[Key Point: A speaker tells a listener what someone did to get what he wanted and why]
[Key Point: All stories are a form of communication that expresses the dramatic code]
THE DRAMATIC CODE:
The dramatic code, is an artistic description of how a person can grow or evolve. This code is also a process going on underneath every story. The storyteller hides this process beneath particular characters and actions.
In the dramatic code, change is fueled by desire: "I want, therefore I am." Desire in all of its facets is what makes the world go around. It is what propels all conscious, living things and gives them direction. a story tracks what a person wants, what he'll do to get it, and what costs he'll have to pay along the way.
Once a character has a desire, the story "walks" on two "legs": acting and learning. A character pursuing a desire takes actions to get what he wants, and he learns new information about better ways to get it. Whenever he learns new information, he makes a decision and changes his course of action.
Any character who goes after a desire and is impeded is forced to struggle (otherwise the story is over). And that struggle makes him change. So the ultimate goal of the dramatic code, and of the storyteller, is to present a change in a character or to illustrate why that change did not occur.
the different forms of storytelling frame human change in different ways:
- Film (especially American film) shows the small change a character might undergo by seeking a limited goal with great intensity.
- Serious novels typically depict how a person interacts and changes within an entire societ or show the precise mental and emotional processes leading up to his change.
- Television drama shows a number of characters in a minisociety struggling to change simultaneously.
[Key Point: Stories don't show the audience the "real world"; they show the story world. The story world isn't a copy of life as it is. It's life as human beings imagine it could be. It is human life condensed and heightened so that the audience can gain a better understanding of how life itself works.]
[Key Point: Each subsystem of the story consists of a web of elements that help define and differentiate the other elements.]
STORY MOVEMENT:
Nature uses a few basic patterns (and a number of variations) to connect elements in a sequence, including linear, meandering spiral, branching, and explosive. Storytellers use these same patterns, individually and in combination, to connect story events over time. The linear and explosive patterns are at opposite extremes. the linear pattern has one thing happening after another on a straight-line path. Explosion has everything happening simultaneously. The meandering, spiral, and branching patterns are combinations of the linear and the explosive.
- Linear Story: The linear story tracks a single main character from beginning to end. It implies a historical or biological explanation for what happens. Most Hollywood films are linear. they focus on a single hero who pursues a particular desire with great intensity. The audience witnesses the history of how the hero goes after his desire and is changed as a result.
- Meandering Story: The meandering story follows a winding path without apparent direction. In nature, the meander is the form of rivers, snakes and the brain. Myths like the Odyssey, and many of Dicken's stories, such as David Copperfield, take the meandering form. The hero has a desire, but it's not intense; he covers a great deal of territory in a haphazard way; and he encounters a number of characters from different levels of society.
- Spiral Story: A spiral is a path that circles inward to the center. In nature, spirals occur in cyclones, horns and seashells.Thrillers like Vertigo typically favour the spiral, in which a character keeps returning to a single event or memory an explores it at progressively deeper levels.
- Branching Story: Branching is a system of paths that extend from a few central points by splitting and adding smaller and smaller parts. In nature, branching occurs in trees, leaves, and river basins. In storytelling, each branch usually represents a complete society in detail or a detailed stage of the same society that the hero explores. The branching form is found in more advanced fiction, such as social fantasies like Gulliver's Travels and It's a Wonderful Life or in multiple-hero stories like Nashville, American Graffiti, and Traffic.
- Explosive Story: An explosion has multiple paths that extend simultaneously. In nature, the explosive pattern is found in volcanoes and dandelions. In a story, you can't show the audience a number of elements all at once, even for a single scene, because you have to tell one thing after another; so, strictly speaking, there are no explosive stories. But you can give the appearance of simultaneity. In film, this is done with the technique of the crosscut. Stories that show (the appearance of) simultaneous action imply a comparative explanation for what happens. By seeing a number of elements all at once, the audience grasps the key idea embedded in each element. These stories also put more emphasis on exploring the story world, showing the connections between the various elements there and how everyone fits, or doesn't fit, within the whole. Stories that emphasise simultaneous action tend to use a branching structure and include American Graffiti, Pulp Fiction, Traffic, Syriana, Crash, Nashville, Tristram Shandy, Ulysses, Last Year at Marienbad, Ragtime, The Canterbury Tales, L.A. Confidential, and Hannah and Her Sisters. Each represents a different combination of linear and simultaneous storytelling, but each emphasises characters exisiting together in the story world as opposed to a single character developing from beginning to end.
- Premise: We begin with the premise, which is your entire story condensed to a single sentence. That premise will suggest the essence of the story, and we will use that to figure out how to develop it so as to get the most out of the idea.
- Seven Key Story Structure Steps: The seven key story structure steps are the major stages of your story's development and of the dramatic code hidden under its surface. Think of the seven structure steps as your story's DNA. Determining the seven key steps will give your story a solid, stable foundation.
- Character: Next, we will create the characters, not by pulling them out of thin air but by drawing them out of your original story idea. We will connect and compare each character to every other character so that each one is strong and well defined. Then we'll figure out the function each must perform in helping your hero develop.
- Theme (Moral Argument): The theme is your moral vision, your view of how people should act in the world. But instead of making the characters a mouthpiece for a message, we will express the theme that is inherent in the story idea. And we'll express the theme through the story structure so that it both surprises and moves the audience.
