Grammar Girl here, today guest writer Lisa Cron, author of Wired for Story, is going

to help us understand the rules for telling a good story.

Her advice is great for fiction writers, but telling a good story is also important

for almost any kind of writing.

If your press release or essay is compelling on a story level somehow, your readers are

more likely to keep reading.

And here's Lisa's advice on why the rules of story are even more important than the rules

of grammar.

We all know that grammar is utterly necessary.

Try to read a book with all the punctuation removed, and you won't make it past the

first page.

But grammar, like language, is a living breathing entity.

That's what makes it so intoxicating, interesting at times, and maddening.

It changes as the culture changes.

Which is why writers may understandably assume that the same concept applies to the rules

of story, leaving you free to experiment with which elements of story to use, which to

ignore, and perhaps even make up new elements as the spirit moves you.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

While the rules of grammar continually evolve, the rules of story do not.

They're fixed.

Because they stem from the way our brain has evolved.

They're hardwired into the architecture of our very humanness.

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