Lisa Cron, Fight Club, Anthony Bourdain, and the One True Way to Write a Book

About 2200 years ago, the ancient Greek scholar Archimedes sat down for a bath, watched the water rise, and in doing so discovered a method for measuring mass.

As legend has it, Archimedes was so excited he ran down the street naked shouting “Eureka!”

If you’re lucky, every once in a while you’ll experience an “aha!” or “Eureka!” moment just like Archimedes.

While these moments of clarity might not send you running naked through the streets, they will almost surely send your life rocketing off in a fascinating new direction.

I had one of those moments recently while watching a writer’s craft course.

I’m a huge believer in the pursuit of lifelong learning, and I whole heartily subscribe to Hemingway’s theory that when it comes to writing, “We’re all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”

As such, I often take writer’s craft courses and read craft books. I engage in this sort of education not just to improve my skills as a writing instructor and book coach, but to improve my skills as an author of fiction.

I teach writing, but I also write novels. It’s what I do. It’s in my blood, and I never want to stop getting better at it.

That’s why, a few months back, I was excited to check out Lisa Cron’s Creative Live course, Wired for Story: How to Become a Story Genius, based on her two books, Wired for Story and Story Genius.

Early on in the course, Cron makes a strong argument for why fiction authors should start the story planning process by thinking about their protagonist’s wants and needs, rather than focusing on the story’s major plot points.

Cron suggests readers don’t care what your character does; they care why your character does it. What draws the reader into a story, according to Cron, are the character’s internal wants and needs. It is these wants that determine the external actions taken in the story’s global plot.

Cron is an experienced and skilled teacher, and she makes a compelling argument for this approach.

The only problem I have with it is that it’s the exact opposite of what I teach.

I believe the most efficient way to start plotting a story is to begin with just that: the plot.

What are the exciting set pieces in the story? What are the obligatory scenes of your genre? What are the big twists and edge-of-your-seat page turning moments? That’s where I recommend writers start thinking about their story, not the internal world of their protagonists.

In my book, The Novel Writer’s Blueprint, I call these exciting external moments your “big puzzle pieces.” Once the big puzzle pieces have been identified and placed chronologically within the narrative using an established story structure, the plotting process becomes a simple act of linking the big puzzle pieces together in a logical manner. Characters are then able to emerge organically out of the plot, not the plot out of the characters.

There is a line in Fight Club you might find illustrative to understand this approach to character development. It’s the moment when Tyler Durden asks:

“How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?”

Durden believes we only reveal our true character in moments of stress and conflict, and I’m inclined to agree.

That’s why I never start writing a story by thinking about a character. Instead, I create a fight or conflict, put a character into that conflict, and let them reveal themselves to me through their actions while under stress.

Once again, it should be noted this is the exact opposite of what Lisa Cron teaches.

So… who is right and who is wrong?

Which of us teaches the one true way to craft a book?

Have I been teaching writing completely wrong all these years, or has Cron?

The answer, of course, is that neither of us is wrong. There is no one “right” way to plan and write a book.

I teach a method that has worked for me and will work for some writers, while Cron teaches a method that works for her and will work for others.

Both methods can exist simultaneously without either being wrong.

Now, to be clear, this understanding on my part was not the “aha” moment I mentioned in the introduction. That happened next.

You see, I’m a fan of writer Anthony Bourdain, and I was saddened to hear of his unfortunate death just last week. Bourdain, a lifelong learner and consistently curious mind, had one tattoo that read “I suspend judgment” and another that read “I am certain of nothing.” These simple statements reflect the exact type of attitude one needs to embrace to be a great writer and a great teacher of writing.

The second you start thinking your way is the only way, you’re going down a dangerous path. I’ve long understood that, so it was no great revelation for me to conclude Cron and I could both be right.

Where my “Eureka!” moment came was when I realized what I have been teaching my writing students and clients is based on my experiences, my biases, and my preferences alone.

There is nothing necessarily wrong with this approach. In fact, people hire me to coach and teach them precisely because they want to learn my perspective on productive writing.

That said, my method isn’t always going to work for every client.

Some clients might prefer Lisa Cron’s method.

Or someone else’s method…

And that’s when it happened.

I found myself wondering:

What if when people came to work with me, they didn’t just get access to me and my perspective? 

What if I were able to provide my clients with access to a community of like-minded writers and a team of coaches?

I often encourage aspiring authors to ask themselves how a writing coach might be able to help them achieve their goals, so let me put a little twist on that question, and ask you this…

How might TEAM of coaches be able to help you achieve your writing and publishing goals?

I’ll let you ponder that question for the next couple days…

Then, next week, I’ll be announcing the launch of something I am calling… Writers Craft Academy INTENSIVE. 

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