I recently learned about “Story and the Brain” from the introduction of “Brain Secrets” by Lisa Cron and the text “Leveraging the Human Brain’s Hunger for Story” by Doug Rekenthaler Jr. I will give you good advice from the texts to write a good story such as having a good framework, how conflict and hard-wired expectations are important, and to have a good protagonist.
The first advice that will help you to be a great writer is to have a good framework and hard-wired expectations. In Rekenthaler’s text, he talks about the Dramatic Arc by Gustav Freytag which is the framework. Rekenthaler says “German novelist, Gustav Freytag, who first tried to codify the storytelling process, which he labeled the ‘Dramatic Arc’ ” . The Dramatic Arc contains the exposition which is the beginning, rising action where the protagonist gets in the conflict, climax which is the peak of the conflict, falling action which is the resolution of the conflict, and the denouement where the story closes with peace. All the parts of the Dramatic Arc creates a conflict which releases the stress hormone cortisol and the empathetic hormone oxytocin. Both the chemicals together creates a potent neural chemical cocktail. In the text by Cron, she tells a story must have a framework. Cron says “there is an implicit framework that must underlie a story in order” . The framework is important because without the framework, you will make your story boring, and your audience will tune out which is the same thing as the Dramatic Arc. If you have the narrative path your story might be a best seller and you might be rich. All in all, the framework is important because it creates conflicts which humans hunger for.
The second advice that will help you be a great writer is to have conflicts and hardwired expectations. In Rekenthaler, he talks about how conflicts are important for a good story. Rekenthaler says “Studies do and indeed confirm that our dreams are far more likely to be filled with conflict and difficulties than there sunnier opposites” . Conflicts are important because they make us feel empathy for the people who are in the conflict. In the story Ben which is about a three year old kid named Ben get brain cancer, and is about to die. Ben’s dad tries to enjoy his last moments of his son when he knows Ben’s going to die. We feel empathy for Ben’s dad, which makes us one with the story. When Ben’s dad feels sad for the thought that his son will die, we feel sad. Another example is when Cron says that we are meant for story. Cron says that “neuroscience reveals that our brain is hardwired to respond to story”. This explains that our brain is hardwired to respond to story because neuroscience reveals that we are meant to respond to story. If we see a story, we would get controlled by the story because our brain is hard-wired for story, so we get hooked to the book. All in all, conflict and hard-wired expectations is important for a good story.
My final advice is you need a good protagonist, which means the main character. Rekenthaler says that conflict makes us one with the protagonist. Rekenthaler says that cortisol and oxytocin together make you “not only focuses our attention on the plight of the story’s protagonist… we become one and the same with the story’s protagonist” . This shows the protagonist is important because if there is no protagonist, there will be no conflicts. As I said before, a story with no conflict will tune out your audience. Cron says that we feel the stuff that happens to the protagonist. Cron says that we will feel“ what the protagonist feels, experiencing it as if it were indeed happening to us” . This is important because if the protagonist gets hit, it feels like someone is hitting us. It also makes people not get distracted from the story, and if they see someone getting hit, they’ll try to stop it because they know what will happen. This makes us race ahead of the stories and we come up with conclusions. This is called ‘neural coupling’. They won’t want it to happen to someone else. This shows that the protagonist can rewire people’s brain. All in all, a story needs a protagonist because if it doesn’t have one, the story will have no conflict, and the audience will tune out.
Overall, to have a good story you need a good framework like the Dramatic Arc which contains the exposition which is the beginning, rising action where the protagonist gets in the conflict, climax which is the peak of the conflict, falling action which is the resolution of the conflict, and the denouement where the story closes with peace, a conflict, and hard-wired expectations to interest your audience and to rewire their brain, and a good protagonist to have a conflict and to rewire human brains like the conflict because they are part of the conflict. I hope you will follow these advices and become a bestselling author! Good Luck! I will buy your book!
Being Curious 