by The Anatomy of Story- 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller (mobi)
In this common trigger for telling a story, the storyteller states that the character's death finally makes it possible to tell the truth about him. His deathbed scene and last words provide the final key for the truth to "fall into place."
This is a false technique. It is not your actual death that allows you to understand your life because you can finally see it whole. It is acting as if you will die that creates meaning by motivating you to make choices now. Finding meaning is an ongoing process of living.
Similarly, the storyteller may use the character's death (someone else's or his own) to give the appearance that now the full story can be told and understood. But meaning comes in the act of storytelling, in looking back again and again, and each time, the "true" story is different. Like Heisen-berg's uncertainty principle, the storyteller may know a meaning at any one time but never the meaning.
■ Citizen Kane: The meaning of Kane's dying word, "Rosebud," is not
that it sums up all of Kane's life but that it can't. ■ Heart of Darkness: Kurtz's dying words—"The horror! The horror!"— don't make the enigma of his life any clearer. They are the final mystery in a larger mystery about the heart of darkness that exists in all humans, including the storyteller Marlow, who tells the tale again and again in a vain attempt to finally get to the truth.
12. The deeper theme should be concerned with the truth and beauty of creativity, not heroic action.
By placing all actions within the storytelling frame and highlighting the importance and struggles of the storyteller recounting those actions, you make storytelling the primary action and the great accomplishment.
■ The Usual Suspects: Verbal is a master criminal, having defeated or killed everyone who has tried to stop him. But his greatest accomplishment—indeed, the main reason he is a successful criminal—is the story he improvises that makes everyone think he is a weak, pathetic man. ■ Gilgamesh: Gilgamesh is a great warrior. But when his friend and fellow warrior dies, he looks in vain for immortality. He is left with the immortality that comes from having his story told. ■ The Shawshank Redemption: Andy's great gift to his friend Red (the storyteller) and the other prisoners is to show them how to live life with hope, style, and freedom, even in prison.
13. Be wary of too many storytellers.
For all its power, the storyteller has costs. The biggest one is that it places a frame between the story and the audience, and that usually drains some
emotion from the story. The more storytellers yon have, the more yon risk distancing the audience so much that they look at the story from a cold and clinical position.
Stories that excel in their use of a storyteller are Sunset Boulevard, The Conformist, American Beauty, The Usual Suspects, Goodfellas, The Shawshank Re-demption, Forrest Gump, Presumed Innocent, The Magnificent Ambersons, Heart of Darkness, Tristram Shandy, Copenhagen, Madame Bovary, Citizen Kane, How Green Was My Valley, Cinema Paradiso, Gilgamesh, The Great Gatsby, It's a Won-derful Life, and Body and Soul.
GENRES
The next major structural element that affects your plot is genre. A genre is a story form, a particular kind of story. Most stories in movies, novels, and plays are founded on at least one genre, and are usually a combination of two or three. So it is important that you know what story form, if any, you are using. Each genre has predetermined plot beats that you must include, or your audience will be disappointed.
Genres are really story subsystems. Each genre takes the universal steps of story structure, the seven and twenty-two steps, and executes them in a different way. You can tell a great story without using any genre at all. But if you do use one, you must master how your form executes these structure steps, as well as learn how each handles character, theme, story world, and symbol. Then you must use these elements in an original way so that your story is not like any other story in that form, even though in many ways it is like every other story in that genre. Audiences of genre stories like to see the familiar bones of the form, but with a new skin that makes this story fresh.
The details of the various genres lie beyond the scope of this book, and I have written extensively about them elsewhere. They are very complex, and you must commit to one or two of them if you are to have any chance of mastery. The good news is that, with practice, as all successful writers know, they can be learned.
Creating Your Plot—Writing Exercise 7
■ Designing Principle and Plot Review the designing principle and
the theme of your story. Be certain that your plot tracks these lines. ■ Symbol for Plot If you are using a story symbol, make sure that your plot is an expression of it.
■ Storyteller Figure out if you want to use a storyteller, and if so, what kind. Keep in mind the structural techniques that allow you to get the most out of the storyteller.
■ Twenty-two Steps Describe the twenty-two steps of your story in detail. Be sure to start with Step 1, the plot frame, so that all the other steps fall naturally into place.
■ Reveals Sequence Focus on the reveals sequence. List the reveals separately from the other steps. Look for the following elements to make the reveals as dramatic as possible:
1. Make sure the sequence is logical.
2. Try to make each reveal more intense than the one before.
3. Check that each reveal causes your hero to change his original desire in some way.
4. Make the reveals come at a faster pace as you move toward the end of the story.
Let's look at a twenty-two-step breakdown for The Godfather so that you can see how the twenty-two steps add the crucial plot details to the seven key structure steps you've already determined.
The Godfather
(novel by Mario Puzo, screenplay by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
■ Hero Michael Corleone. 1. self-revelation, need, and desire
■ Self-Revelation Michael has no self-revelation. He has become a ruthless killer, but only his wife, Kay, has seen his moral decline.
■ Need To avoid becoming a ruthless killer.
