The compelling, groundbreaking guide to creative writing that reveals how the brain responds to storytelling, based on the wildly popular creative writing class.

Enlightening and empowering, The Science of Storytelling is destined to become an invaluable resource for writers of all stripes, whether novelist, screenwriter, playwright, children's writer, or writer of creative or traditional nonfiction.

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.

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?

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.

If you want to write a novel or a script, read this book. It is clear, compelling, and tightly shaped. ―Sunday Times (London)

'Will Storr is one of our best journalists of ideas ... The Status Game might be his best yet' James Marriott, Books of the Year, The Times

What drives our political and moral beliefs?

What shapes our bitterest conflicts and wildest dreams?

What makes you, you?

Across the world, from Papua New Guinea to Tokyo and Manhattan, humans compete for status. Through games of dominance, virtue and success, it's an obsession that has driven the best and worst of us: the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution as well as spree killers and tyrants at the gates of Europe. But what makes status an all-consuming prize? And how can we wield our desire for it to improve our relationships, win social media battles and be the best in the workplace?

A breathtaking rethink of human psychology, The Status Game will change how you see others - and how you see yourself.

We are living in an age of heightened individualism. Success is a personal responsibility. Our culture tells us that to succeed is to be slim, rich, happy, extroverted, popular--flawless. We have become self-obsessed. And our expectation of perfection comes at a cost. Millions are suffering under the torture of this impossible fantasy. The pressure to conform to this ideal has changed who we are.It was not always like this. To explain how we got here, award-winning journalist Will Storr leads us on a terrific tour through the history of self-obsession (NPR, On Point) that explores the origins of this notion of the perfect self that torments so many of us: Where does this ideal come from? Why is it so powerful? Is there any way to break its spell?Full of thrilling and unexpected connections among history, psychology, economics, neuroscience, and more, Selfie is an unforgettable book that makes sense of who we have become. Ranging from Ancient Greece, through the Christian Middle Ages, to the self-esteem evangelists of 1980s California, the rise of the selfie generation, and the era of hyper-individualism in which we live now, Selfie tells the epic tale of the person we all know so intimately--because it's us.

The compelling, groundbreaking guide to creative writing that reveals how the brain responds to storytelling, based on the wildly popular creative writing class.

Enlightening and empowering, The Science of Storytelling is destined to become an invaluable resource for writers of all stripes, whether novelist, screenwriter, playwright, children's writer, or writer of creative or traditional nonfiction.

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.

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?

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.

If you want to write a novel or a script, read this book. It is clear, compelling, and tightly shaped. ―Sunday Times (London)

Will Storr has done some seriously bizarre and otherworldly things over the course of his career as a journalist. But even spending an entire day with Ozzy Osbourne wasn't as frightening as when he agreed to follow Philadelphia demonologist Lou Gentile on his appointed rounds. Will Storr never believed in ghosts--but his healthy skepticism couldn't explain the strange lights and sounds he witnessed, and the weird behavior of the occupants of several allegedly haunted houses.

What resulted is a confirmed cynic's (and proud of it!) dedicated search for answers in a shadowy world of séances, mediums, devil worshippers--even the Vatican's chief exorcist. So get ready to confront the genuinely creepy along with the hilariously ridiculous in Will Storr vs. the Supernatural!

An intriguing odyssey though the history of the self and the rise of narcissism (The New York Times).

Self-absorption, perfectionism, personal branding--it wasn't always like this, but it's always been a part of us. Why is the urge to look at ourselves so powerful? Is there any way to break its spell--especially since it doesn't necessarily make us better or happier people? Full of unexpected connections among history, psychology, economics, neuroscience, and more, Selfie is a terrific book that makes sense of who we have become (NPR's On Point).

Award-winning journalist Will Storr takes us from ancient Greece, through the Christian Middle Ages, to the self-esteem evangelists of 1980s California, the rise of the selfie generation, and the era of hyper-individualism in which we live now, telling the epic tale of the person we all know so intimately--because it's us.

