Storytelling 101, Lesson 1: What is a Story

My 7-year-old daughter recently asked me to teach her how to write a story.  Here was my first lesson for her.

What is a Story?

A story is a narrative about change.  Put simply, Something Happens, and our Hero can no longer live in the world as it currently is.  He or she must overcome obstacles in order to make things better, hopefully leaving the world a better place in the process.

Characters and Plot

There are many elements that make up a story, but the two primary elements are Characters and Plot.

Characters are the actors of a story.  We call a story’s main character its protagonist or hero.  It is the protagonist’s job to overcome the obstacles in our story and resolve the story’s conflict. 

If our story’s primary obstacle is another character, then we call that character the antagonist or villain.  It is the villain’s job to stand in the way of the hero, making it harder for the hero to accomplish her goals and get what she wants.

A story’s plot or conflict is the method by which its action is driven. 

Recall that the essence of a successful story is change.  A story’s plot, then, is the sequence of events that drives that change.  Or, to put it another way, the plot is the idea of the hero’s wanting or needing something, in company with the obstacles that stand in the way of her having it. 

For example, in the movie The Little Mermaid, the protagonist, Princess Ariel, wants to be human.  But there are many obstacles that stand in her way: her father, the dishonesty of the wicked octopus Ursula, the physical impossibility of a mermaid becoming a human, Ariel’s lack of familiarity with the things of the human world…  Many, many things stand in the way of Princess Ariel’s becoming human.  Thus, given Ariel’s desire to become human and the obstacles that stand in her way, we might paraphrase the movie’s plot as so:

The Little Mermaid is the story of Ariel, a mermaid princess whose longing to be human leads her to strike a bargain with the wicked witch Ursula, only to discover that in the end, Ursula plans to double-cross Arial for her own evil purposes.

The preceding statement, called a pitch statement, is a one-sentence synopsis of a story’s plot.  Although it lacks detail, it still tells us everything we need to know because it quickly summarizes:

·         Who the hero is

·         What the hero wants

·         The main obstacle that will stand in the hero’s way

To again put it another way, the pitch statement tells us not only who a story’s main character is, it also tells us why we—as an audience—should care about the story.  It tells us what makes this story special.  That, the thing that makes the story special, is the essence of plot.  It is not surprising, then, that learning to develop pitch statements for stories with which you are already familiar is a very useful exercise for beginning writers.  Knowing how to find what makes another writer’s stories work is a very good way for new writers to discover what it is in their own stories that will be of interest to their own audiences.

Exercises

1.        Think of five movies or books with which you are familiar.  Write down the names of stories below, along with the names of their protagonists.

2.        Briefly summarize the plot for your favorite two stories from the list above.  What did the main characters want?  What were the main obstacles that stood in their way?

3.        Pick one of the plots above.  Write a one-sentence pitch statement for that story.

Hint: Your pitch statement should have a basic structure similar to the following: 

Because she wants _________, (The Protagonist) does ___________, only to discover _________________.