The mechanism of storytelling

Storytelling

Human beings are naturally predisposed to hear, to remember, and to tell stories. The problem -- for teachers, parents, government leaders, friends, and computers -- is to have more interesting stories to tell. (Schank, pg. 243)

The art of storytelling extends back into the earliest years of human development, when tales were passed from one generation to another and one group to another even before the advent of written language. Some imaginative people began telling stories of events that happened to them, maybe on a hunt or with some other happening. They found that the reaction to these tales was greater if they elaborated and emotionally impacted the listeners. No story would do. Storytelling had to be well thought out and structured to affect others. Over the centuries, such people evolved into the best storytellers. They became some of the most influential and powerful people in history.

Children often play a storytelling game. Everyone sits in a circle and one of the boys or girls starts off the tale, "Once upon a time." The next person adds to the story and so on around to the last child. Normally, the story has a very strange plot if any at all. None of the children have time to think the whole story out. This form of story creation is usually fun. The children laugh at the foolish plot and ending. Throughout the course of human development, the well-known storytellers realized that their creative output could not be like this children's game -- random thoughts put together in a hit-or-miss fashion. If they did so, their storytelling would not provide the effect they wanted to elicit in others. This has been the case from the earliest verbal stories until modern times with short stories, books, plays and movies. If the product does not have overall structure and import, it becomes meaningless and forgotten.

The earliest storytellers recognized if they used their imagination they could embellish their stories with fanciful fabrications. This gave them a sense of power. They could dominate people just by their storytelling. They could frighten them with their stories or urge them to take positive actions. They could influence them to do their bidding, either good or bad. (Vogler). As a result, storytellers became very important societal members.

The storytellers began relating tales about supernatural beings that had special powers to control certain phenomena. The tales explained natural occurrences such as thunder and lightning people did not understand. These stories were passed on from generation to generation, embroidered and changed over the years. They became the great myths of the tribes. The storytellers gave credence to their cultures' myths, superstitions, rituals, morals, traditions, rules, and religions from the concepts that individuals had experienced or imagined in their minds (Vogler).

Joseph Campbell's 1949 book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, methodically describes how such myths developed and are based on the psychological needs of the listeners and readers. His excellent step-by-step "how to" on the overall structure to storytelling and myth creation is so knowledgeable that it has made a major impact on writing and even moviemaking. Filmmakers like John Boorman, George Miller, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have noted they used the Campbell's ageless storytelling pattern Campbell. With these analytical tools one can compose a story to meet any situation, which will be dramatic, entertaining, and psychologically true.

Campbell argues that all storytelling, consciously or not, can be understood in terms of the hero myth or monomyth. The Hero with a Thousand Faces is based on psychologist Carl Jung's idea of archetypes, characters who occur in the dreams and the myths of all cultures. Jung believed that these archetypes are reflections of the human mind to play out life's dramas. Characters of the hero myth, such as the young hero, the wise old man, the magical woman, and the shadowy enemy, are identical with the archetypes of the human mind, as shown in dreams. That is why myths and stories constructed on the mythological model are always psychologically true. Such tales are actual models of the workings of the human mind, realistic maps of the psyche (pg. 17). They are psychologically valid even when portraying fantastic, impossible, unreal events. George Lucas carefully followed Campbell's approach when storytelling, in his case scriptwriting, "Star Wars."

Stories built on the model or stages that Campbell describes have an appeal that can be felt by everyone, because they spring from a universal source in the collective unconscious and reflect universal concerns. Vogler explains Campbell's stages of the hero in modern-day terms occur in this order: 1) The hero is introduced in his ordinary world. In "Star Wars" Luke Skywalker is a common farmboy before he takes on the universe; 2) The call to adventure. The hero is presented with a challenge, such as Arthur and the Holy Grail and Luke's message from Princess Leia; 3) The hero is reluctant at first. The hero shows fear of the unknown and going on adventure. Luke refuses Obi Wan's call to action, but when the farm is destroyed by the Emperor's stormtroopers, he becomes eager to join in the fight; 4) The hero is encouraged by a wise old man or woman. However, the mentor can only help so much. Soon the hero knows it will be necessary to go on alone. This develops characters such as Merlin or Obi Wan Kanobi; 5) The hero passes the first threshold. The first semi-adventure is begun in unknown lands or in space. 6) The hero encounters tests and helpers. Luke learns about the Force. 7) The hero reaches the innermost cave. In mythology, this perhaps was a decent into hell or in a cave to fight the dragon. In "Star Wars," Luke is drawn into the death star; 8) The hero endures the supreme ordeal and perhaps even appears to die and is reborn. Luke is pulled down under by the monster. 9) The hero seizes the sword. The story is resolved: The dragon is slain, the grail found, Luke reconciles with his father. 10) The road back. The story continues as the hero is followed by enemies. Luke has a chase scene from the inhabitants of the death star. 11) Resurrection. The hero leaves the other world a different entity. Luke is transformed by the Force; 12) Return with the Elixir. The hero returns with the Holy Grail, the cure, a special lesson.

Campbell's storytelling model provides on example of how a tale is structured. Other modern-day storytellers have different approaches to developing their works. Robert McKee, who has won numerous Oscars, Emmy awards, Writers Guild of America awards and Directors Guild of America awards, hosts a series of scriptwriting classes. He repeatedly stresses if the script is not finished in pre-production, there is little to no chance that it ever will be. More likely, the story will be even more compromised during filming. In fact, he says, it is easy to recognize such films. By the middle of the movie, the audience is completely lost and trying to find rhyme or reason to the plot.

