11.7 Practice Exercises

Like anything else, storytelling skills develop with practice. If you have a romantic partner, you’ve probably told the story of how you two met (even if you met through a dating app, you can tell the story about how your first in-person meeting went). Try retelling that story in a way that incorporates the standard story elements. Specifically:

• Think of what details in the story reveal what kind of person your partner is, and how you discovered it. Instead of saying, “And then I fell in love with him,” can you tell the story in such a way that it’s obvious to the listeners that falling in love was inevitable? What specific behaviors helped you fall in love with them?
• How much of your story can be conveyed in dialogue? Between which people? What are the telling speech patterns that the characters use?
• What elements can you foreshadow early in the story?
• What contrast was present at the time? Was there a reason you were afraid that you two would not work as a couple? How did that get resolved?
• What other characters were important in the story of your development as a couple?
• When was the turning point in the story? Can you start the story there? (Note how many stories start in the middle or the end, and then flash back to the beginning. Why do they do that?)
• How does the story end? Since the story is about an ongoing relationship, the ending will have to be arbitrary: which moment would make the best stopping point? Which parts of the story do you need to cover in order to give that ending maximum impact?
• What is the theme of the story? When it comes to “how we met” stories, the themes tend to fall into certain categories:
  • “Fate meant for us to be together.”
  • “You have to fight for what you want.”
  • “I was an idiot; others could see what I couldn’t.”
  • “The most precious gifts can be found in unlikely places.”

Now practice telling a more tragic story: a failed relationship (romantic, platonic, or business). Most of the same questions apply:

• What details of the story reveal what kind of person the other party is, and how you discovered it? What specific behaviors foreshadowed the end of the relationship?
• What reveals the contrast between the kind of person you are and the kind of person they are? How do you want to characterize the other person? (A bad person, or just clueless? Or were you the bad person, and the other person was relatively faultless?)
• Did the relationship start well? What was it like in the beginning? What was the turning point between “when things were good” and “when things started falling apart”? Was there a “low point” that was different from the turning point, when things were at their worst? The turning point may be subtle; the low point never is.
• What other characters were important in the story? Did anyone predict that the relationship would fail?
• How does the story end? Is there an “epilogue” that adds meaning to the story?
• What is the theme of the story? It could be “We were oil and water — we tried, but the relationship was doomed.” Or “It takes a while to recognize that someone’s crazy.” Or “I was stupid back then; I’ve grown a lot since then.” Or “Trying to make someone else change is futile.”

I presume that you told the failed relationship story from your point of view. If you want a greater challenge, tell the same story from the other person’s vantage point.

The last step is to go back and trim. Is there anything in the story that is not essential? Is there a shorter way to tell it? Stories can be too brief, of course, but it’s generally better to leave the audience wishing for more than to make them resentful that you went on too long. It’s okay to have gaps in the story. Filmmakers know that if a character goes from her house to her office, it isn’t necessary to show her locking her front door, walking to the car, driving, parking, walking, and opening the office door. If the gap is glaring (e.g., the protagonist ends up on the top of a mountain and we don’t know how she got there), it can be a distraction, but for the most part it’s best to edit as much as you can.