The Science of Storytelling

perfectly tooled to capture the attention of masses of brains.

Most turn out to be just variations on the standard five-act plot which is successful not because of some secret cosmic truth, or any universal law of storytelling, but because it’s the neatest way of showing deep character change.

journey into the science of storytelling reveals the truth of such recipes.

Often the search has been for the One True Story – the ultimate, perfect plot structure by which every tale can be judged.

to adventure’ onwards.

Such plot structures have been hugely successful

parts that track the phases of a hero’s journey from their initial ‘call to adventure’ onwards.

challenge any of us faces is that of grabbing and keeping the attention of other people’s brains.

been interviewing had been telling me about brain and mind. The storytellers and the scientists had started off in completely different places and had ended up discovering the same things.

theorists were saying about narrative were strikingly similar to what the psychologists and neuroscientists

The answer I found was that, if we’re psychologically healthy, our brain makes us feel as if we’re the moral heroes at the centre of the unfolding plots of our lives.