- Story World: Next, we'll create the world of the story as an outgrowth of your hero. The story world will help you define your hero and show the audience a physical expression of his growth.
- Symbol Web: Symbols are packets of highly compressed meaning. We'll figure out a web of symbols that highlight and communicate different aspects of the characters, the story world, and the plot.
- Plot: From the characters we will discover the right story form; the plot will grow from your unique characters. Using the twenty-two story structure steps (the seven key steps plus fifteen more), we will design a plot in which all the events are connected under the surface and build to a surprising but logically necessary ending.
- Scene Weave: In the last step before writing scenes, we'll come up with a list of every scene in the story, with all the plotlines and themes woven into a tapestry.
- Scene Construction and Symphonic Dialogue: Finally we'll write the story, constructing each scene so that it furthers the development of your hero. We'll write dialogue that doesn't just push the plot but has a symphonic quality, blending many "instruments" and levels at one time.
PREMISE:
[Key Point: What you choose to write about is far more important than any decision you make about how to write it.]
[Key Point: Nine out of ten writers fail at the premise.]
Developing Your Premise:
Step 1: Write something that may change your life.
This is a very high standard, but it may be the most valuable piece of advice you'll ever get as a writer. If a story is that important to you, it may be that important to a lot of people in the audience. And when you're done writing the story, no matter what else happens, you've changed your life. Most writers are content to think of a premise that's a loose copy of someone else's movie, book, or play. It seems to have commercial appeal, but it's not personal to the writer in any way. This story will never rise above the generic, and so it is bound to fail.
Step 2: Look for what's possible.
One of the biggest reasons writers fail at the premise stage is that they don't know how to spot their story's true potential. This takes experience as well as technique. What you're looking for here is where the idea might go, how it might blossom. Don't jump on a single possibility right away, even if it looks really good.
[Key Point: Explore your options. The internet is here to brainstorm the many different paths the idea can take and then to choose the best one.]
Step 3: Identify the story challenges and problems.
There are rules of construction that apply to all stories. But each story has its own unique set of rules, or challenges, as well. Those are particular problems that are deeply embedded in the idea, and you cannot escape them. Nor do you want to. These problems are signposts for finding your true story. You must confront these problems head-on and solve them if you are to execute your story well. Most writers, if they identify the problems at all, do so after they've written the complete story. That's far too late. The trick is to learn how to spot inherent problems right at the premise line. Of course, even the best writers can't spot all the problems this soon in the process. But as you master the key techniques of character, plot, theme, story world, symbol, and dialogue, you will be pleasantly surprised at how well you can dig out the difficulties in any idea.
Star Wars: In any epic, but especially a space epic like Star Wars, you must introduce a wide range of characters quickly and then keep them interacting over vast space and time. You must make the futuristic story believable and recognisable in the present. And you must find a way to create character change in a hero who is morally good from the beginning.
Forest Gump: How do you turn forty years of historical moments into a cohesive, organic, personal story? Problems include creating a mentally challenged hero who is able to drive the plot, have believably deep insights, and experience character change while balancing whimsy with genuine sentiment.
Step 4: Find the designing principle.
Given the problems and the promises inherent in your idea, you must now come up with an overall strategy for how you will tell your story. Your overall story strategy, stated in one line, is the designing principle of your story. The designing principle helps you extend the premise into deep structure.
[Key Point: The designing principle is what organises the story as a whole. It is the internal logic of the story, what makes the parts hang together organically so that the story becomes greater than the sum of its parts. It is what makes the story original.]
In short the designing principle is the seed of the story. And it is the single most important factor in making your story original and effective. Sometimes, this principle is a symbol or a metaphor (known as the central symbol, the grand metaphor, or the root metaphor). But it is often larger than that. The designing principal tracks the fundamental process that will unfold over the course of the story. The designing principle is difficult to see. And in truth, most stories don't have one. They are standard stories, told generically. That's the difference between a premise, which all stories have, and a designing principle - which only good stories have. The premise is concrete; it's what actually happens. The designing principle is abstract; it is the deeper process going on in the story, told in an original way.
Designing principle = story process + original execution
[Key Point: Find the designing principle, and stick to it. Be diligent in discovering this principle, and never take your eye off it during the long writing process.]
Tootsie:
Premise: When an actor can't get work, he disguises himself as a woman and gets a role in a TV series, only to fall in love with one of the female members of the cast.
Designing Principle: Force a male chauvinist to live as a woman.
Four Weddings and a Funeral:
Premise: A man falls in love with a woman, but first one and then the other is engaged to someone else.
Designing Principle: A group of friends experiences four utopias (weddings) and a moment in hell (funeral) as they all look for their right partner in marriage.
Harry Potter Books:
Premise: A boy discovers he has magical powers and attends a school for magicians.
Designing Principle: A magician prince learns to be a man and a king by attending a boarding school for sorcerers over the course of seven school years.
A Christmas Carol:
Premise: When three ghosts visit a stingy old man, he regains the spirit of Christmas.
Designing Principle: Trace the rebirth of a man by forcing him to view his past, his present, and his future over the course of one Christmas Eve.
It's a Wonderful Life:
Premise: When a man prepares to commit suicide, an angel shows him what the world would be had he never been born.
Designing Principle: Express the power of the individual by showing what a town, and a nation, would be like if one man had never lived.
Citizen Kane:
Premise: Tell the life story of a rich newspaper baron.
Designing Principle: Use a number of storytellers to show that a man's life can never be known.