In his book Story, McKee argues that writers need to put aside time to learn story structure. There is nothing more upsetting for students than the teacher who says they must now write creatively, as if children or any person can automatically be creative. Writing does not work like that. Scriptwriters need time and space to think and to develop ideas. More so, they need guidelines and structure.

In his coursework, McKee offers a list of principles involved with successful scriptwriting/storytelling. The first factor is not relying on what others have learned about a topic, but researching it oneself. Many scriptwriters use the same stereotypes and cliches repeatedly when developing their communication vehicles. Movies then have very obvious plots and endings. He points out that "8-Mile" was guilty of this as seen by the boring and expected ending. The reason, he continues, is that "the writer does not know the world of his story ... They crib scenes we've seen before, paraphrase dialogue we've heard before, disguise characters we've met before and pass them off as their own." (pg. 67) Knowledge of the world is crucial to the achievement of original work. The setting is many layered with period, duration, location and level of conflict.

McKee also addresses genre. Whether the writers feel most attached to horror, romance or adventure, they must watch and read as many movies and scripts in that genre as possible. "The Blair Witch Project" authors viewed all of the horror films they could find to help them understand the setting for their ideas. Writers must learn the codes and conventions of their genre: "Break each film down into setting, role, event and value ... Be honest in your choice of genre, for of all the reasons for wanting to write, the only one that nurtures us through time is love of the work itself." (pg. 99)

Similarly, how does one offer honest portrayal of characters? McKee says, by examining "all aspects of humanity we could know by taking notes on someone day in and day out ... " A character's true motivation can only be learned when "we strip aside the conventional representation of a character and push them to act under pressure." (pg. 100)

Imagine two characters, one a female housewife and the other a male doctor, arriving at the scene of a burning bus with children inside. Do they act and try to help or stand back? If they do act and, once on the bus, discover two kids -- a little white girl and a little Asian boy -- who do they save first? We may discover that deep within these utterly different characterizations is an identical humanity -- both willing to give their lives in a heart beat for strangers. Or it may turn out that the person we thought would act heroically is a coward ... We may discover that selfless heroism is not the limit of true character in either of them ... A spontaneous choice may expose unconscious prejudices of gender or ethnicity. (pg. 102).

The other principles conveyed by McKee are: The Controlling Idea or how each film has one overriding idea around which the film twists and turns. For example, in "American Beauty," the controlling idea is all things beautiful; The Protagonist, or the main character about whom the whole story revolves. In "Run Lola Run," Lola wishes to protect her boyfriend and the story follows in this direction. Well-rounded interesting protagonists have an unconscious desire that often contradict their actions; The Text and Subtext, when no one is blantantly told anything in words. Rather, this subtext is seen in the characters'actions, behavior and facial expressions. In "Rabbit-Proof Fence," the protagonist or tracker looks down at the girls' tracks and offers a two-second smile to himself. This "says" it all; The Climax, or the ending for the protagonist. In "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," Jack Nicholson's misery is ended; and finally, The Resolution, or how the protagonist influences the other characters. Chief Bromden comes crashing out of the hospital in "Cuckoo's Nest."

Storytelling structure is not just having a beginning, middle and end. Nor, is it only having a plot, stresses journalist Tim Knight, who has worked as a foreign correspondent and executive producer for numerous newspapers and broadcast companies worldwide. Knight emphasizes that stories and storytelling are about conflict, contrast, journeys, quests and change. Further, well told stories are always about values.

Values should be revealed rather than stated. Mostly, people do not believe what others say. They need to see proof.

Facts are neutral. They have no particular meaning and have to gain value to find meaning. (Tim Knight website)

TV is an emotional, not a factual, medium, Knight adds. The aim of good storytelling is to wrap the factual explanation into vibrant emotion, to make it more recognizable and more easily remembered. "The best storytelling brings a first-hand, emotional experience to the viewer who is thus able to understand and participate vicariously in the event."

Australian TV scriptwriter Roger Simpson explains how the story engine, or what drives the entire television series, develops in this medium. "I love analyzing what the story engine is going to be and putting your finger on it. It's always a process of refining it down to this essential truth of what makes a series tick." The engine begins with 50 pages, but the "writers' bible" is just going to be a few paragraphs. The writer looks for the crucial point, the story engine, that says it all in a few words. The 50 pages is refined down to 30 and then down to 10. The scriptwriter is finally left with the crucial description:

That first page, it's the instant coffee. But it comes from the plantation. It comes from the beans and the drying. Tonnes and tonnes of paper. I just pour every idea in my head into the computer. Then I print it out and stick it round the walls, then I circle bits and I'm trying to analyze and refine it down to the simple truth that makes that series unique. (Davies, 3)

Simpson explains that he thought his earlier TV series "Good Guys Bad Guys" would be about a former cop from a criminal family. However, it turned into a crimefighting dry cleaner, of all things. The writer continually looks for something that has the right quirk. In this case, the protagonist actually hated dirt. He figured the dry cleaning business would be a snap, because someone could run it for him. As the series progresses ... "There's this world you've created that has creeks and parks and mountains, even other towns. And you think, this is a totally imaginary place ... But it all comes from that one original story engine" (Davies, 4)