11.5 How To Tell A Good Story

There are many good storytelling guides out there, some for specific purposes and contexts. If you want to try writing fiction or a movie screenplay, for example, Brandon McNulty’s 10 Core Elements of Storytelling video is a good starting point. If you’re interested in the role of stories in a business setting, try Stephen Denning’s The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling.^[1] For a more scientific approach (not about using stories to convey science, but about using science to construct a good story), Will Storr’s The Science of Storytelling contains fascinating details about how particular techniques affect the brain.^[2]

One common feature of storytelling guides is a list of the basic elements of a story, which generally include:

• Setting, context, or world in which the audience can place themselves. This is important for making the story real for the audience. If the context is an unfamiliar one, it may require some explanation of how things work in that world. This is true not just when introducing fantasy worlds, where the storyteller may need to explain, for instance, how people communicate without electricity (owls?), but even for a true story on earth, giving some sense of community norms or local customs.
• Characters through whom the audience can see that world. These are often sorted into categories such as “hero,” “villain,” “comic relief,” and “sidekick.” Fisher’s principle of “hangs together” means that audiences expect to see consistency in how characters behave, but also like to see change and character development.
• Plot or sequence of events: first this happens, then something else happens, then something else. The number of plot points necessary to qualify as a “story” is debatable, but there must be at least two. Plot sequences imply a cause-effect connection: something happens because that other thing happened. And plot is, of course, the best way to show character: you can tell audiences that someone is evil, but it’s more effective to show them mistreating animals or betraying a friend.
• Conflict or contrast: Contrast refers to some element of opposition that needs to be resolved — a “something gotta give” situation that necessitates a change. Good stories never fit the formula “A happy person has everything they need and achieves their goals without effort.” Conflict, as defined in Chapter 17, involves parties with incompatible goals who are dependent on each other. Some people think that a good story needs to include a villain, but I like to point out how many loved and respected films don’t have a villain (Chariots of Fire; Rain Man; A Beautiful Mind; Apollo 13; The King’s Speech; Gravity; Inside Out), although one could argue that there’s a nonhuman “villain” in the form of nature. Even without a villain, however, there’s always a challenge that the main character has difficulty overcoming.
• Theme or underlying message. I’ll use K.M. Weiland’s definition of theme: “A unifying idea or subject, explored via recurring patterns and expanded through comparisons and contrasts.”^[3] For ideas about developing a theme, see Chapter 13 [LINK TO “STRUCTURE AND THEME” SECTION OF CH. 13].
• Dialogue between characters. Not every story must have dialogue, but dialogue is helpful because it’s how humans experience much of our life: we find out what’s going on from other people talking to us. You can convey many of the other story components through dialogue. One of the best ways to show someone’s character, for example, is to have them talk to other people, and a great way to express a story’s theme is to have a character say it out loud. As any writer can tell you, the hardest part about writing dialogue is making sure it sounds natural and fits the character of the person speaking.
• Resolution. How does the conflict or contrast work itself out? It doesn’t have to be a “happy” resolution in which everyone is back to a place of peace and quiet (many of Shakespeare’s plays were tragedies), but if element 4 says “something’s gotta give,” element 7 answers the question of what “gave.”

The Pixar Formula

If formulas work better for you, Emma Coats, a storyboard artist for Pixar Animation Studios, outlines a simple one you could use:

Once upon a time there was ________

Every day, ________

One day ________

Because of that, ________

Because of that, ________

Until finally ________

Other sources point out the value of techniques such as foreshadowing — giving out information early in the story that seems peripheral, but by the end is revealed as predicting the resolution — and including small details, vitally important in making a story come alive and helping the audience place themselves inside the story.

An Illustration: Jack’s Story

My favorite story is one that was told to me, just once, by a Canadian named Jack who was a lifelong member of Alcoholics Anonymous. I heard it over 30 years ago, but the fact that I still remember it vividly shows you the power of stories.

When I joined AA, it saved my life, and I went to the meetings every week. One of the things they ask you to do in AA, after you’ve been helped by it, is to find someone else to help. I had been quite the drinker, so of course many of my friends were alcoholics too. One friend, Tom, lived in a one-room “flophouse” in downtown Toronto with another guy: just two beds, a small kitchen, and a bathroom. I went to visit Tom all the time to try to talk some sense into him. I visited that apartment day and night, and talked to Tom when he was drunk, and when he was sober. I kept it up for weeks, but eventually it was obvious that I was getting nowhere. So sadly, I gave up on Tom and didn’t see him anymore. I felt bad about it, but sometimes it’s no use.

Of course, I kept going to the AA meetings. Years later, at a meeting, I was approached by someone I didn’t recognize. This guy came up to me and said, “Do you know who I am?” I looked at him and said, “No, sorry, I don’t.” He said, “My name is Bruce, and you’re the reason I’m alive.” That’s quite a thing to hear from a stranger! Bruce went on,

“You remember a couple of years ago when you’d come over to Tom’s apartment and talk to him all the time? He never did listen to anything you said. But I was the guy in the other bed, and I was lying there listening to every word. You made so much sense, and that’s what got me into AA. You saved my life!”

This is the kind of story where the setting, “a one-room flophouse… [with] two beds,” is crucial. That little detail about the physical layout also foreshadows the “twist” at the end. The protagonist, Jack, has a goal: to help someone else. Plot-wise, not much appears to happen: Jack tries the same action over and over, and appears to fail. The contrast is initially between Jack’s persistence and Tom’s indifference, but the ending reveals a more important contrast: between Tom not listening, and Bruce listening intently. In the end, the protagonist discovers that he did succeed in helping someone after all, so it’s nicely resolved even though Tom was never saved.

Note that you could tell the story from Bruce’s point of view (“I shared an apartment with an alcoholic named Tom, and Tom’s friend Jack used to come over…”), but that would spoil the impact of the ending.