Step 5: Determining your best character in the idea.
Once you have a lock on the designing principle of your story, it's time to focus on your hero.
[Key Point: Always tell a story about your best character.]
"Best" doesn't mean "nicest". It means "the most fascinating, challenging, and complex," even if that character isn't particularly likable. The reason you want to tell a story about your best character is that this is where your interest, and the audience's interest, will inevitably go. You always want this character driving the action. The way you determine the best character embedded in the idea is to ask yourself this crucial question; Who do I love? You can find the answer by asking yourself a few more questions: Do I want to see him act? Do I love the way he thinks? Do I care about the challenges he has to overcome? If you can't find a character you love implied in the story idea, move on to another idea. If you find him but he is not currently the main character, change the premise right now so that he is. If you are developing an idea that seems to have multiple main characters, you will have as many story lines as main characters, and so you must find the best character for each story line.
Step 6: Get a sense of the central conflict.
Once you have an idea of who will drive the story, you want to figure out what your story is about at the most essential level. That means determining the central conflict of the story. To figure out the central conflict, ask yourself "who fights whom over what?" and answer the question in one succinct line. The answer to that is what your story is really about, because all conflict in the story will essentially boil down to this one issue. The next two chapters will expand on this conflict in often complex ways. But you need to keep this one-line statement of conflict, along with the designing principle, in front of you at all times.
Step 7: Get a sense of the single cause-and-effect pathway.
Every good, organic story has a single cause-and-effect pathway: A leads to B, which leads to C, and so on all the way to Z. This is the spine of the story, and if you don't have a spine or you have too many spines, your story will fall apart (we'll talk about multiple-hero stories in a moment).
[Key Point: If you are developing a premise with many main characters, each story line must have a single cause-and-effect path. And all the story lines should come together to form a larger, all-encompassing spine.]
Step 8: Determine your hero's possible character change.
After the designing principle, the most important thing to glean from your premise line is the fundamental character change of your hero. This is what gives the audience the deepest satisfaction no matter what form the story takes, even when the character change is negative (as in The Godfather). Character change is what your hero experiences by going through his struggle. At the simplest level, that change could be represented as a three-part equation (not to be confused with the three-act structure):
W x A = C
W = weaknesses, both psychological and moral.
A = the struggle to accomplish the basic action in the middle of the story.
C = the changed person.
In the vast majority of stories, a character with weaknesses struggles to achieve something and ends up changed (positively or negatively) as a result. The simple logic of a story works like this: How does the act of struggling to do the basic action (A) lead the character to change from W to C? Notice that A, the basic action, is the fulcrum. A character with certain weaknesses, when being put through the wringer of a particular struggle, is forged and tempered into a changed being.
[Key Point: The basic action should be the one action best able to force the character to deal with his weaknesses and change.]
This is the simple geometry of any story because it is the sequence of human growth. Human growth is very elusive, but it is real, and it is what you, the writer, must express above everything else (or else show why it doesn't occur). The key to doing this is to start with the basic action and then go to the opposites of that action. This will tell you who your hero is at the beginning of the story (his weaknesses) and who he is at the end (how he has changed). The steps work like this:
- Write your simple premise line. (Be open to modifying this premise line once you discover the character change.)
- Determine the basic action of your hero over the course of the story.
- Come up with the opposites of A (the basic action) for both W (the hero's weaknesses, psychological and moral) and C (changed person).
[Key Point: Write down a number of possible options for the hero's weaknesses and change.]
Just as there are a number of possibilities for developing your premise, there are many options for both the weaknesses and the changed person your hero will become. For example, let's say that the basic action of your hero is to become an outlaw during the story. Starting with this basic action, you might come up with these opposites for possible weaknesses and changes. Notice that each weakness and change is a possible opposite of the basic action.
Example 1:
An uptight, henpecked man becomes involved with a gang of outlaws and gets a divorce.
Weakness = At the beginning, an uptight, henpecked man.
Basic Action = Becomes involved with a gang of outlaws.
Changed Person = Gets a divorce.
Example 2:
An uptight, haughty banker becomes involved with a gang of outlaws and gives aid to the poor.
Weakness = At the beginning, an uptight, haughty banker.
Basic Action = Becomes involved with a gang of outlaws.
Changed Person = Gives aid to the poor.
Example 3:
A shy, timid man becomes involved with a gang of outlaws and gets drunk with fame.
Weakness = At the beginning, a shy timid man.
Basic Action = Becomes involved with a gang of outlaws.
Changed Person = Gets drunk with fame.
Star Wars:
Premise: When a princess falls into mortal danger, a young man uses his skills as a fighter to save her and defeat the evil forces of a galactic empire.
Weakness = At the beginning, naive, impetuous, paralysed, unfocused, lacking confidence.
Basic Action = Uses his skills as a fighter.
Changed Person = Self-esteem, a place among the chosen few, a fighter for good.
Luke's initial weaknesses are definitely not the qualities of a fighter. But when constantly forced to use skills as a fighter, he is strengthened into a confident fighter for the good.
The Godfather:
Premise: The youngest son of a Mafia family takes revenge on the men who shot his father and becomes the new Godfather.
Weakness = At the beginning, unconcerned, afraid, mainstream, legitimate, separated from the family.
Basic Action = Takes revenge.
Changed Person = Tyrannical, absolute ruler of the family.
