Fiction gives life it's form
Story is Life, Says Robert McKee.
The world is consuming film, television, articles and novels with hunger. Stories have become what Robert McKee calls “humanity’s prime source of inspiration, as it seeks to order chaos and gain insight into life”.
Life after all is happening to us so fast- sometimes it's easier to learn and make conclusions when it's another characters story. It's a "profound human need to grasp the patterns in life", according to McKee. Watching film, theatre, story, is not just as an intellectual experience but as a very personal emotional experience.
Like you, I'm hungry for a good story. Although I'm trying to do it as a screenwriter I think we're all trying to create- the goal is to produce a good one worth telling.
There are two parts to what I'm calling a good story: first, is the part that makes the story worth watching, and then secondly what makes the story lasting and resonating.
Your character’s intention and obstacle is what guides her plot. Later, she’s defined by the actions and tactics she uses to overcome those obstacles and get what she wants. In other words, she’s not the sun glasses, converse shoes or choice of martini. She's not even defined by her attitude or her snarky or sweet dialogue — it's how she overcomes the obstacles presented to her that define who she is. It's a simple story principle. Think of any of your favourite characters and what defines them, and you will think of any action.
So here we are, part one: a story. But we don't just want any story, we want one worth watching. For Robert McKee, “Lasting entertainment is found in the charged human truths beneath the image”.
For McKee, the charged truth comes from self-knowledge. In a character’s story arc, an experience can be overrated- it’s worthless without reflection and reaction to one’s life. In Quintin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Bellatrix Kiddo is caught ravenous and buried alive 6 ft under ground.
It goes that in order for a story arc to move forward, there has to be the chaos of life slowing your character down from getting what she wants and she has to react and reflect on it, in order to change. She may have to lose and lose and win and lose again before winning it. She has to change; no one ever wrote a good story about someone who didn’t change.
When her anger changes to panic, Kiddo stops and slows her breathing. She recalls the story of her old Sensai, Pai Mai who Bill himself left her with to train. She recalls her perseverance back then, the brutality and returns to her current obstacle with new determination.
You can live deeply and observe carefully but if the experience passes, unexamined and unreflected, then the knowledge that existed there is equal to or less valuable than what could have been gained from a reading a book on your couch.
Self- knowledge is prized even in fiction. I think that's something worth considering.
Why get out of bed in the morning? To meet a friend, do some paper work, get some exercise? You get up to grow and come to know your self. That's good the story.
And all you need to get it is an intention and a tricky goddamn obstacle. Whether it's a good story, depends on how you choose to overcome your obstacles.. do you let it slide by or so your reflect and try and try again to move forward?
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