From leigh@quixotic.org Thu Sep 24 05:00:11 1998 Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 04:52:23 -0700 (PDT) From: Leigh S Gaffney Reply-To: seaquest-ff@quixotic.org To: seaquest-ff@quixotic.org, trek-ff@quixotic.org, jag-ff@quixotic.org, writers-l@quixotic.org Subject: [sQ-ff] INFO: Foundation Principles of Storytelling (Note this isn't the best essay writer I've read but what he has to say really makes a lot of sense and he uses examples through Romeo and Juliet that really help drive home his point. Those of you having to write essays about Romeo and Juliet next year in school - save this cause it'll give you some wonderful insights that'll wow your teachers ;) Not to mention give you an upper hand on class discussions that'll definately earn you a high B if not an A) Foundation Principles of Storytelling By Bill Johnson When most people consider how to tell a story, they think in terms of plot and character. While these are often a story's most visible aspects, there is an underlying foundation of principles that support a well-told story. These principles could be compared to a house foundation. Without a solid foundation, the other effects of the house, its "character and design", cannot be fully enjoyed. In the same fashion, the principles of storytelling are also mostly out of sight, but the effect of a badly laid story foundation is just as damaging as a badly constructed house foundation. This essay sets out some of these principles. 1) Understanding the Human need for stories A story is a world where every character, every action, every story element has meaning and purpose. This makes a story fundamentally different from life, which offers facts that don't necessarily have a clear purpose or fulfillment. Or events engage the sense, but not in a meaningful, dramatic, fulfilling way. Real life, then, can be chaotic, or appear to lack a desirable purpose or meaning. We don't marry the love of our life...or we do, and things go terribly wrong. Or the one we love is taken from us by a freak accident. Or we work hard but don't get the rewards we desire. Worse, they appear to go to someone who appears to be completely undeserving of them. Real life can be painful, unpredictable, or even, yes, wildly rewarding. It's just that no matter our best laid plans or effeorts, we can never clearly predict the outcome of any action or series of actions. Most people, then, have a need for something that assigns meaning and purpose to events. That gives life-like events an outcome that is desirable. That is what a story does. 2) How stories meet the human need for resolution and fulfillment Stories offer an experience of life having meaning and purpose by taking life- like characters, issues and events and moving them to a state of resolution and fulfillment. A story thus fills a basic human need that life can appear to have discernible meaning, purpose and outcome. Because a story resolves and fulfills the issues and ideas it raises, a story creates a fulfilling, complete experience of human emotions and thoughts. For that to occur, the storyteller sets out a dramatic issue a reader/viewer desires to experience in a state of resolution. A story is then create around a dramatic issue a reader desires to internalize to experience its movement to fulfillment. This is why the storyteller must, first of all, understand the human need for stories. Only when a story engages and holds a reader's attention by what a story is about at its deeper, foundation level, will it be perceived as compelling. All stories, from the simple to complex, revolve around some human issue of human need. To feel we matter. To experience states of love, honor, courage. Fear, doubt, revenge. To feel a part of a world, even an imaginary one. To feel the freedom to explore new worlds. To experience insights into life we might not see on our own, or see deeply. Romeo and Juliet, as an example, is a story about the great power of love. When readers enter its world, they experience something deep and profound about love. This makes the story Romeon and Juliet totally unlike a life- like, factual telling of the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. To be told that two teenagers committed suicide because their families kept them apart is not the same as to create a story around those events. The story Romeo and Juliet uses the deaths of Romeo and Juliet to create a deeply felt, fulfilling story about the power of great love. The stories audience is "moved" by the story to experience that state of great love. That is the dramatic purpose of the story. 3) Creating a story premise that sets out a story's dramatic idea, movement, and fulfillment. An important tool for writing a powerfully affecting story is a story premise. A premise for Romeo and Juliet is that "This story about the nature of a great love that proves itself by defying even death." Any story at its heart has a dramatic issue of consequence to its audience. When the writer is able to verbalize this issue, they can better perceive how to introduce their story as a separate issue from introducing their characters or setting up their plot. In the case of Romeo and Juliet, it's premise sets out that this is a story about love. That's the story's core dramatic issue. The second part of a premise revolves around describing the story's movement. In this story, this love proves itself by actively defying the obstacles that block it. The third part of the premise describes the fulfillment of the story idea. by defying the obstacles that block this great love, it demostrates the power of this love in a way that is fulfilling to the story's audience. Note that a story premise expresses the dramatic idea at the core of the story in a way that can be acted out -- moved -- by the story's characters and events to a recognizable fulfillment. A writer able to identify their story premise can see how every action of their story operates to advance their story toward its fulfillment. By binding together the actions of a story's characters around a recognizable purpose, a storyteller generates a quality of conflict around the actions of their characters. 