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Imperial Library
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Index
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Introduction
Chapter One: Creating a World
1.0 Where does a story begin?
1.1 Moments of change; the control-seeking brain
1.2 Curiosity
1.3 The model-making brain; how we read; grammar; filmic word order; simplicity; active versus passive language; specific detail; show-not-tell
1.4 World-making in fantasy and science fiction
1.5 The domesticated brain; theory of mind in animism and religion; how theory-of-mind mistakes create drama
1.6 Salience; creating tension with detail
1.7 Neural models; poetry; metaphor
1.8 Cause and effect; literary versus mass-market storytelling
1.9 Change is not enough
Chapter Two: The Flawed Self
2.0 The flawed self; the theory of control
2.1 Personality and plot
2.2 Personality and setting
2.3 Personality and point of view
2.4 Culture and character; Western versus Eastern story
2.5 Anatomy of a flawed self; the ignition point
2.6 Fictional memories; moral delusions; antagonists and moral idealism; antagonists and toxic self-esteem; the hero-maker narrative
2.7 David and Goliath
2.8 How flawed characters create meaning
Chapter Three: The Dramatic Question
3.0 Confabulation and the deluded character; the dramatic question
3.1 Multiple selves; the three-dimensional character
3.2 The two levels of story; how subconscious character struggle creates plot
3.3 Modernist stories
3.4 Wanting and needing
3.5 Dialogue
3.6 The roots of the dramatic question; social emotions; heroes and villains; moral outrage
3.7 Status play
3.8 King Lear; humiliation
3.9 Stories as tribal propaganda
3.10 Antiheroes; empathy
3.11 Origin damage
Chapter Four: Plots, Endings and Meaning
4.0 Goal directedness; constriction and release; video games; personal projects; eudaemonia
4.1 The story event; the standard five-act plot; plot as recipe versus plot as symphony of change
4.2 The final battle
4.3 Endings; control; the God moment
4.4 Story as a simulacrum of consciousness; transportation
4.5 The power of story
4.6 The value of story
4.7 The lesson of story
4.8 The consolation of story
Appendix: The Sacred Flaw Approach
A Note on the Text
Acknowledgments
Notes and Sources
Index of Searchable Terms
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