Storytelling

Change

• all stories are about change, but many stories maintain equilibrium
• the different tiers of of change - physical, social, interior
• the BIG and SMALL story inside every story
• archetypal human change is the core of powerful storytelling

READING

The I-Ching : Book of Changes. An ancient Chinese text often used for divination. Each of the
book's 64 hexagrams describe an archetypal change in human life, a fascinating read in any
context, but consider how any one of these could be used as the basis of a great story!

EXERCISE

Think about a time in your life when you have experienced major change. Write a single page
describing the the events that lead up to this change, the details of what happened, and the
events that followed.

SELF

• every story has at its heart a hero, a protagonist, a central character - a self.
• we make sense of the world by telling a story about it and placing our self at its centre
• to know the world, we have to know our self
• the self is motivated by a great desire
• desires can be conscious and unconscious
• a great desire leads to great motivation
• we are fascinated by how people become someone new

READING
True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor is a short treatise by David Mamet on
the practice of theatre, drama and storytelling. Mamet's forthright style is refreshing, and his
attitude to the creative life, that it should be engaged with 100% or not at all, is a challenge to
all artists.

EXERCISE
How well do you know yourself? Consider your own life; where you were born, who your family
were, the events that have shaped you. Pick a major event from early in your life. What were
your conscious desire(s)? What might have been your unconscious desire? In 1000 words, tell
the story of that event from your point-of-view.

3. RELATIONSHIP

• how do stores that travel through time?

• as humans we are fascinated by the relationships between people.
• archetypal relationships repeat again and again in society and in stories.
• when stories echo our inner psychological conflicts, they trigger powerful emotions.

READING

Clarissa Pinkola Estes is a master of archetypal storytelling in the psychological tradition of Carl
Jung. Women Who Run With The Wolves is her most famous work, a majestic weaving of myth
and folktales.

EXERCISE

Consider the most important relationships in your life. In what ways are they archetypal?
Choose three relationship archetypes suggested by the people in your life, and write a short
fairy tale featuring those archetypes.

4. CONFLICT

• Conflict arises inevitably because al humans have their own, conflicting desires.
• Conflict is compelling, our mind pays close attention to all kinds of conflict in life and in
story.
• Physical and social conflict are all around us, but internal conflict is an essential part of
great storytelling.
• At the heart of all conflict are the effects of fear, represented in stories as the
antagonist.
• While conflict hooks our attention, we rely on the storyteller to show us how conflicts
are resolved and peace achieved.

READING

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli is the most infamous guide to winning conflicts in history. It
famously advises those who seek power, that it is better to be feared than loved. There are a
thousand ideas for stories in this short text.

EXERCISE
Happy endings don't always happen in real life. But as writers we can change that. Think of a
conflict from your own experience. That job you couldn't stand. The relationship that always
turned to argument. The journey where every turn was a dead end. What went wrong? How
did it get worse? Write a new ending for this story, where the conflict is resolved and
everybody is happy.

5. EVENT

• Stories are made of events.

• Our mind pays close attention to events, times when reality does not meet expectation.
• Events are linked by chains of cause and effect.
• Once you know the events of a story, it can be told on any scale.
• Stories are fractal, they contain other stories, and are part of bigger stories.
• Events are described within stories as scenes.

READING

Robert McKee's Story is a classic of screenwriting, and useful also for novelists. Dive into the
structure of narrative filmmaking through McKee's wise and encouraging words. Purchase on
Amazon.

EXERCISE
Choose a story you like and know well, a film, book, play or other story you have experienced
many times. List the key events of the story. Try to capture the cause and effect that connects
the events. Now find a friend, and in just a few minutes, tell them the story.

6. STRUCTURE

• Story structures evolve over time and are shared by many different stories.
• Three Act Structure - Exposition, Complication, Resolution.
• Essential events - Inciting Incident, Midway Turning Point, Crisis / Climax / Resolution
• Alternate structures : Five act structure, Kishōtenketsu, TV serial, 3 act structure in
novels.
• Joseph Campbell's Monomyth.
• It's OK to steal story structures! (In fact it should be compulsory)

READING

Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces inspired some of the most amazing
storytelling of the 20th and 21st centuries. It's an absolute must read for any ambitious writer.

EXERCISE
Structural Analysis - you can't steal story structures until you know what they are. Take a story
you know really well, a film, novel play or other format. Write an analysis of the structure.
Consider all the elements we have covered in Rhetoric of Story. What is the change? Who is the
protagonist, what do they want? Who are the other characters and what are their
relationships? Where is the conflict? What are the acts, sequences, scenes and beats? Keep
going until you thoroughly understand the story.

This is an exercise to repeat many times with many different kinds of stories. You will learn far
more from a single structural analysis than any other kind of learning.

7. EMOTION

• Story lets us process powerful emotional experiences through the effect of Catharsis.
• Chairos – the emotional experience (chairos)
• Human emotion is rooted in our close relationships to friends, family, and enemies.
• All great stories turn around a singular emotional experience, that may be impossible to
express in any other way.

Great storytellers shape our emotions with a set of powerful tools:

• The Dramatic Question.

• Tension and suspense.
• Mystery.
• Set-ups.

Emotion is key to unlocking the full power of all seven parts of the Rhetoric of Story.

READING

The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maas. A sharp insight into the role of emotion in story,
from a leading New York literary agent.

EXERCISE

We all hold deep emotions, often painful, that we rarely allow ourselves to experience. To close
your interaction with the Rhetoric of Story I want you to find in these emotions the seed of a
story you must tell.

1. Remember back to the 3 stories, above all others, that have helped you feel powerful
emotions. Label those emotions. You may find they are the same, or related.
2. Free write 2 to 3 pages about a time in your life when you have experienced one of these
emotions.

3. Wait 48 hours. Re-read those free written pages. Then, by applying all 7 elements of the
Rhetoric of Story, plan a story that explores this singular emotional experience.