4) Perceiving how a well-written story is "true" to its purpose While a story premise sets out the boundaries of a story's world, a story must be "true" to the movement within its boundaries. This means that the actions of its characters must have a bearing on the story's movement to fulfillment. Characters actions that do not serve a story's movement are inherently "unmoving" to a story's audience. They lack a discernible purpose. To visualize story movement, consider Romeo and Juliet. the story is shaped to move readers to experience a deep sense of the nature of love. In the case of Romeo and Juliet, the story is "true" to its movement because the actions of the characters Romeo and Juliet are so intimately intermeshed with the story that their every action moves this story about the nature of love toward its fulfillment. They become embodiments of the story. but it is what the story itself is about that gives birth to these characters, and assigns meaning to their actions. 5) Perceiving how story elements are "arranged" to affect a story's audience. Once a story is understood in terms of how it meets an audience's need of fulfillment, a writer must understand how to arrange the elements of a story. Referring again to Romeo and Juliet, this is a story about the power of great love. Its opening scenes act out the hatred of the Capulets and the Montagues via a confrontation on a street in Verona. Shakespeare chose a street brawl as a potent way to begin the play about love because the characters in the brawl are in love with their hate. Second, because the characters who love are separated by characters who love to hate, the opening scene clearly sets out what must be overcome for the young lovers to prove thir love. Keep in mind that the opening lines of the story announce the deaths of Romeo and Juliet during the play (Leigh's Note - Just like in Titanic - we know the ship sinks), so the story's drama is not over its outcome, but in the arrangement of its dramatic elements in a way that creates a powerful experience of great love. The deeper level of drama in a story then is in the arrangment of its events that engage the attention of an audience and the potential reward for that attention: a deeply felt fullfillment of the power of great love. To perceive the dramatic issue at your story's heart -- love, courage, a need to matter -- is to understand what blocks those issues of fulfillment: hate, fear, indifference. 6) Understanding writing in the "moment" When a writer is clear about how their story fulfills some human need, they still must be able to write powerfully in the "moment" for their story to ring "true" to an audience. This involves understanding what is moving about a story or moment within a story, then choosing those words that best brings to life a story's movement. Again, in Romeo and Juliet, the story opens in a state of heightened feelings and conflict to draw us into its world around the outcome of the story's opening brawl. But those details of the scene serve not just to make it vivid in a sense of being "real". They operate to clearly set the story itself into motion. That is what makes those moments ring "true" to an audience, that they have a clearly discernible dramatic purpose. When writers fail to understand what their story is about, and how that drives their characters, they can struggle with how best to describe the elements of their story. Instead of describing characters and actions and issues in a way that brings them to life, they describe characters and events to the reader to make them appear "real" or "life-like". Stories are not meant to be life-like so much as story like, offering to move their audience to fulfillment of a dramatic purpose. It is to that purpose that a story's details must be true. Otherwise they fail to engage or reward the attention of their audience. 7) Understanding story structure Many story elements are arranged in particular structures. In a detective story, for example, a crime is often committed early in the story. The roles of the story's characters are generally clearly defined around how their actions resolve the issue at the heart of the story. That, for example, good defeats evil. In a romantic story, the two potential lovers are kept apart by circumstance but find a way to be together. That type of story might prove that love overcomes all obstacles. In a comedy, a hapless character might have to go through a series of humorous situations to meet some goal. That could prove that even the least fortunate who perservere can accomplish their goals in life in a fulfilling way. In a tragedy, characters might die but prove some deeper value like courage through their actions. Whatever the outer structer of your novel, be clear about the issue at heart that animates your story. 8) Imitation By reading well told stories and copying their structure, inexperienced storytellers can incorporate the principles of created a well told story. A writer desiring to write mysteries can study and learn the structure of a particular kind of mystery, then recreate it. The fact that the writer starts with a structure that creates an outline for their story allows them to use their own "voice" while telling the story. (Leigh's note - Imitating a story's Structure does not equal to Plagerism. Don't imitate the story word for word, but it's structure. Refer to the last section regarding how to tell the story from it's structure.) 9) A writer's experiences Because a writer has experienced states of love, grief, loss, hate, the desire to matter, they have some of the most essential tools to be a storyteller: an understanding of the needs that draw readers to stories. The important issue here is that the writer not simply overlay their own feelings onto the action of their stories, but be clear that the actions of their stories is "moving" their audience to have story-like experiences of fulfillment around issues like courage, renewal, redemption. 10) The craft of storytelling Part of the craft of being a storyteller means learning to create images with words. Such writing requires a willingness to learn the craft of language, just as being a qualified carpenter means a mastery of the tools of that trade. The storyteller must have a mastery of words, or be willing to study and master that craft. (Leigh's Note - This is why the debate over scripts and stories has been so heated in the past. In order to be able to write a script, you have to be able to tell that same story in a novel fashion. If you can't do that, you're script will end up as another script tossed aside. You'll see in later documents why.) 11) Technical knowledge To set a story on a ship, one must have some knowledge of ships. To set a story on an airplane, one must have some knowledge about planes. This is not a call that to set a scene on a ship one must be a ship's captain, but the writer must be clear about what they describe. Otherwise, by "lying" to their readers in some detail, they give reader's a reason to set aside their stories. 