■ Desire To take revenge on the men who shot his father.
■ Initial Error Michael believes he is different from his family and above their criminal activity.
2. ghost and story world
■ Ghost Michael's ghost is not a single event from his past but a family legacy of crime and killing that he despises.
■ Story World The story world is the Mafia system of Michael's family. It is extremely hierarchical, run like the military, with strict rules. The Godfather is the absolute ruler, meting out justice as he sees fit, and the family uses murder to get what it wants. The workings of this world are laid out at the wedding of Michael's sister, to which all the characters in the story have been invited, including the hidden opponent, Barzini.
The national reach of the family's power is then shown when a Hollywood producer fails to do what the Godfather has asked. The man wakes up with the severed head of his favorite horse beside him.
3. weakness and need
■ Weaknesses Michael is young, inexperienced, untested, and overconfident.
■ Psychological Need To overcome his sense of superiority and self-righteousness.
■ Moral Need To avoid becoming ruthless like the other Mafia bosses while still protecting his family.
■ Problem Rival gang members shoot Michael's father, the head of the family.
4. inciting event
Michael's distance from his family is shattered when he reads that his father has been shot.
5. desire
To take revenge on the men who shot his father and thereby protect his
family.
6. ally or allies
Michael has a vast array of allies from his family. They include his father, Don Corleone; his brothers, Sonny and Fredo; Tom; Clemenza; and his wife, Kay.
7. opponent and/or mystery
Michael's first opponent is Sollozzo. However, his true opponent is the more powerful Barzini, who is the hidden po
wer behind Sollozzo and wants to bring the entire Corleone family down. Michael and Barzini compete over the survival of the Corleone family and control over crime in New York.
8. fake-ally opponent
Michael has an unusually large number of fake-ally opponents, which greatly increases the plot. They include the driver of the car when his father was shot; his Sicilian bodyguard, Fabrizio, who tries to kill him but blows up his wife instead; his brother-in-law, Carlo, who lures Sonny to his death; and Tessio, who goes over to Barzini's side.
9. first revelation and decision: changed desire and motive
■ Revelation The hospital in which his father is recuperating has no guards and is virtually empty. Michael realizes that men are coming to kill his father.
■ Decision He decides to protect his father by wheeling his bed into another room and standing guard outside.
■ Changed Desire Instead of standing apart from the family, Michael now wishes to protect his father and save his family.
■ Changed Motive He loves his family deeply, and his drive to compete and succeed will not let him lose.
10. plan
Michael's first plan is to kill Sollozzo and his protector, the police captain. His second plan is to kill the heads of the other families in a single strike.
11. OPPONENT'S PLAN AND MAIN COUNTERATTACK
Michael's main opponent is Barzini. Barzini's plan is to use Sollozzo as a front man in the effort to kill Don Corleone. Once Don Corleone is incapacitated, he pays off Carlo to lure Sonny into a trap and pays Michael's bodyguard in Sicily to kill him.
12. drive
■ Drive Sequence
1. Clemenza shows Michael how to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey.
2. At the restaurant, Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey.
3. There is a quick montage of newspaper articles.
4. Sonny and Tom argue because Sonny wants to kill old Tattaglia.
5. In Sicily, Michael sees a pretty girl on the road and tells her father he wants to meet her.
6. Michael meets Apollonia.
7. Sonny finds Connie with a black eye. He beats up Connie's husband, Carlo, in the street.
8. Michael and Apollonia are wed.
9. Tom won't accept Kay's letter to Michael.
10. Michael shows Apollonia how to drive; he learns Sonny is dead.
■ Added Revelation Michael sees a beautiful Italian girl on the road in Sicily.
■ Decision He decides to meet her.
■ Changed Desire He wants her.
■ Changed Motive He is falling in love.
13. attack by ally
■ Ally's Criticism When Michael returns from Sicily, Kay criticizes him for working for his father. She tells him he is not like that.
■ Hero's Justification He promises her the family will be legitimate in five years.
14. apparent defeat
Michael's apparent defeat is a one-two punch. He finds out that his brother Sonny has been murdered and soon afterward sees his wife blown up by a bomb that was meant for him.
15. SECOND REVELATION AND DECISION: ObseSSIVe DRIVE, CHANGED DESIRE AND MOTIVE
■ Revelation Michael realizes that a bomb has been planted in his car and that his wife is about to start the engine.
■ Decision He tries to stop his wife, but he is too late.
■ Changed Desire Michael wants to return home to his family.
■ Obsessive Drive He is determined to take revenge on the men who killed his wife and brother.
■ Changed Motive They must pay for killing the people he loves.
16. audience revelation
The audience sees Luca Brasi, Don Corleone's most dangerous ally, murdered when he meets with Tattaglia and Sollozzo.
17. third revelation and decision
■ Revelation Michael realizes that Tessio has gone over to the other side and that Barzini plans to kill him.
■ Decision He decides to strike first.
■ Changed Desire He wants to kill all of his enemies in one blow.
■ Changed Motive He wants to win the war once and for all.
