Back to the Future story weave part 2

In order to weave the story of  Back to the Future, I identified all the key beats of the story. The next step is to label each beat for it's story line and how it functions in the story. Then we can color key each story thread to make it easier to follow.

It also might be cool to create icons for each function. This could be another important mapping tool to show you when you might need a song or have too much action and need to give the audience a break or maybe you're missing a symbolic death.

In looking at the beats of the story these are the functions that I identified:
Narrative questions. These are usually answered during the story with actions.
1. Problems
Introductions
Setup information
Suggest a direction
Twists
Warnings or messages
Foreshadowing
Character emotions
Conflicts
Setup Ironic contrast
Action
Trigger Action (TURNING POINT)
Explanation
Surprises
Set scene
Comedy
Discovery
2. Wrong action
3. Consequences
Obstacles, function as story-delays
Setup payoffs
Ticking clocks
Plans
Goal (TURNING POINT)
False goal
Choices
4. Right actions The audience often cheers when this happens.
Symbolic death (TURNING POINT
Reorganization
Music
Love

Here's our chart once again. We have 4 progressions and 3 changes of direction.

(CLICK TO ENLARGE) 

A narrative question is a question that is implicitly raised by the actions of a story that leave the audience wanting to know the outcome. This is the key way we engage in stories. 

A narrative question and it's answer are the smallest unit of a story. Here is the formula:

? > .

I'll have more on this later when I get to the algebra of storytelling. Don't worry there's no math involved. (I wonder if you noticed the narrative tease.)

Here are the main narrative questions of Back to the Future:
Will Marty get away from the terrorists?
Will Marty get back to the future?
Can Marty get his parents together?
Can Marty get Doc the information to save his life?

There's also lots of smaller narrative questions.
Will Marty see the Plutonium?
Will Doc fall off the clock tower?
Was Einstein, the dog, disintegrated?
Can Doc get the plug back in in time?
Can Marty start the Delorean?
Bif introduces a whole lot of narrative questions as the main obstacle for the progress of the story.
For example, can How can Marty escape Bif in his car, while he's on an improvised skateboard?

Here are the main storylines:
The terrorists and theft of Plutonium.
Marty and Jennifer.
Marty goes back to 1955 and must return.
Marty interferes with his parents romance and must restore it, before he returns.
Bif is an obstacle for Marty and George's plans.
Doc creates the time machine and has to help Marty go back to the future.

I identified over 80 significant beats that tell the story of Back to the Future. In the next post, I'll write up the list of beats with their function identified. When I look at the list as text it appears that they all look the same. I think what I creating could be called "spatial writing", you can see the function of each part and where it fits in relation to the others as well as how the audience is responding to it. As Marty would say, "This is heavy".

And stay tuned for some Back to the Future trivia...

9th step Passion, storyteller's log 1-24-2013

The 9th step of mapping your story is a doozie, as they used to say in the cartoons. I had a very interesting surprise in my writing this blog- as if I was actually living out this story! I thought about what I discovered a lot, and whether to write about it. I cannot write about it right now. It would ruin the effect I've been trying to create, which has been to demonstrate how we feel at different parts of a story. Once the overall pattern is exposed, I will share it will you.

?

On to the 9th step, our character has hit rock bottom, and like the proverbial Phoenix they have risen from the ashes.

Here's what my Mac's dictionary has to say about the Phoenix:

          •(in classical mythology) a unique bird that lived for five or six centuries in the Arabian desert, after this time burning itself on a funeral pyre and rising from the ashes with renewed youth to live through another cycle.          • a person or thing regarded as uniquely remarkable in some respect.

This is interesting. Even the dictionary suggests our character can be described as remarkable like a Phoenix.

From here, there's no where to go but up. But, as in all good storytelling, it's also all uphill from here.

Let's check into where we are. The character has turned towards hope as they've been reborn. What is is it that guides us where to go from here?

(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Earlier when our character started up towards hope, they ignored the lesson and took the wrong path. This time they have learned the lesson so now they're doing the right thing. What they've learned has transformed them. They see a bigger all inclusive picture that involves others. They're less selfish.

As I mentioned earlier, writing stories is literally weaving stories together. Each piece is connected to the tapestry of the whole. Doing the right thing is connected to the wrong path. They're opposites. This is key as we'll see when we look at how to use our map to weave our stories. The lesson is also a key component.

The lesson was first woven into the goal when it was shown to be a false goal. That's because the lesson was ignored. 

The next path of the lesson was woven from the" lesson ignored" to the "lesson learned" in the symbolic death. It all fits together logically and more importantly emotionally.

There is something else brewing in our story. According to Aristotle, this is the peak, on his mapping, where the audience should have maximum involvement in the story. But now we know how we got there.

With the character so well prepared, how do we keep the audience hoping against fear? The hero has learned, BUT so has the opposition. And they're sore losers. They'll throw everything they've got at our hero. So our roller coaster has more peaks and valleys. 

The opposition will be so desperate that they'll even throw the kitchen sink...