12) The desire to be a storyteller In the main, one does not become a storyteller out of a desire for wealth, or fame, or prestige, although some do...and a few even succeed for those reasons. People often write stories because they feel moved to do so. If you don't have that desire, even success won't generate a commitment to the craft of being a storyteller 13) Understanding the role of Characters Characters in a story operate to make the story's movement visible and concrete. This much happen if a reader is to desire to internalize the story's movement toward its fulfillment. The storyteller, then, needs to be able to make the subtle distinction between what their story is about on that deeper, foundation level, from what their characters need to do to set up their plot. When the storyteller is clear about how their story fulfills some need, a reader comes to a story to have satisfied, they still must be able to create characters who act powerfully in the "moment". In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is hot blooded and impulsive. He will not be denied the woman he loves...even if death is an obstacle that must be overcome. Romeo is a character of great strength of will. All characters in well told stories must have this strength of purpose. Whether the issue is love, greed, revenge, compassion, hate, jealousy, a character must be willing to confront and overcome whatever obstacles the story place in their path. Weak characters offer readers/viewers no reason to internalize the story. Because their actions are weak and unfocused, the reader literally has difficulty internalizing their actions and assigning them meaning. The emotional make up of Romeo makes it clear he will not back down, not give up from getting what he wants. he will actively pursue Juliet in spite of any obstacle. Writers who fail to understand their stories and what constitutes their movement to fulfillment risk creating dramatically weak characters. Characters whose actions have no clear sense of purpose or outcome. 14) Perceiving what a plot is Understanding what a plot does is easily the most misunderstood of all story issues. The purpose of the plot is to make visible and concrete the movement of the story in a way its movement toward resolution is dramatic and potent. A plot serves to make a story's movement dramatic and potent by taking character concerns and intertwining them around the resolution of a story's core dramatic issue. Therefore, as characters act, their actions shape the outcome of the story. To achieve personal goals blocked by obstacles generated by a story's plot, characters must act more forcefully. In turn, they are as forcefully blocked by other characters desiring a different course or outcome for the story (Leigh's note - This is typical especially of Classic Popeye episodes and Tom and Jerry, or for the Simpson generation - Itchy and Scratchy.) In that way a plot operates to make a story's fulfillment dramatic and thus more satisfying. To describe a story's plot is not the same as describing what a story is about on its foundation level. The story of Romeo and Juliet (getting sick of them yet? :P) is about tragic love. The PLOT of the story operates to make its course and outcome dramatic by blocking its movement toward resolution and fulfillment. 15) Point of View Having a strong grasp of how to present a story's point of view can be a struggle for inexperienced and experienced writer's alike. Understanding point of view as an issue related to a story's movement can help writers untangle this thorny issue. The issue that underlies all POV questions is this: how does telling the story through the POV of one character over another make the story's movement to fulfillment more dramatic and concrete for the story's readers/viewers? many inexperienced writers struggle with POV issues because to make their story seem fresh and engaging, they change the POV between characters. It should be kept in mind that a reader/viewer needs to be able to internalize the story's movement. If abrupt changes in POV keep a reader from being able to enjoy that, changes in POV have the opposite effect of what the writer intends. Inexperienced writers can be led to believe that changing their POV around keeps their story fresh because they have already internalized the deeper level of their story and its movement. What they then can fail to realize is that what they're putting on paper isn't recreating that dramatic movement toward fulfillment for their readers. A POV switch that doesn't serve to make a story's movement dramatic and potent is weak, no matter how it can be justitified when examined in isolation. In that context, that best POV to tell a story is the one that makes the story's issues most vivid to the story's audience. To conclude... A writer needs to be able to perceive what their story is about, its movement toward fulfillment, to ensure that the elements and arrangement of their story engages and satisfies their audience. Starting with that understanding, they will better able to perceive how their characters, plot devices, POV and other story elements work together. How every element of a story workds together in its characters, plot, environment to bring a story to life. To introduce it and move it toward its fulfillment. That's why at its heart a story must have a consequence to its audience. Something they desire to experience in a state of resolution and fulfillment. Love. Courage. Redemption. Renewal. Some issue that revolves around the aching need of humans to feel they matter, that they have their place in the world...even if it's a fictional story. Even though I assign Character, Plot and Point of View as the last of these principles, this is not to suggest that most writers don't come to a story through some insight or interest in a character, scene or plot. Some issue that pulls at them. That won't let them sleep at night. But the underlying issue I've explored in this essay is how a story meets the needs we bring to it. From that foundation, a writer can more easily perceive the relationship of character and plot to their story. Next Article: Screenwriting Terms Posted - sometime in the next few days *grin* - Leigh Gaffney President - Student Council Editor in Chief - Literary Club and Student Magazine Multimedia/Computer Animation Major The Art Institute of Houston http://www.quixotic.org "You've managed to kill just about everyone else, but like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target!" - Admiral James T. Kirk Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ---------------------------------------------------- normal: seaquest-ff-unsubscribe@quixotic.org digest: seaquest-ff-digest-unsubscribe@quixotic.org