It's easy to look at Instagram and selfie-sticks and shake our heads at millennial narcissism. But Will Storr takes a longer view. He ignores the easy targets and instead tells the amazing 2,500-year story of how we've come to think about our selves. A top-notch journalist, historian, essayist, and sleuth, Storr has written an essential book for understanding, and coping with, the 21st century. --Nathan Hill, New York Times-bestselling author of The Nix

This fascinating psychological and social history . . . reveals how biology and culture conspire to keep us striving for perfection, and the devastating toll that can take.--The Washington Post

Ably synthesizes centuries of attitudes and beliefs about selfhood, from Aristotle, John Calvin, and Freud to Sartre, Ayn Rand, and Steve Jobs. --USA Today

Eminently suitable for readers of both Yuval Noah Harari and Daniel Kahneman, Selfie also has shades of Jon Ronson in its subversive humor and investigative spirit. --Bookseller

Storr is an electrifying analyst of Internet culture. --Financial Times

Continually delivers rich insights . . . captivating. --Kirkus Reviews

A fascinating exploration of how to use the power of storytelling to create irresistible pitches, build passionate brand loyalty, motivate teams and lead with charisma.

'Will Storr is a genius' Rory Sutherland
'A captivating and enlightening read . . Will Storr is an unusually talented and insightful writer' Adam Grant
'Storr shares profound insights' Seth Godin
'Whip smart, insightful and ridiculously entertaining' Jimmy Carr
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Using the latest findings from social psychology, evolutionary psychology, organisational psychology and neuroscience, A Story is a Deal argues that we won't unlock the true power of story if we treat it merely as something we read on a page, see on a screen or hear in a speech. Storr shows how successful stories shape identities, which changes beliefs, drives action and achieves extraordinary results.

With examples ranging from Aztec rituals to Apple's legendary advertising successes (and long-forgotten fails), A Story is a Deal lays out a revolutionary new method for creating the most persuasive messaging: by harnessing the power of our storytelling brains.
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'Intensely original and powerfully practical' Jonah Berger
'A fascinating insight into the human mind' Levinson Wood
'A very clever book that makes the reader feel cleverer with every page' Daniel Finkelstein
'Powerfully persuasive and urgently practical' Bruce Daisley
'Will Storr has a unique ability to explain our social world in ways that would never otherwise occur' Jack Dee

Why, that is, did the obviously intelligent man beside him sincerely believe in Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden and a six-thousand-year-old Earth, in spite of the evidence against them? It was the start of a journey that would lead Storr all over the world--from Texas to Warsaw to the Outer Hebrides--meeting an extraordinary cast of modern heretics whom he tries his best to understand. Storr tours Holocaust sites with famed denier David Irving and a band of neo-Nazis, experiences his own murder during past life regression hypnosis, discusses the looming One World Government an iconic climate skeptic, and investigates the tragic life and death of a woman who believed her parents were high priests in a baby-eating cult. Using a unique mix of highly personal memoir, investigative journalism, and the latest research from neuroscience and experimental psychology, Storr reveals how the stories we tell ourselves about the world invisibly shape our beliefs, and how the neurological hero maker inside us all can so easily lead to self-deception, toxic partisanship and science denial.

16 revealing stories about the human brain

Ever wondered how Scandinavians cope with 24-hour darkness, why we feel pain - or whether smartphones really make children stupid?

Have you heard about the US army's research into supercharging minds?

You need some Brainology. Written for Wellcome, the health charity, these stories follow doctors as they solve the puzzle of our emotions, nerves and behaviour.

Discover fascinating and intriguing stories from the world of science.

