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Into The Woods
Into The Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them | John Yorke
5 posts | 5 read | 1 reading | 7 to read
Into The Woods is a revelation of the fundamental structure and meaning of all stories, from the man responsible for more hours of drama on British television than anyone else, John Yorke. We all love stories. Many of us love to tell them, and even dream of making a living from it too. But what is a story? Hundreds of books about screenwriting and storytelling have been written, but none of them ask 'Why?' Why do we tell stories? And why do all stories function in an eerily similar way? John Yorke has been telling stories almost his entire adult life, and the more he has done it, the more he has asked himself why? Every great thinker or writer has their theories: Aristotle, David Hare, Lajos Egri, Robert McKee, Gustav Freytag, David Mamet, Christopher Booker, Charlie Kaufman, William Goldman and Aaron Sorkin - all have offered insightful and illuminating answers. Here, John Yorke draws on these figures and more as he takes us on a historical, philosophical, scientific and psychological journey to the heart of all storytelling. What he reveals is that there truly is a unifying shape to narrative - one that echoes the great fairytale journey into the woods, and one, like any great art, that comes from deep within. Much more than a 'how to write' book, Into the Woods is an exploration of this fundamental structure underneath all narrative forms, from film and television to theatre and novel-writing. With astonishing detail and wisdom, John Yorke explains to us a phenomenon that, whether it is as a simple fable, or a big-budget 3D blockbuster, most of us experience almost every day of our lives.
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KimHM
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Because I need to write in it 🖊🖊🖊 and actually be able to 👀 the charts 😂

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KimHM
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Book mail is the BEST mail 📚❤️📚💚 !

Also, this is the first time I‘ve ever been halfway through an ebook (tagged title) and realized I had to have the physical copy, too. Is that common or odd 😬?

readinginthedark I don‘t think it‘s very odd! I like using the highlights and notes features on my nook for that when I‘m reading an ebook, but print just settles better sometimes! 6y
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KimHM
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Yorke gives the absolute best explanation/example of beats in a scene I‘ve ever read or heard. #writersoflitsy

ooomeooo 👍👍👍 6y
10 likes1 comment
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KimHM
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I have read a lot of books about writing fiction. I own those by Christopher Booker and Sol Stein and John Gardner and James Wood and Margaret Atwood and Joyce Carol Oates and E. M. Forster etc., some forty titles in all. And I have learned something from nearly all of them, but never have I read a book that analyzes the essence of story—its structure and its psychological necessity—as well as Yorke‘s does. #writersofLitsy 📚❤️📚💚📚💙

KimHM And don‘t be fussed because his examples are mainly from film and television; the principles hold across all media. 6y
REHill I have read SO many of these writing craft books as well. Do you think this one should move to the head of my list? 6y
KimHM @REHill It depends a bit on where you are in your writing life. I was in the very last revision of the very last draft of a long project and it proved extremely helpful. But it‘s not really a craft book, no nuts and bolts. It‘s about the essence of story, what it is and why we use it to order the world. (edited) 6y
REHill 👍🏻 I appreciate the insight! Thanks! 6y
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