Straight out of the gate, Denhart strikes at the personal, social and mythical callings to write. Throughout the book the story examples ignite intellect to follow her enlightened structure of story. Yet, with equal measure, she encourages us to refine our skills and emotions “and open our minds to the audacity of intuitive encounter.” Her “awakening to language” is a vulnerable telling of her arduous journey to learning how to read, to glean meaning from reading, and a moment of being possessed by the writers she read. Allow The Universal Grammar of Story to possess you.

A fascinating approach to understanding impetus, context, and structure of storytelling. With the concepts provided by The Universal Grammar of Story I now can elaborate on the reasons why I love some books, while others, though best-sellers, left me unmoved. I am eager to dust off my unfinished pieces--I feel inspired by a new perspective and a new set of tools.

Beautifully written and extensively researched. The author successfully integrates her personal experiences and vast knowledge of various disciplines into a fascinating philosophy of story writing. –

Never has more deep thought, research, experience and passion been so beautifully integrated into a step-by-step guide to the anatomy of a story.

An interview with Hazel Denhart

Overall, however, Hazel Denhart’s The Universal Grammar of Story: An Author’s Guide to Writing for the Soul of the World is one of the best books on the subject of writing, storytelling, and storytelling structure in recent memory.

Review Detail

Hazel Denhart’s The Universal Grammar of Story: An Author’s Guide to Writing for the Soul of the World is much more than about story and writing. It is also about Denhart’s lifelong adoration of the written word, regardless of genre, and its multifaceted powers of transformation and communication. There is a personal slant enlivening her observations that deepens the book’s overall impact; she even begins the text on a distinct personal note. This is one of many layers making this book a satisfying reading experience. Her academic and personal experience coalesce into a relatively brief but nevertheless comprehensive examination of the various forces motivating individuals to write. It dives deeper, however, to explore the writer’s audience, story structures hardwired into the collective unconscious since time immemorial, and how writers fill their work with mythic power.

She identifies three reasons why writers pursue their craft in the book’s first part. Denhart discusses the idea of personal calling first. Driven to dispel internal ghosts through their art, many writers turn to fictional worlds where confronting such specters is possible. Given the story she relates early on about her screenwriting student struggling to write about his father and Denhart’s experience as a dramatist, I thought often of Eugene O’Neil’s wrenching autobiographical family tragedy Long Day’s Journey into Night and Tennessee Williams’ delicate paean to his sister Rose The Glass Menagerie ; of the former, O’Neil’s then-wife Carlotta said the great playwright wept each day during the play’s composition. These two plays are excellent illustrations of Denhart’s belief that “…writers need to see both sides of the story with equanimity”.

She continues by writing about the social call to write, as in the artist responding to their era in a recognizable and/or sympathetic fashion, and the mythological call. The latter immerses itself in the deep seeded need for storytelling shared by all humans. The opening part of this book sets the table for everything following it and brims over with historical references, namechecks seminal works in a variety of mediums, and benefits from the tasteful inclusion of art and photography alike. Her observations about language are keen in the book’s second part, particularly its evolution, though some may take mild umbrage with her emphasis on the importance of honing one’s craft through direct instruction. Many other writers will and do argue that a writer’s greatest teacher is reading good writing and “taking notes”, as it were, though it is admittedly difficult to quibble with her analogy between talented writers and athletes.

She writes about narrative theories in the book’s third part. This is one of the book’s strongest sections as her clear-eyed ability to identify the plethora of storytelling modes at a writer’s disposal has unquestionable value. She reels through her examples in enthusiastic prose betraying her passion for the subject as much, if not more, than any of the personal musings included in the book. She dissembles classic works such as Hamlet, among others, to highlight her ideas and it is rife with diagrams and other illustrations.

Some readers will revel in the book’s fourth part on the philosophy and mythology underlying storytelling, while others may have little use for it. The works of Aldous Huxley and Joseph Campbell are extraordinarily popular and have much to offer in their area of study, but they belong more to academia than they do the everyday realities of one individual alone in a room with their writing tool of choice, paper or keyboard, struggling with their language trying to make things right.

A philosophical and technical wonder. This book is a densely packed goldmine of knowledge, wisdom, challenges and callings. Wonderful explanation of writing philosophy and internal exploration of diverse writing gifts hidden within us.

A smart, erudite, and accessible philosophy of storytelling, packed with clear examples, that integrates several different theories but goes somewhere new with Dr. Denhart’s experience, wit and wisdom. This text is a bracing reminder of why we need stories as individuals and as a culture.

Hazel Denhart was a hit! When she said she was a lively speaker, she was not kidding—the full house was rocking! Look for her book, the Universal Grammar of Story, at your bookseller…you will not be disappointed.