Where Did Our Story Come From?

Perhaps our story began as a premise, a character, or a single idea, but underlying these impulses was a subconscious quest for resolution. The creative impulse seeks to make order from chaos, to contextualize a series of events with the intention of making new meaning from them. As storytellers, we’re drawn to unresolved situations: Will Jimmy Stewart leave Bedford Falls? Will Dorothy’s dreams come true somewhere over the rainbow? Will Harry Potter triumph over Lord Voldemort?

These questions appear to present a problem but they are actually providing a context through which we can explore a resolution to a dilemma. If Jimmy Stewart did leave Bedford Falls at the end of It’s a Wonderful Life, we would be disappointed because he would not have wrestled with his dilemma and learned that his life is already wonderful. Similarly, if Dorothy’s dreams did come true somewhere over the rainbow, we would miss the point, and if Harry Potter simply destroyed Lord Voldemort and that was the end of it, there would be no context for the theme, which is that good and evil must coexist.

STORY MAXIM: The desire to write is connected to the desire to resolve something we seek to understand. By noticing the central dilemma in our story, we will see where it exists in our life. By exploring its resolution in our life, we will find its resolution in our story.

Here are some examples of dilemmas:
- I want intimacy, but I do not want to reveal myself.
- I want to be successful, but I do not want to overshadow my father.
- I want to move on from my mother’s death, but I don’t want to say goodbye to her.
- I want to know what happens when I die, so that I will know how to live.
- I want to have faith, but I do not trust God.
- I want to be forgiven, but I do not want to confess.
- I want love, but I do not want to commit.
- I want to control my thoughts, so that I can have peace.
- I want to be true to myself, but I do not want to disappoint anybody.
- Notice how dilemmas are visceral. They invite up images which lead to story.

HOW DO WE IDENTIFY THE DILEMMA IN OUR STORY?

There are two ingredients to a dilemma:
- A powerful desire
- A false belief

DESIRE

If we believe that love will make us complete, we might set out on a search for love and misinterpret each relationship that does not resemble completeness as an absence of love. Or we might seek success because we believe it will bring us joy, and with each achievement we find ourselves despairing at the elusiveness of joy. Obviously there is nothing wrong with our characters wanting love, or wanting to be successful, but when they make meaning out of these goals they actually create the impossibility of achieving them. By exploring the meaning that our protagonist makes out of her goal, we begin to get a glimpse of her dilemma.

STORY MAXIM: Our protagonist does not rid himself of his desire, but when he reframes the meaning he makes out of his desire, he is no longer ruled by it.

FALSE BELIEF

Since the purpose of story is to reveal a transformation, the arc of the story moves from a place of not knowing to knowing. Whether the story illustrates the journey from fear to love, ignorance to wisdom, revenge to forgiveness, denial to acceptance, or some other journey, it is through the protagonist’s false belief that our reader is led to a new understanding. It is not that our protagonist’s belief is incorrect; it is just not the whole story. The protagonist’s false belief is going to be tested through the story, and this will lead him to a new understanding. For example, in John Grisham’s The Firm, the protagonist, Mitch McDeere believes that money will solve his problems. He takes a well-paying job with a firm that he knows nothing about, and soon discovers that he is working for the mob and can never get out. It is true that money can solve some of his problems, but until he is willing to lose everything, he is a hostage to this false belief.

We tend to focus on our immediate problem rather than on its underlying cause. Let’s say that our protagonist Bill has a few drinks at the bar, and while driving home he gets a DUI. At this point, he most assuredly has a problem, but underlying his problem may be a dilemma. Perhaps Bill is an alcoholic and wants to get sober but believes that he cannot survive the anxiety of sobriety. Although the problem may be the DUI and its attendant inconveniences, underlying this problem is the false belief that he cannot survive as a sober person. By noticing our character’s desire coupled with his false belief, we begin to see the dilemma.

Until next month,
Al