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The Science of Storytelling

Written by:
Will Storr
Narrated by:
James Clamp

Unabridged Audiobook

Ratings
Book
25
Narrator
8
Release Date
February 18, 2020
Duration
6 hours 51 minutes
Summary
How do master storytellers compel us? There have been many attempts to understand what makes a good story, but few have used a scientific approach. In The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can tell better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers—and also our brains—create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change.

Storr’s 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 children’s stories. With chapters such as “The Dramatic Question” and “Plot, Endings, and Meaning” and a practical, step-by-step appendix dedicated to “The Sacred Flaw Approach,” The Science of Storytelling is destined to become an invaluable resource for writers of all stripes, whether novelist, screenwriter, playwright, or writer of creative or traditional nonfiction.
Reviews
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Paul S.

This book felt fresh apart from the evolutionary stuff that all science-based books lean on when nothing else suffices to explain a complexity in human capability, but I guess that can be forgiven for the value of the other more practical/philosophical framing the author sets his views on narrative within. Similar to a Jordan Peterson lecture in some ways, but less is derived from sacredness here, less from religious underpinnings, which if you're religious or not, i think you'll find this book's non-'religious' approach leaves somewhat of a vacuum of explanation and therefore an effect to the whole point. Science is merely science until it becomes human which I think is the thrust of the book, in a different way, when describing how to tell a good story: the plot only means something when it's driven by the people in it. So I guess trying to explain storytelling with science is a bit oxymoronic because story only exists in us, people, human beings. Story isn't science. All that being said, I still found a lot of value in this book, especially the historical stuff, which sort of stripped back the psychology of the greats we all know, and some of the contemporaries too. All in all, if you love reading and literature, and if you dabble in writing now and then, this one is worth your while.

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John P.

As someone who is starting to write, I found some great inspirations and insights for creating my narratives and characters.

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Esther P.

for a book on story telling this is doing a very poor job at story telling and there is also pseudoscience going on. would not recommend listening to this..

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O K.

Highly not recommended. boring and waste of money

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