Creative Writing And Writing Stories Using Story Structure

A basic storyline is made up of just 3 parts. That's right, just 3 parts.

1. The Set Up - information about the location and the characters.

2. The Confrontation - the problem, issue, or challenge that happened.

3. The Resolution - the outcome or the result.

Because of the power of storylines they are a key element of marketing communications and advertising too. Stories are often used in Social Marketing campaigns aimed at changing people's behaviour.

"vivid case histories...exert particularly strong effects on attitudes said Taylor and Thomson in 1982.

The work of semiotics expert Algirdas Julius Greimas in the early twentieth century included an analysis of the symbolism and meaning of fairy tales. He used his analysis to create a model that identifiend the main actors and their inter-relationships and interdependencies. The model is mirrored in the narrative analysis work of Vladimir Propp.

Greimas' Model looks like this:

Sender-----------------Object---------------Reciever

Helper-----------------Subject----------------Adversary

In this way the model generates an infinite variety of texts, and as Mariah Tatar explains in her book The Hard Facts of Grimms Fairy Tales, "nearly every tale has defined helpers and adversaries, the dwarves versus the wicked queen in Snow White, the white duck versus the evil witch in Hansel and Gretl"

When you read your next book or watch your next film how many of these can you spot in the story line?

1. ABSENTATION: Leave the security of the home environment.
2. INTERDICTION: The hero is warned against going ahead
3. VIOLATION of INTERDICTION. The baddies enters the tale
4. RECONNAISSANCE: The baddies seek out the hero or his family
5. DELIVERY: The baddies seek wherebouts of the hero
6. TRICKERY: The baddie seeks to trick the hero into revealing intentions
7. COMPLICITY: A victim unwittingly helps the enemy.
8. VILLAINY or LACK: Villain causes harm/injury to family member.
9. MEDIATION: The hero discovers others in a state of anguish and woe.
10. BEGINNING COUNTER-ACTION: The hero moved to right the wrong.
11. DEPARTURE: Hero leaves home.
12. FIRST FUNCTION OF THE DONOR: The Hero is tested.
13. HERO'S REACTION:
14. RECEIPT OF A MAGICAL AGENT:
15. GUIDANCE: Hero is delivered or led to a place that helps.
16. STRUGGLE: Hero and villain fight
17. BRANDING: Hero is marked or wounded.
18. VICTORY: Villain is defeated.
19. LIQUIDATION: The Initial problem is resolved.
20. RETURN: Hero returns.
21. PURSUIT: Hero is pursued by more villains.
22. RESCUE: Hero is rescued from pursuit.
23. UNRECOGNIZED ARRIVAL: Arrives home un recognised.
24. UNFOUNDED CLAIMS: False hero makes unfounded claims.
25. DIFFICULT TASK: A Difficult task is given to the hero
26. SOLUTION: Task is resolved;
27. RECOGNITION: Hero is recognized
28. EXPOSURE: False villain is exposed;
29. TRANSFIGURATION: Hero is given a new appearance
30. PUNISHMENT: Villain is punished;
31. WEDDING: Hero is rewarded.

"By transporting individuals into social realms located in the imagination, stories can induce them to look at every day problems through a new set of lenses" Perloff 2008

1. Establish characters in their normal world
2. An incident occurs
3. The first truning point is reached
4. Life is never the same again
5. Will the characters triumph
6. Set back
7.The second turning point is reached
8. Success
9. Characters become new and improved

What follows is a story I created using this storyline format. I used it in a lecture to convey how narrative works in delivering a meta mesage to students who were studying a social influence course.

Once upon a time a prince wanted to marry a princess. The King said OK if you bring me the gold protected by the dragon but you mustn't kill or harm him. To do that you need to learn how to persuade the dragon to leave his cave so you can take his treasure. The Prince went to the Dragon's cave and he failed.What do I do now? he asked. He decided to visit a magician in a far away land who taught him strange new words and strange new spells to persuade the dragon to leave the cave. The magician was very strict and every time the Prince tried to remember things he kept forgetting and getting it wrong. He was so tired, the lessons were long, the books were big & boring, it was really hard work. I'll never marry the princess he cried! I've been here for 12 long weeks she'll have found someone else by now. The Prince studied and practiced night after night and day after day. Then one day the magician said you're ready to leave. The Prince went back to the Dragon's cave and used the Magic he had tried so hard to learn. This time it worked. The Dragon left, he grabbed the treasure, took it to the King who was very pleased. Now you may marry my daughter he said, your triumphs have made you fit to be a future King! And they all lived happily ever after!

Duing 1991-1992 South Africa asked itself what it would be like by 2002. The project brought together 22 prominent South Africans politicians, activists, academics, and businessmen, from across the ideological spectrum-to develop and disseminate a set of stories about what might happen by 2002.

These stories were known as the Montfleur Scenarios. Four stories emerged. The Ostrich, The Lame Duck, Icarus and Flight of the Flamingoes.

Story telling is big in business. It's an art that great leaders possess. In the Harvard Business Review article Four Truths of the Story Teller, (abstract here). Peter Gruber a senior executive in a host of media and entertainment companies including Sony Pictures, PolyGram, and Columbia Pictures and the man who produced such movies as Rain Man, Batman, and The Color Purple explains what he calls the the alchemy of great stories".

He says that everybody 'tells stories' from sales people to chief executives, and they tell stories to get things done through people. Throughout his career Gruber gathered together some 'basic truths' of story telling. Fundamental however is the realisation that there is a social contract between the Story Teller and the Audience and that contract says that the Audience's expections, once aroused, must be met.

He also warns against a false belief in technology. "It isn't special effects,or the 0's and 1's of the digital revolution that matter most - it's the oohs and aahs that the storyteller evokes from an audience...the power of storytelling resides most fundamentally in "state-of-the-heart" technology."

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