The book that every aspiring writer should read: The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr
As someone who has long been interested in writing fiction, but has failed at every attempt, I felt this book offered some hope that I might one day be able to do it.
I read this book after listening to Will Storr talk about it on a podcast — he has written several non-fiction books since, among them, ‘The Status Game’ and ‘Selfie’, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed, and so I thought I’d give this one a go too.
In ‘The Science of Storytelling’, Storr meticulously takes the reader through the key elements that make a story successful. Many of these seem blindingly obvious and universally applicable in hindsight, yet very few of them were ever previously on my radar during my previous attempts at creative writing (now at least I feel like I have a fighting chance). These elements are presented in bitesize chunks, which can help even those of us with the shortest attention spans to stay engaged.
It’s hard to pick only a few of these tips to discuss in this review, given how densely packed and knowledge-rich Storr’s work is, his years of experience as a long-form journalist and ghost-writer clearly coming through.
He tackles questions relating to overarching principles of good stories — where does a story begin? How can I build a world with complex characters? How can I utilise character flaws to create drama, as well as the details — how to use language and metaphor in ways that keep the reader engaged. Throughout, Storr backs up his points with insights from psychology which help us understand why exactly such strategies are effective.
In particular, I loved the chapter on how ‘theory-of-mind mistakes create drama’. Storr explains that while it’s a natural human tendency to assume we know what others are thinking, science shows that our guesses for the most part are staggeringly inaccurate, ranging from 20–35%. This is a huge cause of human drama, Storr argues, and writers have utilised the fallout that comes from such misunderstandings as dramatic material for centuries. The first story that came to mind for me when thinking about this dramatic tool, funnily enough was Shrek The Musical (I’d been to see it earlier that day). [SPOILER ALERT] Shrek overhears Princess Fiona asking ‘who could love an ugly beast’, and is hurt thinks Fiona is referring to him, when she is in fact talking about herself, causing him to abandon Fiona to marry the evil Lord Farquard. This misunderstanding creates the drama for the second act. Similar situations can be found in abundance in Shakespeare — Midummer Night’s Dream comes to mind (but why talk about Shakespeare when you can talk about Shrek).
Overall, I’d highly recommend this book for anyone interested in writing, creativity and expression, as well as those who are interested in psychology and science. Storr’s book is a lovely example of how effective cross-disciplinary inquiry can be.
