The brain has one goal: to get you through the day alive and unharmed. When you do, your brain high-fives you and says, Excellent, do the exact same thing the exact same way tomorrow. Each time you do something new or different, such as learn a new skill or take up a new sport, your brain is forced to spend calories.
Even something as simple as practicing your signature with your non-dominant hand requires attention and focus.
Dr.
Paul Zak first described the brain as lazy in his 2015 article "Why Inspiring Stories Make Us React: The Neuroscience of Narrative."#6451•
Your brain is the stingiest of bankers, wanting to make sure you aren't taking risks that would bankrupt it of calories. It is also a futurist, making predictions about what will happen so you can respond accordingly. Not just for when you face danger. Movements and gestures are predicted—like the way you place your foot when walking downstairs.
Step wrong, and you immediately correct while your brain adjusts for future predictions (Feldman Barrett 2021).
The first time you went down a flight of stairs, it took several minutes of trial and error.
Now you move without conscious thought.
Those neural pathways have been strengthened from years of reinforced predictions about your movement.
When your brain predicts correctly, it can conserve and bank calories for those experiences that are new or perceived risky.#6458•
The brain looks for ways to conserve calories and maintain a reserve. It wants to be as lazy as floating in a pool on an inflatable pink watermelon raft while sipping a piña colada. It loves repetition. This is the reason you binge a TV show or movie you've seen before. Your brain often seeks familiarity, comfort, and the opportunity to hoard calories, particularly in times of stress.
When watching something new, your brain works to understand and anticipate the plot.
Turn on something you have seen before, and your brain already understands what will unfold.
The lazy brain stops paying attention to those things that don't engage it.
Stories (and speakers!) that ramble, are predictable, emotionally flat, or even hard to relate to can cause the brain to subtly stop paying attention.#6450•
Our senses connect emotions with memories. My friend Kathryn was in a car accident as a child where takeout food was scattered all over the car and onto her clothing. Twenty years later, she was in another car accident. She immediately smelled coleslaw when there was none in the car. Senses dynamically engage your brain and its library of files of experiences, knowledge, memory, and emotions.#6459•
We feel a part of in-groups when we hear stories that share beliefs, experiences, or aspirations with our own. Empathy and connection are experienced, increasing oxytocin and trust. This belonging helps us feel comfortable, relaxed, or excited. Stories create in-groups when they relate to the audience's "I want that!" feeling.#6456•
Stories that create out-groups help you recognize your contrasting experience or perspective. When we feel outside of a group, we often experience heightened awareness, discomfort, and feel different. A charity telling the story of people in Ethiopia without access to clean water helps the audience recognize how different their lives are with indoor plumbing.
These stories leverage the natural comparison of circumstances to recognize differences or new ideas.
Like in-groups, out-groups often lead to increased empathy and support, spurring action that is motivated by recognition of differences.
A company undergoing a merger or embracing a new strategy might tell stories that describe the new direction and why the group can't stay in the status quo.#6452•
The neurochemicals in our brain often drive us to do two things: seek pleasure (and sometimes in abundance) or avoid pain and danger (Thomson 2021). Dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin are released in moments of connection or attraction. Oxytocin is released when we feel a sense of bonding and trust toward someone.
They each make us feel great and reinforce the pursuit of pleasure and connection.
Cortisol and adrenaline are released to increase attention or focus.
This prepares us to avoid pain or discomfort and get out of danger when a threat is detected.#6455•
This neural coupling is one of the strongest attributes of storytelling. When listening to a story, a listener's brain lights up and mirrors the same patterns as the storyteller's, particularly when the story engages the senses and emotions. These are the moments you feel a lump form in your throat as you watch a sad movie.
Neural coupling is one of the greatest empathy builders—the original artificial reality.
The more the listener's senses and emotions are engaged, the stronger the experience.#6457•
Michelle Satter
Sundance Institute Founding Senior Director, Artist Programs
What do you look for in a story?
I am looking for an author's truth in how they tell a story—someone's deeply personal perspective and unique voice. Additionally, I respond to how they've created a world and a consistent tone with specificity and detail. I want to invest in the characters who speak and behave from a truthful place, have complexity, and are on an emotional journey with a clear want and need.
I'm interested in discovery—when my heart and mind open up and I feel like I am in the presence of a writer who is going to share their story, vulnerabilities, and unique perspective. It's what I hope for when I open up a book or script.#6454•
It is important to listen to feedback but to not take it personally. Embrace confusion as part of the process that often leads to meaningful discoveries. Ask the hard questions of yourself and of your characters. The right questions can lead you to the most imaginative and surprising solutions.#6453•
Chapter 3
Great stories have three key elements: characters, conflict, and connection. They also culminate in an outcome for the audience—something they know, feel, think, or do differently because of the story. Within each great story, concepts from the Five Factory Settings of the Brain are applied to intentionally increase immersion and engagement.#6517•
Your characters need two things: to be relatable and to have conflict. The audience wants to have a sense of who the characters are and why they do what they do, even if they don't like them or agree with them. We can learn a lot from the mistakes and failures people make. You don't have to have a hero. But you do want characters your audience can recognize.#6516•
Great storytellers describe "the truth" of a story, or what is real about the story. They answer questions like, How will the audience connect to the story? Are there events and actions that feel real and true to what they know? Characters illustrate these truths through their actions.#6509•
Conflict is inherent with tension. You want to build toward conflict in a way that is unexpected, slows assumptions, and makes the brain spend calories. This is done through surprising plot points, details, outcomes, or even unexpected metaphors within the story.
Characters often have conflict with themselves or each other. Describe what is at stake and needs to be resolved. Show the arc of who characters are before and after the conflict. Consider if the actions of your characters make your audience feel enjoyable or uncomfortable—like dropping their phone down an elevator shaft.#6513•
We should see, hear, feel, smell, taste, and experience the same things as the characters. Include specific details to help anchor what the audience knows and aid in their recall. Create empathy and curiosity with descriptions of characters, their challenges, and their choices. Connect the audience to emotion to help with decision-making and the desired outcome. We want them to feel sadness, hap#6518•
Chapter 4
You can't create and edit at the same time.
Storytelling includes two parts: creating and editing. Creating is expansive. It involves building one idea upon another without judgment or critique. Editing is tightening, analyzing, and refining. It questions if something contributes to the story and the intended idea. Both play an important role in storytelling, but not at the same time.#6510•