I Love Structure - in Storytelling anyway!
Just last week an online friend of mine challenged me to become a more consistent blogger. This was the not the first time I’d been challenged on the topic (and rightly so – as blogging has often times been the victim of greedy time and attention gremlins gobbling up my hours and days!) However, this was the first time that I accepted the challenge and realized what I needed to do in order to gain the blogging momentum necessary to sustain my drive and desire from week to week.
I suppose it might be helpful to confess that the problem with my first few attempts to start a consistent, weekly blog was that I tried to do so with new topics each and every week. I (foolishly) thought that fascinating ideas would magically pop into my head and I would instantly find a couple of spare hours (somewhere) to churn those topics into thoughtful words and post them online.
Epic Fail.
However, this time, like realizing you’ve been pushing against a pull door for a few minutes, I saw the light and came to the understanding that I needed something regular to talk about, something that might target an actual audience (light bulb!) and bring them back to share some time with me once a week or so. And lastly, I knew this topic had to be something I enjoyed, knew, and would never get tired of discussing (even with just myself!)
So, for the next several weeks, if you decide to join me in my blogging adventure, I’m going to talk about story and storytelling – specifically, about structure in storytelling. Now, I know that there are a hundred books out there by a hundred authors who most certainly have superior credentials to my own. I don’t have an MFA, I don’t have a shelf full of published novels (yet!), and I certainly don’t presume to call myself a professor of literature. However, I do have this: I love writing – I love it with all my heart and there is little in the world that gives me more joy than writing, telling, reading, watching or even just talking about a beautiful story. And also, I will endeavor, as best I can, to relate each piece of storytelling structure to real life moments and memories, whether personal or shared – and that, I think, will be at least a little bit different than anything else out there.
So why talk about structure? Some of you might have already said to yourselves “BORING!” and clicked the back button on your browser. Structure certainly isn’t the element of storytelling that ensures a beautiful novel, stunning short story, hit song, blockbuster movie, or epic folk tale. In fact, stories that rely overmuch on structure, or have only the structure and have forgotten believable characters, high stakes, and universal themes, are derided as formulaic, derivative, or by-the-numbers. However, I would make this statement: While I don’t believe that structure is the magic bullet for a great story, I do believe that no great story was every told without a foundation of a solid structure, whether the author used it intentionally or not.
I look at structure in storytelling as very much like one of America’s favorite past times – pro football. Every football game played on Sunday or Monday (and now on Thursdays god help me) is played with two halves, four quarters, sixty minutes, three time outs, two teams, eleven players, refs and penalties, touchdowns, field goals, passing, and running. That’s pretty much it. Yet for over a hundred years, with each game looking and feeling nearly exactly the same, football has never been more exciting nor had more fans than it does today. In spite of those same rules and same form for each game, no two games end up being exactly the same. Some of them are entirely forgettable and bore us to tears (especially if your home team is terrible.) But there are other games that turn into epic events, sending fans storming onto the field or out into the streets celebrating for days at an unforgettable, emotional experience. Of course, it isn’t the rules or format that does all that – it’s the players and their backstories or the rivalries between cities that do all of that. But without the rules, without the reliable structure that tells us what to expect each week, we would miss out on all those thrills and all that drama.
I know that there are some writers out there who insist on writing completely organically, or are afraid that talking about structure might leave them trapped or closed off to inspiration. And I would never argue with an artist over the method of their art! But I will leave you with this anecdote my guitar instructor gave me not too long ago about John Lennon (and I have no idea if it’s actually true – but it sounds good;) I was learning a tricky concept of music called modes at the time, and my instructor told me this story:
Sitting down for a chat with a very astute interviewer (who perhaps simply wanted to impress Lennon with his own musical knowledge) Lennon was asked: “Sir, you write quite a bit of your music in the Mixolydian mode, why is that?” The young interview sat forward in his seat, pen at the ready, awaiting some gem of musical wisdom from one of the founding fathers of modern rock n’ roll when Lennon casually replied: “Mixo-what?”
I take away from that story only this: John Lennon wrote great songs, and in his songs he told great stories, and he wrote those great songs and told those great stories with the aid of solid structure – even if he didn’t know it at the time. So whether you’re a pro who enjoys telling your tales without specific structure in mind or you’re a new writer looking for some starting points to help you on your way, I’m going to enjoy sharing one of my favorite topics for the next few weeks and I’m hoping to get at least a few, fellow storytellers to enjoy it with me!