The Godfather is a perfect example of why you want to go to the opposites of the basic action to determine the weaknesses and change of your hero. If Michael begins the story as a vengeful man, taking revenge on the men who shot his father will only make him seem more of the same. There's no character change. But what if he starts off the opposite of vengeful? An unconcerned, afraid, mainstream, legitimate man, separated from his Mafia family, who then takes revenge could become the tyrannical, absolute ruler of the family. This is a radical change, no doubt. But it is a totally believable one.
Step 9: Figure out the hero's possible moral choice.
The central theme of a story is often crystallised by a moral choice the hero must take, typically near the end of the story. Theme is your view of the proper way to act in the world. It is your moral vision, and it is one of the main reasons you are writing your story. Theme is best expressed through the structure of the story, through what I call moral argument. This is where you, the author, make a case for how to live, not through philosophical argument, but through the actions of characters going after a goal (for details, see Chapter 5, "Moral Argument"). Probably the most important step in that argument is the final moral choice you give to the hero. A lot of writers make the mistake of giving their hero a fake choice. A fake choice is between a positive and a negative. For example, you may force your hero to choose between going to prison and winning the girl. The outcome is obvious.
[Key Point: To be a true choice, you hero must either select one of two positive outcomes or, on rare occasions, avoid one of two negative outcomes.]
Make the options as equal as possible, with one seeming only slightly better than the other. A classic example of a choice between two positives is between love and honour. In A Farewell to Arms, the hero chooses love. In The Maltese Falcon (and almost all detective stories), the hero chooses honour. Again, notice that this technique is about finding possible moral choices. That's because the choice you come up with now may change completely by the time you have written the full story. This technique simply forces you to start thinking, in practical terms, about your theme from the very beginning of the writing process.
Step 10: Gauge the audience appeal.
When you've done all your premise work, ask yourself one final question: Is this single story line unique enough to interest a lot of people besides me? This is the question of popularity, of commercial appeal. You must be ruthless in answering it. If you look at your premise and realise that the only people who will want to see your story are you and your immediate family, I would strongly caution you against using that premise as the basis for a full story. You should always write first for yourself; write what you care about. But you shouldn't write only for yourself. One of the biggest mistakes writers make is to fall into the trap of either-or thinking: either I write what I care about, or I write what will sell. This is a false distinction, born of the old romantic notion of writing in a garret and suffering for your art. Sometimes you get an idea that you simply must write. Or you get a great idea and you have no idea whether an audience will like it. But remember, you will have many more ideas in your life than you can possibly develop as full stories. Always try to write something that you care about and also think will appeal to an audience. Your writing should mean a lot to you personally. But writing for an audience makes it a lot easier to do what you love.
THE SEVEN KEY STEPS OF STORY STRUCTURE:
A story has a minimum of seven steps in its growth from beginning to end:
- Weakness and need.
- Desire.
- Opponent.
- Plan.
- Battle.
- Self-revelation.
- New equilibrium.
1: Weakness and Need.
From the very beginning of the story, your hero has one or more great weaknesses that are holding him back. Something is missing within him that is so profound, it is ruining his life. The need is what the hero must fulfill within himself in order to have a better life. It usually involves overcoming his weaknesses and changing, or growing in some way.
Tootsie:
Weaknesses: Michael is arrogant, selfish, and a liar.
Need: Michael has to overcome his arrogance toward women and to stop lying and using women to get what he wants.
The Silence of the Lambs:
Weaknesses: Clarice is inexperienced, suffering from haunting childhood memories, and a woman in a man's world.
Need: Clarice must overcome the ghosts of her past and gain respect as a professional in a man's world.
[Key Point: Your hero should not be aware of his need at the beginning of the story.]
If the hero is already aware of what he needs, the story is over. The hero should become aware of his need at the self-revelation, near the end of the story, only after having gone through a great deal of pain (in a drama) or struggle (in a comedy).
[Key Point: Give your hero a moral need as well as a psychological need.]
In average stories, the hero has only a psychological need. A psychological need involves overcoming a serious flaw that is hurting nobody but the hero. In better stories, the hero has a moral need in addition to a psychological need. The hero must overcome a moral flaw and learn how to act properly toward other people. A character with a moral need is always hurting others in some way (his moral weakness) at the beginning of the story.
One reason it is so important to give your hero a moral as well as a psychological need is that it increases the scope of the character; the character's actions affect others besides him. This moves the audience in a more powerful way. The other reason you want to give your hero a moral need is that it prevents him from being perfect or being a victim. Both of these are the kiss of death in storytelling. A perfect character doesn't seem real or believable. When a character has no real moral flaws, the opponent, who does, typically dominates the hero, and the story becomes reactive and predictable.
[Key Point: Keep the problem simple and specific.]
To have a moral need, the character must be hurting at least one other person at the beginning of the story.
There are two good ways to come up with the right moral need for your hero:
Connect it to the psychological need:
- Begin with the psychological weakness.
- Figure out what kind of immoral action might naturally come out of that.
- Identify the deep-seated moral weakness and need that are the source of this action.
Turn a strength into a weakness:
- Identify a virtue in your character. Then make him so passionate about it that it becomes oppressive.
- Come up with a value the character believes in. Then find the negative version of that value.
2: Desire.
Once the weakness and need have been decided, you must give the hero desire. Desire is what your hero wants in the story, his particular goal. Desire is intimately connected to need. In most stories, when the hero accomplishes his goal, he also fulfills his need. Let's look at a simple example from nature. A lion is hungry and needs food (a physical need). He sees a herd of antelope go by and spots a young one that he wants (desire). If he can catch the little antelope he won't be hungry anymore. End of story.