18. gate, gauntlet, visit to death
Because Michael is such a superior fighter, even fooling the audience, he doesn't pass through a gate or gauntlet before the final battle. His visit to death occurs when he sees his wife blown up by a bomb meant for him.
19. battle
The final battle is a crosscut between Michael's appearance at his nephew's baptism and the killing of the heads of the five Mafia families. At the baptism, Michael says that he believes in God. Clemenza fires a shotgun into some men getting off an elevator. Moe Green is shot in the eye. Michael, following the liturgy of the baptism, renounces Satan. Another gunman shoots one of the heads of the families in a revolving door. Barzini is shot. Tom sends Tessio off to be murdered. Michael has Carlo strangled.
20. SELF-REVELATION
■ Psychological Self-Revelation None. Michael still believes that his
sense of superiority and self-righteousness is justified. ■ Moral Self-Revelation None. Michael has become a ruthless killer. The writers use an advanced story structure technique by giving the moral self-revelation to the hero's wife, Kay, who sees what he has become as the door slams in her face.
21. moral decision
Michael's great moral decision happens just before the battle when he decides to kill all of his rivals as well as his brother-in-law after becoming godfather to the man's baby.
22. new equilibrium
Michael has killed his enemies and risen to the position of Godfather. But morally he has fallen and become the devil. This man who once wanted nothing to do with the violence and crime of his family is now its leader and will kill anyone who betrays him or gets in his way.
WHY ARE JANE AUSTEN and Charles Dickens such great storytellers, still delighting audiences even in this high-tech, high-speed world? For one thing, they are two of the greatest scene weavers of all time.
A scene is generally one action in one time and place. It is the basic unit of what actually happens in the story, right now, as the audience experiences it. The scene weave is the sequence of these units. To be a great storyteller, you must create a weave that is like a fine tapestry, picking up one thread for a moment before letting that thread dip back under the surface before appearing again a bit later on.
The scene weave, also known as the scene list, scene outline, or scene breakdown, is the final step before writing your full story or script. It is a list of every scene you believe will be in the final story, along with a tag for any scene in which a structure step occurs.
The scene weave is an extremely valuable step in the writing process. Like the seven steps, character web, and revelations sequence, it is a way of seeing how the story fits together beneath the surface.
The scene weave is really an extension of the plot. It is your plot in minute detail. The point of the scene weave is to get one last look at the
overall architecture of the story before writing it. Therefore, don't go into Too much derail, because this will hide the structure. Try to describe each scene in one line. For example, a description of four scenes in The Godfather might look like this:
■ Michael saves the Don from assassination at the hospital. ■ Michael accuses police captain McCluskey of working for Sollozzo.
The Captain slugs him.
Michael suggests that he kill the Captain and Sollozzo. ■ Clemenza shows Michael how to execute Sollozzo and the Captain.
Notice that only the single essential action of each scene is listed. If you keep your description to one or two lines, you will be able to list your scene weave in a few pages. Next to the scene description, list any structure step (such as desire, plan, or apparent defeat) that is accomplished during that scene. Some scenes will have these structure tags, but many will not.
KEY POINT: Be prepared to change your scene weave when you start writing individual scenes.
When it comes to
actually writing a scene, you may find that the basic action occurring in that scene is not what you thought. You will only know that for sure when you get "inside" the scene and write it. So be flexible. What's important at this point in the process is to get an overview of what you think the single main action of each scene will be.
Be aware that the average Hollywood movie has forty to seventy scenes. A novel ordinarily has twice that number and, depending on length and genre, possibly a great many more.
Your story may have subplots, or subsections, that when woven together create the plot. If you have more than one subplot or subsection, label each scene with a plotline and subsection number. This will allow you to look at the scenes of each subplot as a separate unit and make sure each subplot builds properly.
Once you have the complete scene weave before you, see if you need to make the following changes:
■ Reorder scenes. First, focus on getting the overall sequence of the story
right. Then look at the juxtapositions between individual scenes. ■ Combine scenes. Writers often create a new scene for no other reason than to get in a good line of dialogue. Whenever possible, combine scenes so that each one is packed, but make sure each scene accomplishes essentially one action. ■ Cut or add scenes. Always trim fat. Remember, story pacing has to do not only with the length of a scene but also with the choice of scenes. Once you have trimmed all the fat, you may find gaps in the scene weave that require a whole new scene. If so, add it to the list in the right spot.
KEY POINT: Order the scenes by structure, not chronology.
Most writers choose the next scene according to which action (scene) comes next in time. The result is a padded story with many useless scenes. Instead, you want to choose a scene by how it furthers the development of the hero. If it doesn't further that development or set it up in a crucial way, cut the scene.
This technique guarantees that every scene in the story is essential and in the right order. Typically, you end up with a chronological scene sequence, but not always.
KEY POINT: Pay special attention to the juxtaposition of scenes.
Especially in film and television, where the change of scene or story line is instantaneous, the juxtaposition of two scenes can be more important than what happens in any individual scene. In these juxtapositions, you want to look first at the contrast of content. In what way, if at all, does the next scene comment on the previous scene?
