Lessons - The Anatomy of Impactful Storytelling | Stephen Riggio - Narrative Strategist & Author

In this lessons episode, discover what makes the story unforgettable through a layered tale of history, love, justice, and rebellion. Learn why historical fiction resonates across time, learn how betrayal and vengeance reflect modern distrust in institutions, and learn why translating a novel requires as much creativity and discipline as writing one. You've seen so many books over here. You're probably more than many, many people who have ever been alive have seen just because of the work that you've done. What makes an incredible book or an incredible story? Like what made this one stand out to you in particular? I've always been attracted to big books, big novels, 500 pages, 600 pages, 700 pages, something that you could get lost in. And as my wife Laura says, this book has something for everyone. It's a historical novel. It's an adventure novel. There's scenes of swashbuckling sword fights in the book. There's a love story. And at the heart of it, there's a story of justice. The book is about a secret sect called the Beatty Powell, which was the name of the Italian novel. I don't think that could work in English. That comes to the defense of the commoners who are preyed upon by the aristocracy, by the landowners, by the barons, and often by the church. Because at that time, Sicily was still a feudal society, and the inquisition was in full force. And people were accused of heresy. They were jailed and tortured and executed. So it's about justice in the sense of, you know, where do people turn to when they have been unjustly accused of something, when they've been persecuted, when they have nowhere to go. And this secret sect, which is somewhat based in history and somewhat based in myth, steps in. And that's the main plot of the book. And they come to the defense of one of the main characters. And if you think about that, that sort of scene you just described, is that, because I've heard terms of heroes' journey and all these other story arcs, is this something that is almost like what's the literary mechanism that makes this compelling? Because I think this is a theme that you see in a lot of very popular books. Well, it's a story of Revenge in Betrayal. Underneath all of this, there are friendships and rivalries. It's a multi-layered story. Why I think it's attractive? Because the characters are in the book, most of them are fictional, but some are not. So it's rooted in real history. Oh, you can pull pieces from my history. There's this accession plot at the heart of the story, which for people who have seen HBO's succession, maybe, that may grab them. And there's a love story. There's a love story. Yeah, the law's going to say there's all these elements. Yeah, there's a love story because there's, I don't want to reveal too much, but there's women in the book that are competing for the love of the same man. And there's another rival in there. So that's, that's why I think it's appeal. Now, the sect that's at the heart of the book have been considered to be four runners of the Sicilian mafia. Now, American readers and Americans have been fascinated with the mafia for so long, and not just because of the Godfather movies and book, but there's some element of that. It is a fact that some 20th century Mafiosi people that were in the Sicilian mafia claim that they are descendants from this secret society. I think there's more myth to that than truth. In reality, I would look at this secret sect in this book as more of a Robin Hood type gang than as Martin. And whether you root for them or not, I can't weigh in on that. They certainly come across and you know, this book in Sicily is very, very well known. Even though it's a hundred years old, never before been published in America and English is very, very well known in Sicily. I just returned there in fact from there. And and this sect, they were considered as heroes because they came to the defense of the week. You know, you look today in people's mistrust of institutions, whether it be the courts or the media or the government, you know, has never been at a low all time. It's been at an old time low. And you know, here you have the appeal, the appeal of the outlaw who's going to come and rescue you from being unjustly persecuted. And that's that's where the attraction that's the the heart beat of the story will justice be done here. And you have to read the book to find out. When you think about, I mean, you've gone on this journey now, obviously three years is a significant amount of time. Behind sites 2020, when you think about the options of creating a book, whether or not it was translating or writing from scratch, can you just give some advice for even authors in the audience? The benefits and the negatives to one or the other because you've gone on this journey now, but you've also been exposed to so many writers. I mean, you have insights on writing something that has never been done before as well. So talk to me about both ways to take a book to market the best way to put it. Well, my wife and my daughters were always encouraging me to write, encouraging me to write a book on translating a book is quite different. You're not working with a blank page. You know, I think I have even though I've been in the book selling business so long, doing this has given me such appreciation for what a writer does with a blank page with a blank page. I was working from something that was already written and make no doubt these are my words, but I did have to work from, let's call it a brief, and I had to take each word, each sentence, each paragraph and shape them into something that I thought would be appealing and enjoyable for the English reader. But I do have a newfound, let's say, appreciation for the work that writers do. I have lots of friends that are writers and just think about some writers, many writers that are publishing books every year. They come out with one a year. James Patterson comes out with more than one a year. So I have tremendous admiration and respect for that kind of its creativity and its discipline. You know, you have to think about the discipline that it comes sitting down with a blank page and creating something that other people would be fascinated by and that will become fans of yours year after year after year, read every book that you publish. I think John Grisham, who I'm a very big fan of, he just came out with actually a nonfiction book, but he tends to weave stories anew every time he comes out with a new book. And their each has similar to but very different from each other because he's kind of perfected his approach to that kind of novel. Thanks for tuning in. If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description to watch the full episode. See you in the next one.