I suppose it might be helpful to confess that the problem with my first few attempts to start a consistent, weekly blog was that I tried to do so with new topics each and every week. I (foolishly) thought that fascinating ideas would magically pop into my head and I would instantly find a couple of spare hours (somewhere) to churn those topics into thoughtful words and post them online.
Epic Fail.
However, this time, like realizing you’ve been pushing against a pull door for a few minutes, I saw the light and came to the understanding that I needed something regular to talk about, something that might target an actual audience (light bulb!) and bring them back to share some time with me once a week or so. And lastly, I knew this topic had to be something I enjoyed, knew, and would never get tired of discussing (even with just myself!)
So, for the next several weeks, if you decide to join me in my blogging adventure, I’m going to talk about story and storytelling – specifically, about structure in storytelling. Now, I know that there are a hundred books out there by a hundred authors who most certainly have superior credentials to my own. I don’t have an MFA, I don’t have a shelf full of published novels (yet!), and I certainly don’t presume to call myself a professor of literature. However, I do have this: I love writing – I love it with all my heart and there is little in the world that gives me more joy than writing, telling, reading, watching or even just talking about a beautiful story. And also, I will endeavor, as best I can, to relate each piece of storytelling structure to real life moments and memories, whether personal or shared – and that, I think, will be at least a little bit different than anything else out there.
So why talk about structure? Some of you might have already said to yourselves “BORING!” and clicked the back button on your browser. Structure certainly isn’t the element of storytelling that ensures a beautiful novel, stunning short story, hit song, blockbuster movie, or epic folk tale. In fact, stories that rely overmuch on structure, or have only the structure and have forgotten believable characters, high stakes, and universal themes, are derided as formulaic, derivative, or by-the-numbers. However, I would make this statement: While I don’t believe that structure is the magic bullet for a great story, I do believe that no great story was every told without a foundation of a solid structure, whether the author used it intentionally or not.
I look at structure in storytelling as very much like one of America’s favorite past times – pro football. Every football game played on Sunday or Monday (and now on Thursdays god help me) is played with two halves, four quarters, sixty minutes, three time outs, two teams, eleven players, refs and penalties, touchdowns, field goals, passing, and running. That’s pretty much it. Yet for over a hundred years, with each game looking and feeling nearly exactly the same, football has never been more exciting nor had more fans than it does today. In spite of those same rules and same form for each game, no two games end up being exactly the same. Some of them are entirely forgettable and bore us to tears (especially if your home team is terrible.) But there are other games that turn into epic events, sending fans storming onto the field or out into the streets celebrating for days at an unforgettable, emotional experience. Of course, it isn’t the rules or format that does all that – it’s the players and their backstories or the rivalries between cities that do all of that. But without the rules, without the reliable structure that tells us what to expect each week, we would miss out on all those thrills and all that drama.
I know that there are some writers out there who insist on writing completely organically, or are afraid that talking about structure might leave them trapped or closed off to inspiration. And I would never argue with an artist over the method of their art! But I will leave you with this anecdote my guitar instructor gave me not too long ago about John Lennon (and I have no idea if it’s actually true – but it sounds good;) I was learning a tricky concept of music called modes at the time, and my instructor told me this story:
Sitting down for a chat with a very astute interviewer (who perhaps simply wanted to impress Lennon with his own musical knowledge) Lennon was asked: “Sir, you write quite a bit of your music in the Mixolydian mode, why is that?” The young interview sat forward in his seat, pen at the ready, awaiting some gem of musical wisdom from one of the founding fathers of modern rock n’ roll when Lennon casually replied: “Mixo-what?”
I take away from that story only this: John Lennon wrote great songs, and in his songs he told great stories, and he wrote those great songs and told those great stories with the aid of solid structure – even if he didn’t know it at the time. So whether you’re a pro who enjoys telling your tales without specific structure in mind or you’re a new writer looking for some starting points to help you on your way, I’m going to enjoy sharing one of my favorite topics for the next few weeks and I’m hoping to get at least a few, fellow storytellers to enjoy it with me!
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