Contents

- Ouch! The science of pain - John Walsh

- Why doctors are reclaiming LSD and ecstasy - Sam Wong

- Inside the mind of an interpreter - Geoff Watts

- How should we deal with dark winters? - Linda Geddes

- Smartphones won't* make your kids dumb (*Probably) - Olivia Solon

- You can train your mind into 'receiving' medicine - Jo Marchant

- Charting the phenomenon of deep grief - Andrea Volpe

- The mirror cure for phantom limb pain - Srinath Perur

- Can you think yourself into a different person? - Will Storr

- How to survive a troubled childhood - Lucy Maddox

- What tail-chasing dogs reveal about humans - Shayla Love

- A central nervous solution to arthritis - Gaia Vince

- Could virtual reality headsets relieve pain? - Jo Marchant

- What it means to be homesick in the 21st Century - John Osborne

- Lighting up brain tumours with Project Violet - Alex O'Brien

- The US military plan to supercharge brains - Emma Young


EXTRACT

Ouch! The science of pain

John Walsh

One night in May, my wife sat up in bed and said, 'I've got this awful pain just here.' She prodded her abdomen and made a face. 'It feels like something's really wrong.' Woozily noting that it was 2am, I asked what kind of pain it was. 'Like something's biting into me and won't stop, ' she said.

'Hold on, ' I said blearily, 'help is at hand.' I brought her a couple of ibuprofen with some water, which she downed, clutching my hand and waiting for the ache to subside.

An hour later, she was sitting up in bed again, in real distress. 'It's worse now, ' she said, 'really nasty. Can you phone thedoctor?' Miraculously, the family doctor answered the phone at 3am, listened to her recital of symptoms and concluded, 'It might be your appendix. Have you had yours taken out?' No, she hadn't. 'It could be appendicitis, ' he surmised, 'but if it was dangerous you'd be in much worse pain than you're in. Go to the hospital in the morning, but for now, take some paracetamol and try to sleep.'

Barely half an hour later, the balloon went up. She was awakened for the third time, but now with a pain so savage and uncontainable it made her howl like a tortured witch face down on a bonfire. The time for murmured assurances and spousal procrastination was over. I rang a local minicab, struggled into my clothes, bundled her into a dressing gown, and we sped to St Mary's Paddington at just before 4am.

The flurry of action made the pain subside, if only through distraction, and we sat for hours while doctors brought forms to be filled, took her blood pressure and ran tests. A registrar poked a needle into my wife's wrist and said, 'Does that hurt? Does that? How about that?' before concluding: 'Impressive. You have a very high pain threshold.'

The pain was from pancreatitis, brought on by rogue gallstones that had escaped from her gall bladder and made their way, like fleeing convicts, to a refuge in her pancreas, causing agony. She was given a course of antibiotics and, a month later, had an operation to remove her gall bladder.

'It's keyhole surgery, ' said the surgeon breezily, 'so you'll be back to normal very soon. Some people feel well enough to take the bus home after the operation.' His optimism was misplaced. My lovely wife, she of the admirably high pain threshold, had to stay overnight, and came home the following day filled with painkillers; when they wore off, she writhed with suffering. After three days she rang the specialist, only to be told: '

Buy the book to carry on reading

Part sinister fairy tale, part gothic horror, this debut novel pulls back the curtain on the celebrity chef's kitchen, revealing a disturbing world of ambition and brutality.

Killian Lone comes from a long line of gifted cooks stretching back to the 17th century, and he yearns to become a famous chef himself. When he starts an apprenticeship under Max Mann, the most famous chef in London, he looks set to continue the family tradition. But the reality of kitchen life is brutal. Even his fellow apprentice, Kathryn, who shows Killian uncharacteristic kindness, can't stop him being sucked into the vicious and debauched world of 1980s fine dining; and gradually he is forced to surrender his dream.

Then he discovers a dark family secret - the legacy of an ancestor who was burnt as a witch for creating food so delicious it was said to turn all who tasted it mad. Killian knows he can use this secret to achieve his ambitions and maybe, finally, to win Kathryn's affections. But is he willing to pay the price?