This is Story Fanatic, a collection of articles covering story structure and analysis for
creative writers. Published weekly.
Effective stories grant an audience several different points-of-view on the problem at hand. But due to the inherent “warping” effect different perspectives can have on a subject, it is also essential that a story take into account all the different permutations a story can take. One theory of story provides an Author with the tools necessary to complete this task.
For too long now the world of narrative fiction has relied on a false and antiquated notion: that a story consists of a beginning, a middle and an end. Superficial? Possibly. Misleading? Without a doubt. Successful stories require a deeper understanding of their structure and the function of the elements that sit at the heart of their construction.
For the longest time, the world’s population believed the Earth was flat. They also believed that we sat at the center of the Universe. What was fundamental to their ignorance? A lack of proper context. This same deficiency permeates the world of story structure. However instead of the Flat-Earth Society, fans of meaningful stories find themselves facing off against the Protagonist-Centrist Society.
Can a story survive without a well-thought out Main Character Throughline? Not for long. Sure, the promise of the premise might draw in the initial crowds, but the only way to guarantee repeat business is to give the audience something to care about – something to grab a hold of. The Main Character’s most personal issues provide that gateway to empathy so desperately needed for success.
To focus on the outward appearance of a Main Character is to give short shrift to the more important matter of how that character actually thinks. While it is always nice to see more “female” characters in lead roles, it is even nicer when those characters share the female gender’s base problem-solving process. Foreign to many, this concept of story structure helps determine who will embrace the Main Character and who will simply acknowledge their presence.
Is there anything more challenging then crafting an emotionally resonant film that centers around the believable growth of a fully-realized Main Character? That believability, that authenticity in character development, can be found within the concept of a clearly defined problem and solution within the psyche of this all important character.
Stories of wacky families are usually less about wild personalities and more about the problems inherent with how the characters use their brains. The way each person in the group thinks clashes with the individual agendas of the others and brings about the inequity that clues an Audience in on the family’s source of dysfunction. Understanding how this imbalance works in concert with the Goal of a story gives an Author the opportunity to create a powerful and meaningful story.
Every writer has heard of bookends, or “framing devices”, but far fewer really understand the purpose behind them, or how they can be used to effectively tell a meaningful story. Beyond simply providing a wrapper for the story within, they can also be used to help an Author more effectively communicate the message of their work.
As was done several decades ago with the Hero’s Journey, the Save the Cat! paradigm is finding its way into every nook and cranny of the Hollywood story machine. While insightful on many levels, the template it provides lacks substance. An understanding of how a story looks to an Audience compared to how it appears to the Author creating it is one way to avoid the mistakes of the past.
The central character of every great story must “arc.” Everyone knows this, yet many do not completely understand what it means. Assumptions are made that change is required, that without some greater need replacing a motivated want, a character somehow “doesn’t work.” This error in judgment can easily be overcome by appreciating the difference between this most important character and the story at large.