The key ingredients of a good story...
I've been in a bit of a story-writing frenzy this week. We have a big deadline to meet for a corporate client that involves several story vignettes for each team. The challenge is making sure we have honest, compelling, interesting and short stories ready for print by next week. All this story-writing has made me think more about my approach. Figured I'd share a few things I find helpful when drafting (and re-drafting) stories.
Ingredient 1 - Characters
Every story needs someone or some cause worthy of our attention. Make us care about them. The best way to do that? Show us how they are like us in some way. Psychologist Robert Cialdini's classic, Influence, proves we tend to like people who are more like us. That doesn't mean that we have to be identical, but find some common ground between the audience and the character. Demonstrate they believe in something we believe in, too. What about the villain? Easy. Do the opposite.
Ingredient 2 - Intentions
This is really a two-parter with this ingredient. Consider it the pepper in the salt-n-pepper combination. Tell me what these characters want. We all want things - to be younger, smarter, more attractive, more educated, more popular. To help orient me, I need to know what the hero wants.
Ingredient 3 - Obstacles
Now for the salt, the most important ingredient and one we can never get enough of in our stories. Show me what's in their way. Maybe it's a curse, their own self-doubt, or those "mean girls."
Combine these all together, in this order, as quickly as possible.
Then simply add events and "scenes" that make the intentions more desirable, the obstacles nastier, and create as much suspense as you want. How do you create suspense? Simply let us doubt whether the people we're rooting for are going to get what they want. Mmm...delicious.
Sorry for ruining Hollywood movies for you. You can blame the genius of Aaron Sorkin, who discusses this in his screenwriting Masterclass.
But, who am I kidding? We still love these stories. Why? They remind us of our own lives and in some strange way, help us feel less alone. There's comfort in knowing someone else has experienced obstacles when trying to get what they want. This is the human condition. We are constantly wanting and striving to get past the obstacles in our way, whether real or created.
Bonus
Here's the legend, author Kurt Vonnegut, giving a clinic on storytelling. For context, he gave this response when questioned about whether or not computers could replace human story writers. His lecture is timeless.