The 5 last puzzle pieces that allowed me to see what writers haven't. Storyteller's Log 1-7-2013

It's now time to present the map of story structure that fit all of my criteria about what a good story theory should have. But first, I 'd like to acknowledge some people who helped me see it. To do this I'd like to enlist the aid of a quote by someone you may know.

"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other people, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving." Albert Einstein

The thing I love the most about Einstein was his playfulness

I don't believe that we stand on the shoulders of giants. I believe that we stand on the shoulder of all the ordinary people who tried to make life a little better for themselves and others and in the process created this thing we call human culture. Take a moment to look around and see how many comforts you have that our ancestors have created. They literally created a magic lamp for us that has granted so many wishes.

So on top of all of the screenwriting and drama writing books that I have read which taught me a wealth of valuable information about writing, there were four more puzzle pieces that lead my long search to a emergent surprise that allowed me to see how to write.

1. The first was Aristotle's original idea to map a story. Only I think he mapped the wrong thing. His mapping is important but secondary.

2. Second, Nancy Duarte and her book, Resonate, showed me that what's at stake could be mapped over time.

3. Third, it was Toy Story producer,  Ralph Guggenheim, that taught me C programming when we were both at NYIT's Computer Graphics Lab, as part of the emerging of the field of computer graphics. I had taken math in high school and college but never understood the concept of mathematical functions. Ralph showed us how a circle could be mapped over time onto a sine wave by graphing it. Finally, I got it because I could literally see it. Little did I know, (Dramatic Irony, check out "Stranger than Fiction" for the full reference.) that this would be a crucial piece of the puzzle.
The hero's journey is a circle. But what does it map? It maps a journey over time and as Chris Vogler pointed out in his book, The Writer's Journey, that journey is a psychological one. It's just not in a form that I can use to help me write. But sine waves are the key, that and another math concept Ralph taught us- fractals.

BLOGGER NOTE: Do not be afraid, there is no math involved in this theory.

4. The discovery that stories are woven sequences of cause and effect. And it was my Vocabulary of the Media Critic class, in which Dr. Alwyn Scott told us if we wanted to be filmmakers, we better learn about semiotics. This was back in 1980 and he was right. Though semiotics I discovered there are many types of causality beyond the pure physical causality of a Rule Goldberg machine.

5. The fifth and final piece of the puzzle came from Peter Dunne's book, Emotion Structure: Creating the story beneath the plot. From his excellent book I learned that character's use psychological defenses to try to achieve what they want. I won't go to much into this here. Don't want to give away too much now, but this book was very helpful in allowing me to see story causality.

Emotional Structure

Finally, in answer to the rhetorical question that I heard in my mind,  "Why could I see it when no other writer could for over 2000 years?" Read that sentence again for the answer.

So the first mapping of a story is to map that there is a problem. I'll leave you to think about that question.

We've begun.

A look back at story structure and a step into the new year, Storyteller's log 1-1-2013

Let's look at where we've been with the help of Scared Bunny's look back mirror.

Our story thus far, I promised to share the development of my new story theory as I write it into a complete new text. I self published my first book as an introductory book- Iggy's Incredibly Easy Way to Write a Story. Which is my primer on the subject.

Speaking of suspense, so far I've been telling you what limitations I personally find with most story theories. Let's look at the structure of what I've done so far. To do this I'd like to introduce you to another approach offered by Nancy Duarte from her book, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences.

Resonate on Amazon

Nancy deals mainly with presentations and has taken things from storytelling such as archetypes and the hero's journey to develop her own version of mapping presentations. I'm now going to take what she evolved for presentations back to storytelling for narratives. This is exactly why it is so important not to just read what everybody else is reading on your subject but outside the subject. It get's you out of a rut.

Nancy introduces her mapping tool she calls the Sparkline of a presentation. In her book she analyzes a number of presentations using this tool.

                             

I think this is a brilliant, particularly in the way in the way she shows what's at stake during the story or presentation. She compares the bottom line of "what is" and then contrasts that with "what could be". Very clear and elegant.

Let's look at a Sparkline of what I've presented so far on the storyteller's log 11-26-2012. First, I talked about the two senses of being lost in the story. The first sense was good, that you want your audience lost in your story so the world fades away and they live the dream. The second sense was that in trying to create a story often writers get lost not knowing what to do or where to go next, I know this happens to me. Then I told you what will come- a new way for you not to get lost. Only I didn't say when. 

Already we have the beginnings of a story. A problem is presented. A solution is promised. I announced my intention to show you a better way to create stories. Then there were obstacles. I showed attempts at solutions and why they don't work for me. First with Aristotle, then Plot Points, the Hero's Journey, and the structuralists- Propp and Eco.

Here's what we get using the various mappings.

Here's Aristotle's mapping of the problem, promise and possible solutions and their limitations. This really doesn't really show us much does it?

Here's the Plot point mapping of the same data. This shows even less information. 

Here's the Hero's journey mapping. I'm starting to get lost again.

Here's Propp's functions. But it doesn't fit into his functions. I'm definitely lost again. Maybe I should have bought a GPS.

Now here's Duarte's Sparkline mapping. This gives us some useful information. It shows how I offered solutions that I've learned about but ultimately found limiting.

But look closely, we're interested in story structure. I've basically repeated myself four times. This makes it repetitive, potentially boring and probably frustrating. If you've come back to this blog wanting to learn about a new story structure you've been let down. So far.

This was done for a point. I could have continued with several other approaches that I find helpful but limiting but that would have strained credibility. I wanted to introduce you to a useful structure and see how it could be applied to analyze a story structure.

Remember this when you're structuring your movie. You need to walk a fine line with suspense. The right amount will keep the audience on the edge of their seat. If you repeat too much, you'll lose the suspense.

But too much suspense will put them to sleep. Storytelling is story delaying, but just the right amount.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you exactly what I'm looking for in a story structure theory. Till then...