What is a story?

Time once again for an Extra topic, and as with the previous Extra: Story Essence, we’ll be focusing on the content of your work, rather than the production. In fiction, we try to tell a story…and in non-fiction, we have some knowledge to share. Both can use similar concepts to get the message across, though in fiction we are appealing to the reader’s emotion, in non-fiction, intellect.

So…what really is a story? We’ve heard it described as a narrative of events…with a beginning, middle, and end. It that it?

Consider this:

  • Bill woke up. He ate breakfast. He left for work.

Is that a story? It has the requisite three acts, a protagonist, some form of choices, and it’s a natural progression, but something is missing. It’s a news article, not a story—there is no passion, no crisis, no struggle, and most importantly, no change. The main character ends the same as he started.

Let’s step through the process of creating a story. Right up front, we have to get the reader’s attention, create a connection, and set the scene (build the world). In other words, we need to entice the reader to continue reading—we need to set the hook.

Starting the story:

Question: But when do we start the story? Answer: When something extraordinary happens. We don’t care about boring lives—we want to break that routine. Ask yourself: Why is this day different from all others? That’s where you start the story, and it sets up the Story Question asked in Act I: Will things get back to normal? We’ll have to wait for the resolution to get that answer.

Once started, we need to introduce the rest of the characters. There are two kinds: Pebble and Putty. Pebble people don’t change over the life of the story, bouncing back from whatever acts on them, set pieces, not interesting. Putty people are the central ones. We’re interested in watching them to see if they’ll ever get back to the shape they were in the beginning…but they won’t.

Middle of the story:

The middle part of the story is where all the action takes place, but anything that happens has to be the result of our hero doing something…no happenstance allowed. Don’t forget to throw in a few clues and red herrings for the end of the story.

“If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”—Anton Chekhov

The bulk of the actions should be the hero trying to solve the problem created at the beginning, and though all attempts need to make sense (something logical, something you might try in that situation), none of them work—things just get worse.

Tension is created by unfilled desire, so give the hero something to crave, then prevent success. What is wanted? What is to be avoided? Focus on external struggles that need to be overcome or internal ones that need to be understood—the more intimate, the more personal, the more devastating they will be.

End of the story:

When the end finally arrives, it needs to follow from what happened earlier, almost unavoidable, but not obvious until it happens. Tie up loose ends, show us how the hero has changed, and answer the Story Question. Remember, the entire story is one of transformation—no change, no story. Don’t worry…we’ll cover details of Transformation later.