Need has to do with overcoming a weakness within the character. A hero with need is always paralysed in some way at the beginning of the story by his weakness. Need lets the audience see how the hero must change to have a better life. It is the key to the whole story, but it remains hidden, under the surface.
Desire is a goal outside the character. Once the hero comes up with his desire, he is moving in a particular direction and taking actions to reach his goal. Desire gives the audience something to want along with the hero, something they can all be moving toward through the various twists and turns - and even digressions - of the story. Desire is on the surface and is what the audience thinks the story is about.
Saving Private Ryan:
Need: Hero John Miller must do his duty in spite of his fear (psychological and moral).
Desire: He wants to find Private Ryan and bring him back alive.
The Full Monty:
Need: Each of the men in the group needs to regain his self-respect (psychological).
Desire: They want to make a lot of money by performing naked in front of a roomful of women.
The Verdict:
Need: The hero must regain his self-respect (psychological) and learn to act with justice toward others (moral).
Desire: As in all courtroom dramas, he wants to win the case.
Chinatown:
Need: Jake must overcome his cocky arrogance and learn to trust others (psychological). He also has to stop using people for money and bring a murdered to justice because it is the right thing to do (moral).
Desire: As in all detective stories, Jake's desire is to solve a mystery - in this case, to find out who killed Hollis and why.
[Key Point: Your hero's true desire is what he wants in this story, not what he wants in life.]
Opening with desire does give your story a quick start. But it also kills the payoff, the ending of the story. Weakness and need are the foundation of any story. They are what makes it possible for your hero to change at the end. They're what makes the story personal and meaningful. And they're what makes the audience care. Don't skip that first step. Ever.
3: Opponent.
Writers often mistakenly think of the opponent, also known as the antagonist, as the character who looks evil, sounds evil, or does evil things. This way of looking at the opponent will prevent you from ever writing a good story. Instead you must see the opponent structurally, in terms of his function in the story. A true opponent not only wants to prevent the hero from achieving his desire but is competing with the hero for the same goal. It is only by competing for the same goal that the hero and the opponent are forced to come into direct conflict and to do so again and again throughout the story. If you give your hero and opponent two separate goals, each one can get what he wants without coming into direct conflict. And then you have no story at all. The trick to creating an opponent who wants the same goal as the hero is to find the deepest level of conflict between them. Ask yourself "What is the most important thing they are fighting about?" That must be the focus of your story.
[Key Point: To find the right opponent, start with your hero's specific goal; whoever wants to keep him from getting it is an opponent.]
Star Wars:
Luke's opponent is the ruthless Darth Vader, and each is competing over who will control the universe. Vader represents the evil forces of the tyrannical Empire. Luke represents the forces of good, comprised of the Jedi Knights and the democratic Republic.
4: Plan.
Action is not possible without some plan, in life and in storytelling. The plan is the set of guidelines, or strategies, the hero will use to overcome the opponent and reach the goal. The plan should always be specifically focused toward defeating the opponent and reaching the goal. A hero may have a vague plan. Or in certain genre stories like the caper or the war story, the plan is so complex that the characters may write it down so that the audience can see it.
5: Battle.
Throughout the middle of the story, the hero and the opponent engage in a punch-counterpunch confrontation as each tries to win the goal. The conflict heats up. The battle is the final conflict between hero and opponent and determines which of the two characters wins the goal. The final battle may be a conflict of violence or a conflict of words.
The Odyssey:
Odysseus slays the suitors who have tormented his wife and destroyed his home.
Chinatown:
A cop kills Evelyn, and Noah gets away with Evelyn's daughter while Jake walks of in despair.
The Verdict:
Frank defeats opposing counsel by using brilliant lawyering and persuasive words in the courtroom.
6: Self-Revelation.
The battle is an intense and painful experience for the hero. This crucible of battle causes the hero to have a major revelation about who he really is. Much of the quality of your story is based on the quality of this self-revelation. For a good self-revelation, you must first be aware that this step, like need, comes in two forms, psychological and moral.
In a psychological self-revelation, the hero strips away the facade he has lived behind and sees himself honestly for the first time. This stripping away of the facade is not passive or easy. Rather, it is the most active, the most difficult, and the most courageous act the hero performs in the entire story. Don't have your hero come right out and say what he learned. This is obvious and preachy and will turn off your audience. Instead you want to suggest your hero's insight by the actions he takes leading up to the self-revelation.
Big:
Josh realises he has to leave his girlfriend and life at the toy company and go back to being a kid if he is to have a good and loving life as an adult.
Casablanca:
Rick sheds his cynicism, regains his idealism, and sacrifices his love for Ilsa so he can become a freedom fighter.
Chinatown:
Jake's self-revelation is a negative one. After Evelyn's death, he mumbles, "As little as possible." He seems to believe that his life is not only useless but also destructive. Once again, he has hurt someone he loves.
Dances with Wolves:
Dunbar finds a new reason to live and a new way of being a man because of his new wife and his extended Lakota Sioux family. Ironically, the Lakota way of life is almost at an end, so Dunbar's self-revelation is both positive and negative.
If you have given your hero a moral need, his self-revelation should be moral as well. The hero doesn't just see himself in a new light; he has an insight about the proper way to act toward others. In effect, the hero realises that he has been wrong, that he has hurt others, and that he must change. He then proves he has changed by taking new moral action.
