The compelling, groundbreaking guide to creative writing that reveals how the brain responds to storytelling
Stories shape who we are. They drive us to act out our dreams and ambitions and mold our beliefs. Storytelling is an essential part of what makes us human. So, how do master storytellers compel us? In The Science of Storytelling, award-winning writer and acclaimed teacher of creative writing Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can write better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers-and also our brains-create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change.
Will 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 sections such as "The Dramatic Question," "Creating a World," and "Plot, Endings, and Meaning," as well as a practical, step-by-step appendix dedicated to "The Sacred Flaw Approach," The Science of Storytelling reveals just what makes stories work, placing it alongside such creative writing classics as John Yorke's Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey into Story and Lajos Egri's The Art of Dramatic Writing. Enlightening and empowering, 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.
Nas opredelyayut istorii. Oni lezhat v osnove nashih ubezhdeniy i verovaniy, harakterov i vkusov. Tysyacheletiya nazad umenie skladyvat zahvatyvayuschie syuzhety pomogalo nam rasselyatsya po planete, podderzhivat svyaz, provodit i stirat granitsy mezhdu plemenami. A s nedavnih por esche i pisat knigi, snimat filmy i pridumyvat virtualnye miry. No pochemu my tak lyubim istorii? Otvet kroetsya v ustroystve nashego mozga. S pomoschyu poslednih dostizheniy neyronauk Uill Storr obyasnyaet, chto korni vsemirnoy slavy Shekspira lezhat v evolyutsii, v chem sila "Grazhdanina Keyna" i "Krasoty po-amerikanski" i chemu my mozhem nauchitsya u samih sebya.
Po mneniyu Storra, zhizn kazhdogo cheloveka - blestyaschiy stsenariy, tolko pishut ego ne vysshie sily, a nash mozg, ezheminutno napolnyaya proishodyaschee smyslom i prednaznacheniem. "Vnutrenniy rasskazchik" perevorachivaet predstavlenie o literaturnom masterstve i navykah stsenarista i pokazyvaet, kak istorii rozhdayutsya v nashih golovah - i kak avtory kinoblokbasterov i priznannyh literaturnyh shedevrov manipuliruyut glubinnymi sloyami podsoznaniya. Ostorozhno: spoylery! V knige raskryvaetsya syuzhet "Korolya Lira", "Gamleta", "Dorogi peremen", "Lolity", "Lourensa Araviyskogo" i dr.
