[I hope yesterday’s post is fresh in your mind, because today’s won’t make as much sense otherwise. Storytelling seems to be on the front burner these days. By the way, I’ve deliberately left in the AI-generated typos on today’s feature image. Struck me as appropriate. SB SM]
Today’s selection– from A Hero’s Delusion by Wendell Wellman. Techniques in story writing:
“The best stories are always a war between two fixed points. You can label them, two metaphors, two opposing value systems, two opposing ways of being, and in the best movies, two different locales. You can begin, for example, with your protagonist supremely confident and content with her big-city lifestyle. She is moving up the food chain in a public relations firm, dating a Wall Street stud. This is her goal, this is her argument, ‘if she can make it here, she can make it anywhere.’ She deserves this, she belongs here.
“But life never cooperates. Some plans fall through, unplanned disasters do occur. She is told by her employers that she’s being sent to a small town. ‘Des Moines, Iowa’ to troubleshoot for three months. She sees it as a demotion. What are the two fixed points? Big city. Small town.
“Let’s take a look at Des Moines, Iowa. Our hero is shocked at her inability to solve the problems here. These are a different kind of people than the ones she’s used to. They have their own way of doing things. You can label this Metaphor Two.
“She’s immediately humbled here. None of her ideas are well-received. At first, she feels others’ resentment towards her. But slowly, she begins to adapt. And beyond that, something strange is beginning to happen to her. She begins to like this place. No traffic at the grocery mart, no long lines. And people are genuinely nice. As a capper, she begins to have feelings for a local guy. Her anxiety is slipping away.
“Admittedly, I presented a cliche: big city, small town. L.A. Times critic, Justin Chang, labels these contrasting images as a trope. But it works. The Hallmark Christmas movie industry would be bankrupt of ideas without the big city/small town; rich boyfriend/strapping stranger metaphors.
“Two Fixed Points. One starting locale, one ending locale. I like to also refer to them as metaphors because the actual imagery of each location tells the audience much of the story. You could almost consider each location as a character in the story. It fills in a lot of the emotional information surrounding the lead character’s thinking and choices. Whether it’s first locale or second locale, how do the people live here? How do they dress, eat, love? What are their expectations, manners, value systems? What is their sadness? What is their joy? You can make a lot of points of your story without the character having to verbalize it. It should be clear what the hero is thinking here. You are putting her in an unexpected situation in which she ultimately is forced to make a decision. Does she return to the first fixed point, or settle into the second?
“I call this a life-changing decision. If she never makes this decision, you have no movie. You just have an incomplete story that does not provide your audience with a sense of catharsis.
“Just as importantly, by having two fixed points, two metaphors in your initial idea, you have a guide to constructing your plot. In your plot, you may get lost in the murky forest somewhere in the middle, but you can always find your way back because you know your second destination. Call it a compass, if you will. Ultimately, you know at which fixed point your protagonist is going to land. And, you know what life-changing decision you are going to need her to make.”