Tootsie:
Michael realises what it really means to be a man - "I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man. I just gotta learn to do it without the dress" - and he apologises for hurting the woman he loves. Notice that even though the hero comes right out and says what he learned, he says it in such a clever and funny way that it avoids sermonising.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
Huck realises he has been wrong in thinking of Jim as less than human and declares that he would rather go to hell than tell Jim's owner of his whereabouts.
Need is the beginning of the hero's character change. Self-revelation is the end-point of that change. Need is the mark of the hero's immaturity at the beginning of the story. It is what is missing, what is holding him back. Self-revelation is the moment when the hero grows as a human being (unless the knowledge is so painful that it destroys him). It is what he learns, what he gains, what allows him to live a better life in the future.
7: New Equilibrium.
At the new equilibrium, everything returns to normal, and all desire is gone, Except there is now one major difference. The hero has moved to a higher or lower level as a result of going through his crucible. fundamental and permanent change has occurred in the hero. If the self-revelation is positive - the hero realises who he truly is and learns how to live properly in the world - he moves to a higher level. If the hero has a negative revelation - learning he has committed a terrible crime that expresses a corrupt personal flaw - or is incapable of having a self-revelation, the hero falls or is destroyed.
Examples in which the hero rises:
Die Hard:
John has defeated the criminals, and saved his wife, and reaffirmed their love.
Pretty Woman:
Vivian has left the world of prostitution behind and is with the man she loves (who, fortunately, is a billionaire).
The Silence of the Lambs:
Clarice has brought Buffalo Bill to justice, has become an excellent FBI agent, and has apparently conquered her terrifying nightmares.
Examples which document the fall of the hero:
Oedipus the King:
Oedipus gouges out his eyes upon learning that he has killed his father and slept with his mother.
The Conversation:
The hero discovers he has contributed to someone's murder and ends up a shell-shocked man desparately tearing up his apartment to find a listening device.
Vertigo:
The hero drags the woman he loves to the top of a tower to get her to confess to a murder and then looks down in horror when the woman, overcome by guilt, accidentally falls to her death.
CHARACTER:
Most writers come at character all wrong. They start by listing all the traits of the hero, tell a story about him, and then somehow make him change at the end. What won't work, no matter how hard you try. We're going to work through a different process that I think you will find much more useful. These are the steps:
- We'll begin not by focusing on your main character but by looking at all your characters together as part of an interconnected web. We'll distinguish them by comparing each to the others according to story function and archetype.
- Next we'll individualise each character based on theme and opposition.
- Then we'll concentrate on the hero, "building" him step-by-step so that we end up with a multilayered, complex person that the audience cares about.
- We'll create the opponent in detail, since this is the most important character after your hero and, in many ways, is the key to defining your hero.
- We'll end by working through the character techniques for building conflict over the course of the story.
The single biggest mistake writers make when creating characters is that they think of the hero and all other characters as separate individuals. Their hero is alone, in a vacuum, unconnected to others. The result is not only a weak hero but also cardboard opponents and minor characters who are even weaker.
[Key Point: The most important step in creating your hero, as well as all other characters, is to connect and compare each to the others.]
Each time you compare a character to your hero, you force yourself to distinguish the hero in new ways. You also start to see the secondary characters as complete human beings, as complex and as valuable as your hero. All characters connect and define each other in four major ways: By story function, archetype, theme, and opposition.
Character Web by Function in the Story:
Every character must serve the purpose of the story, which is found in the story's designing principle. Every character has a specifically designed role, or function, to play to help the story fulfill that purpose. Even though the audience is most interested in how the hero has changed, you can't show them that change unless every character, including the hero, plays his assigned part on the team. Let's look at the story function of the major kinds of characters in fiction.
Hero:
The most important character is the main character, or hero. This is the person who has the central problem and who drives the action in an attempt to solve the problem. The hero decides to go after a goal (desire) but possesses certain weaknesses and needs that hold him back from success. All other characters in a story represent an opposition, an alliance with the hero, or some combination of the two. Indeed, the twists and turns of the story are largely the product of the ebb and flow of opposition and friendship between various characters and the hero.
Opponent:
The opponent is the character who most wants to keep the hero from achieving his desire. The opponent should not merely be a block to the hero. That is mechanical. Remember, the opponent should want the same thing as the hero. That means that the hero and the opponent must come into direct conflict throughout the story. Often this doesn't seem to be the case. That's why you must always look for the deepest conflict that your hero and opponent are fighting over. The relationship between the hero and the opponent is the single most important relationship in the story. In working out the struggle between these two characters, the larger issues and themes of the story unfold. The opponent may, or may not be, someone that the hero hates. The opponent is simply someone on the other side. He can be a nicer person than the hero, more moral, or even the hero's lover or friend.
Ally:
The ally is the hero's helper. The ally also serves as a sounding board, allowing the audience to hear the values and feelings of the lead character. Usually, the ally's goal is the same as the hero's, but occasionally, the ally has a goal of his own.
Fake-Ally Opponent:
The fake-ally opponent is a character who appears to be the hero's friend but is actually an opponent. Having this character is one of the main ways you add power to the opposition and twists to the plot. The fake-ally opponent is invariably one of the most complex and most fascinating characters in a story because he is usually torn by a dilemma. While pretending to be an ally of the hero, the fake-ally opponent comes to actually feel like an ally. So while working to defeat the hero, the fake-ally opponent often ends up helping the hero win.
