: right now all of what you’ve written speculative, none of it
is written in stone, and much of it will be fuzzy, unclear, and often read as clunky, even
cliché. That is totally fine. The goal of the Story Genius method is not to write
beautifully (which is impossible right out of the starting gate), or to be a hundred
percent sure that yes, this is exactly what will happen (ditto). Rather, this is your first
concrete stake in the ground, giving you a fledgling – yet reassuringly specific – notion
of where you’re headed and why. Will it change, grow, expand as you write forward? Of
course! That’s where 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) might come in handy. Just saying.

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© LISA CRON • WWW.WIREDFORSTORY.COM