Why I picked up this book:

I picked up this book as part of a challenge with one of my writer groups. We’d decided to tackle a writer crafting book together as a team so we could talk about the text, share ideas, and learn how to apply some of the practical skills to our writing. All I can say is this book has once again changed my writing life and how I approach both my first draft and larger revisions.

This review may contain spoilers.

Story Genius
	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 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.

    

What I loved:

Everything, honestly. From the first page Lisa engages the reader to start thinking in a more abstract and also focused way. With the power of neuroscience as she explains in her book, readers begin to feel engaged, think deeper about their stories, and feel connected to this idea of writing the work in circles instead of a more linear fashion.

The questions and worksheet part of the book was brilliant. Even though I was stopping every few pages to answer one of the questions, I found that each answer opened up another huge chunk of understanding and got me excited to read the next part to tackle another question.

Areas needing a touch of refinement:

This is more just a wish…. I wish this craft book had a complementary workbook that targets just the questions so I could use it over and over each time I’m tackling a new story or a larger revision. I’d use the crap out of it.

Overall:

I loved this craft book and I highly recommend it for anyone writing fiction. It’s a wonderful way to tackle deeper, underlying issues in characters so that every action and reaction are seeded from a depth of understanding. I can’t wait to tackle more of Cron’s work and add it to my methodology.

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