Fake-Opponent Ally:
This character appears to be fighting the hero but is actually the hero's friend. the fake-opponent ally is not as common in storytelling as the fake-ally opponent, because he is not as useful to the writer. Plot comes from opposition, especially opposition that is hidden under the surface. An ally, even one who appears at first to be an opponent, cannot give you the conflict and surprises of an opponent
Subplot Character:
The subplot character is one of the most misunderstood in fiction. Most writers think of this character as the lead in the second story line - for example, as the love interest in a detective story. But that is not a true subplot character. The subplot character has a very precise function in a story, and again it involves the comparative method. The subplot is used to contrast how the hero and a second character deal with the same problem in slightly different ways. Through comparison, the subplot character highlights traits and dilemmas of the main character.
[Key Point: The subplot character is usually not the ally.]
The subplot character, like the ally and the opponent, provides another opportunity to define the hero through comparison and advance the plot. The ally helps the hero reach the main goal. The subplot character tracks a line parallel to the hero, with a different result.
Character Technique: Two Main Characters.
There are two popular genres, or story forms, that seem to have two main characters, the love story and the buddy picture. The buddy picture is actually a combination of three genres: action, love, and comedy. Let's see how the character web in these two forms actually works, based on the function that each character plays in the story.
Love Stories:
Having to create two equally well-defined characters makes certain requirements for the character web of your story. The love story is designed to show the audience the value of a community between two equals. The central concept of love stories is quite profound. Love stories say that a person does not become a true individual by being alone. A person becomes a unique and authentic individual only by entering into a community of two. It is through the love of the other that each person grows and becomes his or her deepest self. Expressing this profound idea with the right character web is no easy matter. If you try to write a love story with two main characters, you will have two spines, two desire lines, two tracks the story is trying to ride. So you have to make sure that one character is a little more central than the other. You must detail the need of both characters at the beginning of the story, but you should give one of the characters the main desire line. Most writers give that line to the man, because in our culture the man is supposed to pursue the woman. But one of the best ways to set your love story apart is to give the woman the driving line, as in Moonstruck, Broadcast News, and Gone with the Wind. When you give one character the desire line, you automatically make him or her the more powerful character. In terms of story function, this means that the lover, the desired one, is actually the main opponent, not the second hero. You typically fill out the character web with one or more outside opponent, such as family members who oppose the union. You may also have other suitors for the hero or the lover so that you can compare different versions of a desirable man or woman.
Buddy Stories:
The buddy strategy allows you essentially to cut the hero into two parts, showing two different approaches to life and two sets of talents. These two characters are "married" into a team in such a way that the audience can see their differences but also see how these differences actually help them work well together, so that the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts. As in the love story, one of the buddies should be more central than the other. Usually it's the thinker, the schemer, or the strategist of the two, because this character comes up with the plan and starts them off on the desire line. The buddy is a kind of double of the hero, similar in important ways but also different. Structurally, the buddy is both the first opponent and the first ally of the hero. He is not the second hero. Keep in mind that this first opposition between the two buddies is almost never serious or tragic. It usually takes the form of good-natured bickering. Usually, you fill out the character web with at least one outside, dangerous, ongoing opponent. And because most buddy stories use a mythic journey, the buddies encounter a number of secondary opponents on the road. These characters are usually strangers to the buddies, and they are dispatched in quick succession. Each of these opponents should represent a negative aspect of the society that hates the buddies or wants to break them up. This technique is a great way of defining secondary characters quickly and distinguishing one from another. It also helps broaden and deepen the buddy form because you define various aspects of the society in relation to the two leads. One of the most important elements of the buddy web has to do with the fundamental conflict between the friends. There is a snag in the relationship that keeps interfering. This allows an ongoing opposition between the two leads in a traveling story where most of the other opponents are strangers who quickly come and go.
Character Technique: Multiple Heroes and Narrative Drive.
Although all the popular genres have a single main character, there are some nongenre stories that have multiple heroes. Having a number of heroes is the main way you create a sense of simultaneous story movement. Instead of tracking the development of a single character (linear), the story compares what many heroes are doing at the same time. The risk is that you show so many characters at the same time that the story is no longer a story; it has no forward narrative drive. Even the most simultaneous story must have some linear quality, sequencing events in time, one after another. To write a successful multihero story, you must put each main character through all seven steps - weakness and need, desire, opponent, plan, battle, self-revelation, and new equilibrium. Otherwise the character is not a main character; the audience has not seen him move through the minimal stages of development. Notice that having lots of heroes automatically reduces narrative drive. The more characters you must lay out in detail, the more you risk having your story literally come to a halt. These are some of the techniques you can use to add narrative drive to a multihero story:
- Have one character emerge over the course of the story as more central than the rest.
- Give all the characters the same desire line.
- Make the hero of one story line the opponent in another story line.
- Connect the characters by making them all examples of a single subject or theme.
- Use a cliffhanger at the end of one line to trigger a jump to another line.
- Funnel the characters from many locations into one.
- Reduce the time. For example, the story may take place over one day or one night.
- Show the same holiday or group event at least three times over the course of the story to indicate forward drive and change.
- Have characters occasionally meet by coincidence.
Character Technique: Cutting Extraneous Characters.
