This is Story Fanatic, a collection of articles covering story structure and analysis for
creative writers. Published weekly.
Having unlocked the purpose of a Story Goal, attention now shifts towards exploring the different iterations available to Authors. Moving beyond the simple goal of winning something new, these new areas offer insight into the kinds of inequities that can also be found in the external world. The lens encased within each grants a writer the opportunity to dial in the exact story they want to tell.
Many insist that the most important thing an Author needs to know about their story is what their Main Character wants. That drive, they maintain, gives a story its flow. Yet, there is a different way to look at the Goal of a story, one that provides a more holistic view of a story’s true purpose and one that works in concert beautifully with a Main Character’s wants and needs.
Great stories balance point-of-view. They focus an Audience on one perspective, then swoop in from the other side to provide a better understanding of the unfolding events. Shocked with the cognitive dissonance many try to avoid, those sitting in the theater have no other alternative than to simply absorb the experience and become one with the message of the story. Great stories…like Chinatown.
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Stories are a decidedly human adventure and thus are prone to the inaccuracies and preconceptions prevalent within the minds of those who experience them. It is with that in mind that I confess an error in my original evaluation of Toy Story 3. If context creates meaning, then it also can be seen as the source for any miscalculations in the judgment of a story’s ultimate message.
Why leave the purpose of a story up to chance? Writers lift pens and place fingers on keys to say something about the human condition, not to engage in masturbatory ego-fulfillment. Writing blind only guarantees long hours of pondering why and lost opportunities for even greater storytelling.
In an attempt to understand the various machinations at work behind the scenes of a well-told story, many look to the Hero’s Journey, or various models thereof, as the answer. Unfortunately, the analysis that comes as a result is severely lacking in meaningful content and accuracy. The key is truly understanding what problems the Main Character of a story faces.
Stories that mean something have something important they want to communicate. This message, or purpose, can only be heard when it respects the human mind and its engine for appreciating conflict. This is what it means to naturally structure a story – naturally structure it in such a way that it matches the psychological structures found within the minds of a waiting Audience.
The first look at a Steadfast Main Character and the effect they have on the meaning of a complete story. With proper story structure in place, this type of Main Character becomes responsible for influencing the change in the other principle character. In Braveheart this role is fulfilled by Robert the Bruce.