The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better

by Will Storr

If the story has a happy ending the process will be successful. Their brain’s model of the external world, and its theory of control, will have been updated and improved. They’ll finally be able to tame the chaos.

To lose our sense of control is to suffer the loss of the sense of ourselves as an active heroic character, and this leads to anxiety and depression and worse.

When we’re lost in story, brain scans suggest the regions associated with our sense of self become inhibited.

We can become so replaced by the storyteller’s simulated model-world that we miss our train stop or forget to go to sleep. Psychologists call this state ‘transportation’.

‘The transformation that narrative transportation achieves is persuasion of the story-receiver.’

Story, then, is both tribal propaganda and the cure for tribal propaganda.

The curse of belonging to a hyper-social species is that we’re surrounded by people who are trying to control us. Because everyone we meet is attempting to get along and get ahead, we’re subject to near-constant attempts at manipulation.

It’s only in story that the mask truly breaks. To enter the flawed mind of another is to be reassured that it’s not only us.

It’s not only us who are broken; it’s not only us who are conflicted; it’s not only us who are confused; it’s not only us who have dark thoughts and bitter regrets and feel possessed, at times, by hateful selves. It’s not only us who are scared.

Story’s gift is the hope that we might not be quite so alone, in that dark bone vault, after all.

The Sacred Flaw Approach is a way of building a fictional story as a brain builds a life. By going through a straightforward series of steps, we can aim to discover an original character who is embedded in a credible and relevant world and who has a subconscious need and an external goal that will work symbiotically to drive their plot.

EMBRACE THE REWIND The approach’s focus is on character because, for me, this is where storytellers should begin their deep creative endeavours. When we’re talking about character, we’re really talking about character flaw.

Underpinning every gripping scene in their story is that fundamental dramatic question: who is this character really?

There are three common routes into a story idea that don’t come from character – a milieu, a what-if and an argument.

THE MILIEU

To move beyond cliché requires precision. The writer must zoom in on a specific part of this deathless world and then find a compelling character within it.

We’re still in the land of cliché. The only way to escape it is to work out precisely who this person is, how she’s damaged and therefore what specific battle the plot must create for her.

THE WHAT IF?

Once again, we’re drowning in cliché. How else is this ‘what if’ going to become a story that moves us and surprises us and feels as if it’s saying something real, if not by digging right down into the unique character of the protagonist?

THE ARGUMENT Sometimes writers want to highlight some perceived societal problem.

WHERE TO START Where to begin this process depends on what material, if any, you’re starting with. If you have a what-if, try to think of it instead as a story event (see section 4.1) or a trigger for one.

So, what kind of person might be maximally changed by such a story event? What kind of flawed idea might define this character and how might this specific story event deeply challenge this idea?

If you have an argument or a milieu you can use this process to work your way towards a character and a story event that might best explore it.

If you have an idea for a character, you can dive straight in.

your story has multiple protagonists you might find it useful to work through the Sacred Flaw Approach for each of your principals.

consider how each protagonist connects with each other’s flaw. They might have different ve...

In romantic comedies or buddy movies, the two protagonists often inhab...

The job of your plot is to test, break and retest a flawed character.

They either rise to the challenges of its story event and become a better person by recognising and fixing their flaw, or they don’t.

a specific kind of flaw – one that our character has formed a core part of their identity around and that has the potential to do them damage.

Find out what people believe to be sacred, and when you look around there you will find rampant irrationality.’ Rampant irrationality! This is exactly what we should be hunting in our characters.

In order to locate what they’re irrational about, then, we should ask what they make sacred.

This, I believe, is the secret of unlocking the trut...

When other people think of us – when they’re asked what we’re like – this quality will probably be the first t...

In The Remains of the Day, the butler Stevens has made the idea of English dignity in emotional restraint sacred.

Early in Citizen Kane, we watch Charles Foster Kane make the idea of himself as a selfless warrior for the ‘common man’ sacred – a faulty belief that powers the rest of his journey.

the early sequences of Lawrence of Arabia portray T.E. Lawrence making the idea that he is an ‘extraordinary’ man sacred

These were faulty concepts that became built into these characters’ neural models of reality. They struggled to see past them. They helped to define who they were. The point of the plots was to test these sacred ideas and break them apart. That’s what made those stories gripping.

THE UNSACRED FLAW

Many of our most memorable and popular protagonists – the ones that seem to burst, Scrooge-like, from the screen or page utterly alive and compelling – are the ones who seem the most possessed by their mistaken idea.

I’m sometimes asked if story can explore an idea that a character has happened upon later in life and is therefore not something they’ve oriented their life around.

You still need to ask, who is this person who believes this? How and why did they come upon this belief? What did they believe before? Why did they change? What does this belief mean for their outward goals? And their secret fears? What does it protect them from? And what kind of story event could come along to dramatically test this belief?

Even if we’re telling a story about a new belief, it ought to matter to them deeply. It should connect, somehow, to the core of who they are, giving us profound clues about their wants, needs, secrets and dreads.

FINDING THE FLAW When we’re talking about a character’s sacred flaw, we’re referring to a flaw in their theor...

Many of the most memorable characters in fiction, and reality, derive their fascination from the fact that they’re making a fundamental mistake about the human world and their place within it.

We can see their mistake but they can’t.

We’re curious about this mistake – about its nature, its source, its effects and its ...

Our protagonist’s sacred belief that she was the only adult in any room was, at one point, her superpower. It helped earn her everything she most valued. It gave her confidence, tenacity and courage.

But ultimately it turned out to be her downfall. This is why our screenplay’s story event is the delicate, complex and high-stakes Brexit process. This was the surface-world event that tested and brutally exposed the reality of her subconscious flaw. Her faulty model of the world prevented her from taking advice or compromising. It alienated and enraged all the people who could’ve helped and supported her.

The ‘only adult’ line works creatively as a sacred flaw because it immediately suggests a suite of behaviours. The moment we hear someone always thinks they’re the only adult in the room, we can imagine them in action.