Craft Book Lessons: Story Genius by Lisa Cron—Improve Your Fiction Writing!

🦃 Happy November, writers! 🦃

As the days get shorter and the air turns crisp, I find myself reflecting on what I’m grateful for in my writing life.

This November, that gratitude includes the surge of creative energy that comes with all of the writers who join in community to draft 50,000 words of a novel in a month—even though I’m not officially participating.

There’s something inspiring about writers everywhere diving into their drafts, and it made me want to take a closer look at what’s helped me stay focused in mine.

That brought me back to Lisa Cron’s Story Genius, a book that reshaped the way I think about fiction writing. In the past, my drafts often wandered: too much backstory, too many tangents, scenes that didn’t add up.

But Story Genius gave me tools I could actually use, day after day. This month, I’m sharing the lessons that made the biggest difference in my process.

Ready? Let's dive in to this month's craft book lessons on fiction writing:

1. The importance of emotion and the "third rail"

In Story Genius, Cron argues that story isn’t really about events—it’s about emotion. She uses the metaphor of a “third rail” to describe the current of emotion that gives a story its power.

Without that spark, even the most dramatic scenes can fall flat. Readers keep turning pages because they care about what’s happening inside the character, not just around them.

That resonated with me because I naturally come to story from the inside out. In other words, rather than external events, I’m most interested in the inner struggles and emotional arcs of my characters.

But when I’m drafting, it’s easy to assume those emotions are clear just because I know what a character is feeling. The truth is, unless I put it on the page in a way that makes it palpable, the reader can’t feel it.

Cron’s “third rail” metaphor reminded me to actively articulate those emotions and keep them front and center.

As I worked on my own draft, I kept circling back to this: what emotional charge is running underneath this scene? Even if the action was straightforward, I wanted to be sure the emotions were doing the heavy lifting.

That question helped me stay focused on what really drives the story—the characters’ hearts colliding with their misbeliefs.

2. The shard, the misbelief, and digging deeper

One of Cron’s most powerful contributions in Story Genius is the idea of the “shard” or misbelief: a false belief rooted in a formative backstory moment. This misbelief drives the character’s actions and their emotional arc.

But Cron pushes writers to do more than label it—she insists on excavating its origin with real specificity. That means writing the backstory scene where the misbelief began and understanding how it calcified over time.

At first, this felt like a lot of extra work. Did I really need to write out entire scenes that wouldn’t appear in the novel?

But doing that deep digging gave me clarity I never had in earlier drafts. It’s not enough to say “my character doesn’t trust people.” I had to ask: what happened? Who let them down? What scar was left behind?

That’s what makes the misbelief authentic and compelling.

This exercise was a game-changer for me. In my previous attempts at novel writing, I often lost sight of who my characters really were. But when I took the time to excavate their misbeliefs, I understood their motivations more clearly.

That grounding kept me from wandering into tangents, because I knew what my characters would cling to,... and what they would have to learn to let go of.

3. The "What If?" question as a compass

Cron also emphasizes the importance of the “What if?” question as the compass for your story. Through Story Genius lens, this question serves as a guiding star that ties together the protagonist’s misbelief, the external conflict, and the journey toward change.

Essentially, a strong “What if?” captures both the stakes and the emotional core.

I found this especially useful because I tend to overwrite. I’ll happily spin out scenes of backstory or side plots, only to realize I’ve drifted far away from the heart of the story.

Keeping a sharp “What if?” question gave me a way to test whether something belonged.

So when I drafted my suspense novel, I wrote my “What if?” question at the top of my notes. Every time I felt tempted to follow a tangent,

I asked myself: does this answer my “what if?” If not, I set it aside. That practice helped me stay focused and gave the story a sense of cohesion that my earlier attempts at novel writing lacked.

4. Scene cards and building forward momentum

One of Cron’s most practical tools is the scene card template. In fact, if you don't use anything else from the book, it's still worth buying for this tool alone!

(I've attached a photo of a template I made, and you can message me for the PDF version.)

The idea is to plan each scene in terms of what happens externally, what shifts internally, and what must logically come next. It’s a way of making sure scenes don’t just exist in isolation but build momentum through cause and effect.

Even though I created a scene card template, I have to admit that I didn’t fill out full cards. However, I still used the essence of the card to help me draft a better book.

Here's what I did: Before drafting every single scene, I made a habit of asking myself the main elements as questions and jotting quick bullet points on my planning sheet:

• What happens (the external trigger)?

• What are the consequences?

• Why does it matter emotionally?

• What realization does it spark (or block)?

• And so what — what must happen next?

It wasn’t fancy, but it worked. By pausing to answer those questions before writing each scene, I kept myself from drifting into empty filler.

The bullet points were enough to ground me in both the plot and the emotional arc, and that structure made drafting smoother than any attempt I’d made before.

Final thoughts from this fiction writing craft book

Story Genius by Lisa Cron lived up to its name for me. It pushed me to stop thinking of story as just a string of events and start seeing it as an emotional journey built on misbelief, revelation, and change.

The lessons about the third rail of emotion, the shard/misbelief, the guiding “What if?”, and the scene card method all became tools I could actually use in my own writing process.

I don’t see these as rigid rules. Instead, I took her ideas as suggestions or checkpoints that helped me stay honest about the story I was building.

And that’s why I keep coming back to craft books. Even if I don’t apply every single idea, the ones that click become part of my process.

Have you read Cron's Story Genius? Did it change the way you think about story? I’d love to hear what you took away—share in the comments or send me a message here.

Peace & plenty,