This book is excellent. The science of storytelling like never told before. Here Will Storr gives us a book that should be read by everyone who loves to read. It tells us how every story that’s worth reading is about something changing.
This book attempts to answer many questions about the science of storytelling, and I will discuss just three core questions here:
1) What makes a good story and why do people need them?
2) How do our beliefs influence our stories?
3) Who are you?
For the first question, Storr focuses on the concept of change throughout a story. Unexpected change is what allows the reader to be interested in story. Unexpected change creates an informational gap that the reader wants to fill drives attention and results in the feeling of curiosity. Storr uses the research of behavioral scientist George Loewenstein to help us classify 4 ways curiosity is invoked:
1) presentation of a puzzle;
2) exposure to events with an unknown resolution;
3) violation of expectations;
4) not everyone possesses similar information.
For the second question, Storr discusses how we’ll defend beliefs that form our identities, values and our theories of control. This results often in people telling themselves that they are right. Why does this happen? According to Storr, it’s because the human brain has a natural tendency to make up its own hallucinations regarding how the world works. He applies these concepts to characters in stories and how they have established personalities, beliefs, and values that make up their reality of the world and how these beliefs create unique characters with unique perspective on reality solving their problems. This intrigue allows the viewer to realize that there are varying ways to solve everyday issues and gives the audience a different perspective.
For the third question, Storr explains that this is the question that every character is seeking an answer to. The dramatic question of “who are you” is introduced early on, so we can watch characters figure out the answer to this question, yet the protagonist does not find the answer until the very end. Storr explains that this also applies to our real lives. We are all seeking the answer to this dramatic question as we try to discover who we are. However, the difference between our lives and books/movies that with the later characters find that answer.
This book gets 4.75 out of 5 stars