Extraneous characters are one of the primary causes of episodic, inorganic stories. The first question you must ask yourself when creating any character is "Does this character serve an important function in the overall story?" If he doesn't - if he only provides texture or colour - you should consider cutting him entirely. His limited value probably won't justify the time he takes up in the story line.
Character Web by Archetype:
A second way that characters connect and contrast in a story is through archetype. Archetypes are fundamental psychological patterns within a person; they are roles a person may play in society, essential ways of interacting with others. Because they are basic to all human beings, they cross cultural boundaries and have universal appeal. Using archetypes as a basis for your characters can give them the appearance of weight very quickly, because each type expresses a fundamental pattern that the audience recognises, and this same pattern is reflected both within the character and through interaction in the larger society. An archetype resonates deeply with an audience and creates very strong feelings in response. But this is a blunt tool in the writer's repertoire. Unless you give the archetype detail, it can become a stereotype.
[Key Point: Always make the archetype specific and individual to your unique character.]
King or Father:
Strength: Leads his family or his people with wisdom, foresight, and resolve so that they can succeed and grow.
Inherent Weaknesses: Can force his wife, children, or people to act according to a strict and oppressive set of rules, can remove himself entirely from the emotional realm of his family and kingdom, or may insist that his family and people live solely for his pleasure and benefit.
Queen or Mother:
Strength: Provides the care and protective shell within which the child or the people can grow.
Inherent Weaknesses: Can be protective or controlling to the point of tyranny, or can use guilt and shame to hold the child close and guarantee her own comfort.
Wise Old Man, Wise Old Woman, Mentor, or Teacher:
Strength: Passes on knowledge and wisdom so that people can live better lives and society can improve.
Inherent Weaknesses: Can force students to think a certain way or speak for the glory of himself rather than the glory of his ideas.
Warrior:
Strength: The practical enforcer of what is right.
Inherent Weaknesses: Can live according to the harsh motto of "kill or be killed"; may believe that whatever is weak must be destroyed and so become the enforcer of what is wrong.
Magician or Shaman:
Strength: Can make visible the deeper reality behind the senses and can balance and control the larger or hidden forces of the natural world.
Inherent Weaknesses: Can manipulate the deeper reality to enslave others and destroy the natural order.
Trickster:
The trickster is a lower form of the magician archetype and is extremely popular in modern storytelling.
Strength: Uses confidence, trickery, and a way with words to get what he wants.
Inherent Weaknesses: May become a complete liar who looks out only for himself.
Artist or Clown:
Strengths: Defines excellence for a people or, negatively, shows them what doesn't work; shows them beauty and a vision of the future or what appears to be beautiful but is in fact ugly or foolish.
Inherent Weaknesses: Can be the ultimate fascist insisting on perfection, may create a special world where all can be controlled, or simply tears everything down so that nothing has value.
Lover:
Strength: Provides the care, understanding, and sensuality that can make someone a complete and happy person.
Inherent Weaknesses: Can lose himself in the other or force the other to stand in his shadow.
Rebel:
Strength: Has the courage to stand out from the crowd and act against a system that is enslaving people.
Inherent Weakness: Often cannot or does not provide a better alternative, so ends up only destroying the system or the society.
Individualising Characters in the Web:
Once you have set your essential characters in opposition within the character web, the next step in the process is to make these character functions and archetypes into real individuals. But again, you don't create these unique individuals separately, out of whole cloth, with all of them just happening to coexist within the same story. You create a unique hero, opponent, and minor characters by comparing them, but this time primarily through theme and opposition. Theme is your view of the proper way to act in the world, expressed through your characters as they take action in the plot. Theme is not subject matter, such as "racism" or "freedom." Theme is your moral vision,your view of how to live well or badly, and it's unique for each story you write.
[Key Point: You begin individuating your characters by finding the moral problem at the heart of the premise. You then play out the various possibilities of the moral problem in the body of the story.]
You play out these various possibilities through the opposition. Specifically, you create a group of opponents (and allies) who force the hero to deal with the central moral problem. And each opponent is a variation on the theme; each deals with the same moral problem in a different way.
Creating Your Hero:
1: Meeting the requirements of a great hero.
- Make your lead character constantly fascinating: one of the best ways to grab and hold the audience's attention is to make the character mysterious. Show the audience that the character is hiding something. This forces the passive audience member to reach out and actively participate in your story. He sayd to himself, "That character is hiding something, and I want to find out what it is."
- Make the audience identify with the character, but not too much: audiences identify with a character based on two elements: desire and need (the moral problem the hero faces). Desire drives the story because the audience wants the hero to be successful. The moral problem is the deeper struggle of how to live properly with others and is what the audience wants the hero to solve.
- Make the audience empathise with your hero, not sympathise: to empathise with someone means to care about and understand him. That's why the trick to keeping the audience's interest in a character, even when the character is not likeable or is taking immoral actions, is to show the audience the hero's motive. They will then understand the cause of the action (empathy) without necessarily approving of the action itself (sympathy).
- Give your hero a moral as well as a psychological need: psychological need only affects the hero; a moral need has to do with learning to act properly toward others. By giving your hero both needs, you increase the effect the character has in the story and therefore increase the story's emotional power.
2: Character Change.
[Key Point: Character change doesn't happen at the end of the story; it happens at the beginning. More precisely, it is made possible at the beginning by how you set it up.]
[Key Point: True character change involves a challenging and changing of basic beliefs, leading to a new moral action by the hero.]
