The Story Formula
Ink2Quill Editorial
www.ink2quill.com

The story is changing. Most of the stories we read or hear about are making room for a new group of architects. Harken storytellers. There’s a new sheriff in town “He(she/it) is gettin’ down leaving bodies in the ground”, as the tune says. This new adversary is capable, fast on the draw but also a thief and a greenhorn, but growing up fast, very fast. Everyone talks about the elements of a story whether it’s the themes, characters, settings, messages, easter eggs, foreshadowing and the list goes on. But, but, but. Nobody mentions the organic nature of stories. Yes, the way they move along in unpredictable, asymmetric ways. That is also an element. So, if George Orwell introduces the Chestnut Cafe, with all its symbolisms and dread, in his classic novel “1984” then that’s what we, the reader, get and it worked beautifully.

Let me define the organic story element. It’s when a story or parts of a story don’t follow a symmetry in flow or development. Think if a gunslinger barely saves the day but is left exhausted on the side of the road without any grand reward or the love of a beautiful damsel. An organic story element is a lot like life in that we don’t always get we we feel we deserve and things don’t always turn out how we expect them to or how we feel things should be. Think of someone who comes from a family of famous actors and becomes an actor themselves and one day drops dead in their prime. WTF is that? In our minds we would have liked to see this person live up to a kind of legacy and become super famous or controversial. The organic element is something I hope never goes away in storytelling. Not only that, I hope it is never synthesized or turned artificial. That is probably the only thing that we can hoard for ourselves as sentient life. OK. So, I gave it away.

The adversary I speak of is what we call A.I. software. And not just A.I. software but the A.I. software that has pushed people out altogether. I don’t care if it’s for reasons of money and business the day storytelling is no longer told by all the people that live, the day that we are blocked from sharing such expression is a grim day indeed. Because I submit that storytelling plays a large role in our self expression. That is something we all need and exercise all the time on an individual level. We do this when we argue with people in our neighborhood over a TV series or when we talk with our family and friends. We just are not a sane culture without it. That is something that cannot be completely turned over to our toaster or fridge. And we enjoy doing it, most of the time.

So, the storytellers out there who find themselves with story constipation just add some random, organic event because whether it works or not it will move the story forward toward something, hopefully, better. Sometimes, having a formula is getting rid of all formulas that held you back in your storytelling.

And that was all the rambling I’m gonna do today. Ciao.

John Ink2Quill

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